Men and women often behave in ways that put their own interests first even when their decisions appear to be in conflict with one another. This has become increasingly apparent as researchers try to explain how people cooperate to form the sexual division of labor present in most social groups. The traditional explanation of this basic unit of cooperation suggests that men hunt and women gather in order to provide their families with food. This explanation has been questioned because it does not account for known human behaviors, such as the hunting and widespread sharing of risky and unpredictable resources like large game. Instead of providing for his family, the successful hunter appears to receive more indirect benefits by having more spouses, children, and allies. Costly signaling theory argues that these acts serve as honest signals of underlying attributes, and receivers gain from these signals by knowing who the best mates and allies are in the community. This suggests that it is self-interest and not cooperation that is motivating foraging decisions among signalers and receivers.
Under the supervision of Dr. Donald Grayson, Jacob Fisher will investigate how male costly signaling behavior impacted the social and natural environment of the Fremont, a cultural group practicing both horticulture and foraging lifeways in the eastern Great Basin and Colorado Plateau of North America between AD 400 and 1300. The degree to which men were making hunting decisions based on costly signaling motivations instead of immediate economic returns will be determined by the kinds of animal remains found within a site and their distributions between households: the signaling value of a species will be determined by the costs invested in capturing the animals. Those species that are the most effective signals are predicted to be distributed widely between households. The costs involved include transportation, as hunters motivated by costly signaling may travel farther to capture rare, more valued game. Transportation will be detected using strontium isotope ratios (87Sr/86Sr), an innovative approach that allows one to source skeletal materials to specific geographic localities.
Costly signaling theory is critical for understanding variability in human behavior. As such, the proposed research has the potential of advancing our understanding of gendered foraging strategies, sexual division of labor, and inter-household cooperation that are so critical to our understanding of past and present social relationships and human impacts on the biotic landscape. Ultimately, this will have significant impact on our understanding of how gender is constructed, a major topic throughout the social sciences and of major importance to the general public where issues of gender are continually discussed. The information gained from this project will be disseminated through a website that describes the research in a public-oriented fashion. Public talks will be conducted at the Fremont Indian State Park museum in Utah and the Burke Museum in Seattle. Lastly, undergraduate students will be integrated into the research process, both during the faunal analysis and through teaching materials in future courses taught by the Co-PI.
