On Modeling the Evolution of Hunter‐Gatherer Decision‐Making Systems

Models of both primate and hunter-gatherer decision-making systems are developed and their relative abilities potentially to detect certain classes of spatial distributions within a standardized environment are compared. It is demonstrated that in situations where language facilitates the pooling of information between individuals within a hunter-gatherer group, the group minimally need only to pool information with one central decision maker in order potentially to recognize all possible spatial distributions within a limited environment. On this basis alone, we would theoretically expect the presence of one-leader groups to be a fairly ubiquitous phenomenon among hunter-gatherers.