121-067 Cooperation and Conflict

Formerly available as 136-295/395/017. Students who have completed 136-295/395/017 are not eligible to enrol in this subject.

This subject draws on evolutionary theory to see how cooperation and conflict can be seen as two sides of the same coin. And it draws on ecological thought to see how availability and accessibility of material, social and cultural resources shapes the strategies that people can be expected to use at different times and in different places. The subject will introduce students to the logic of evolutionary ecology and to the ways it contributes to a broader understanding of human behaviour. Through the use of ethnographic examples students should become familiar with: the application of evolutionary ecology to understanding patterns of resource procurement, the organisation of access to material and social resources, life history strategies and reproductive behaviour, gender roles, formation and maintenance of groups for production and consumption, alliance formation and the emergence of social complexity.

Two class papers of 500 words each and an essay of 3000 words.