Transitivity promotes effective risk management in resource sharing networks
Production and exchange systems in agrarian subsistence economies have been described as following a "safety-first" decision-making principle that minimizes the risk of shortfall. Here, we extend and formalize this idea, with a particular focus on hunter-gatherer economies. Most hunter-gat...
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2022
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Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/9det8 |
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crcenteros:10.31235/osf.io/9det8 2024-06-23T07:54:12+00:00 Transitivity promotes effective risk management in resource sharing networks Ready, Elspeth Jones, James Holland 2022 http://dx.doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/9det8 unknown Center for Open Science https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode posted-content 2022 crcenteros https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/9det8 2024-06-06T04:11:22Z Production and exchange systems in agrarian subsistence economies have been described as following a "safety-first" decision-making principle that minimizes the risk of shortfall. Here, we extend and formalize this idea, with a particular focus on hunter-gatherer economies. Most hunter-gatherers are exposed to substantial livelihood risk because of the variable nature of their resource base. The primary mechanism of risk management observed among hunter-gatherers is food-sharing. We ask what kinds of network structures are most effective for managing the livelihood risks faced by hunter-gatherers, recognizing that such networks are epiphenomena of interactions between actors trying to minimize individual (or family) risk. This implies a trade-off between structures that effectively spread risk versus those that prevent disturbances from propagating. Echoing the classical anthropological literature, we suggest that generalized exchange is the foundation for subsistence risk-management networks. While the micro-foundations of generalized exchange have historically been couched in terms of cyclical tie-formation, we show that networks formed by a preponderance of cyclical relations would not satisfy the fundamental risk-management objective. Instead, we suggest that transitive closure, a process typically associated with hierarchical social relations, should be the primary mechanism of sharing-network formation. Networks formed by strong transitive closure are characterized by high tie density that produces many paths over which generalized exchange can be realized, a process that leads the resulting networks to be characterized by a strong core-periphery structure. We test this hypothesis with data on country-food sharing among Inuit hunters in Nunavik, finding that the food-sharing network has very high transitivity and is characterized by a striking core-periphery structure. We conclude with a discussion of network structure under different modes of livelihood risk management and what these networks tell us ... Other/Unknown Material inuit Nunavik COS Center for Open Science Nunavik |
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Production and exchange systems in agrarian subsistence economies have been described as following a "safety-first" decision-making principle that minimizes the risk of shortfall. Here, we extend and formalize this idea, with a particular focus on hunter-gatherer economies. Most hunter-gatherers are exposed to substantial livelihood risk because of the variable nature of their resource base. The primary mechanism of risk management observed among hunter-gatherers is food-sharing. We ask what kinds of network structures are most effective for managing the livelihood risks faced by hunter-gatherers, recognizing that such networks are epiphenomena of interactions between actors trying to minimize individual (or family) risk. This implies a trade-off between structures that effectively spread risk versus those that prevent disturbances from propagating. Echoing the classical anthropological literature, we suggest that generalized exchange is the foundation for subsistence risk-management networks. While the micro-foundations of generalized exchange have historically been couched in terms of cyclical tie-formation, we show that networks formed by a preponderance of cyclical relations would not satisfy the fundamental risk-management objective. Instead, we suggest that transitive closure, a process typically associated with hierarchical social relations, should be the primary mechanism of sharing-network formation. Networks formed by strong transitive closure are characterized by high tie density that produces many paths over which generalized exchange can be realized, a process that leads the resulting networks to be characterized by a strong core-periphery structure. We test this hypothesis with data on country-food sharing among Inuit hunters in Nunavik, finding that the food-sharing network has very high transitivity and is characterized by a striking core-periphery structure. We conclude with a discussion of network structure under different modes of livelihood risk management and what these networks tell us ... |
format |
Other/Unknown Material |
author |
Ready, Elspeth Jones, James Holland |
spellingShingle |
Ready, Elspeth Jones, James Holland Transitivity promotes effective risk management in resource sharing networks |
author_facet |
Ready, Elspeth Jones, James Holland |
author_sort |
Ready, Elspeth |
title |
Transitivity promotes effective risk management in resource sharing networks |
title_short |
Transitivity promotes effective risk management in resource sharing networks |
title_full |
Transitivity promotes effective risk management in resource sharing networks |
title_fullStr |
Transitivity promotes effective risk management in resource sharing networks |
title_full_unstemmed |
Transitivity promotes effective risk management in resource sharing networks |
title_sort |
transitivity promotes effective risk management in resource sharing networks |
publisher |
Center for Open Science |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
http://dx.doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/9det8 |
geographic |
Nunavik |
geographic_facet |
Nunavik |
genre |
inuit Nunavik |
genre_facet |
inuit Nunavik |
op_rights |
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/9det8 |
_version_ |
1802646253193920512 |