Social anthropology articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    Reconstructing language dispersal patterns is important for understanding cultural spread and demic diffusion. Here, the authors use a computational approach based on velocity field estimation to infer the dispersal patterns of Indo-European, Sino-Tibetan, Bantu, and Arawak language families.

    • Sizhe Yang
    • , Xiaoru Sun
    •  & Menghan Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, the authors use climate and resource availability, to statistically model the limiting factors in the dynamics of hunter-gatherer population densities in Europe between 21,000 and 8,000 years ago. They find that limiting factors varied spatiotemporally and the effects of these may be visible in the archaeological record.

    • Alejandro Ordonez
    •  & Felix Riede

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Previous research on the importance of prosociality is based on observations from WEIRD societies, questioning the generalizability of these findings. Here the authors present a global investigation of the relation between prosociality and labor market success and generalize the positive relation to a wide geographical context.

    • Fabian Kosse
    •  & Michela M. Tincani

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The Seshat database has made it possible to reveal large-scale patterns in human cultural evolution. Here, Shin et al. investigate transitions in social complexity and find alternating thresholds of polity size and information processing required for further sociopolitical development.

    • Jaeweon Shin
    • , Michael Holton Price
    •  & Timothy A. Kohler

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Men are often more willing to compete compared to women, which may contribute to gender differences in wages and career advancement. Here, the authors show that ‘power priming’ - encouraging people to imagine themselves in a situation of power - can close the gender gap in competitiveness.

    • Loukas Balafoutas
    • , Helena Fornwagner
    •  & Matthias Sutter

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Storytelling entails costs in terms of time and effort, yet it is a ubiquitous feature of human society. Here, Smith et al. show benefits of storytelling in Agta hunter-gatherer communities, as storytellers have higher reproductive success and storytelling is associated with higher cooperation in the group.

    • Daniel Smith
    • , Philip Schlaepfer
    •  & Andrea Bamberg Migliano

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Cooperation requires individuals to sacrifice individual rewards for group benefits. Here, Grimalda, Pondorfer and Tracer show in a foraging society of Papua New Guinea that social image building is a more powerful motivator of social cooperation than altruistic punishment.

    • Gianluca Grimalda
    • , Andreas Pondorfer
    •  & David P. Tracer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Many human societies transitioned from polygyny to socially imposed monogamy as group sizes increased. Using a simulation model, the authors show that sexually transmitted infections impose heavier fitness penalties on polygynists as group size grows, enabling monogamists who punish polygyny to thrive in large groups.

    • Chris T. Bauch
    •  & Richard McElreath

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Dispersal is key to establishing patterns of cooperation. Here, the authors show that social organization is associated with levels of cooperation in Sino-Tibetan populations with strikingly different dispersal patterns.

    • Jia-Jia Wu
    • , Ting Ji
    •  & Ruth Mace

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