---
abstract: 'Genetical models of the evolution of reciprocal altruism (as distinct from cooperation, mutualism, or nepotism) have difficulty explaining the initial establishment of an altruist gene in a selfish deme. Though potential mechanisms have been suggested, there is an alternative: much "altruistic" behavior may in fact be purely selfish in origin and consequently reciprocity need not be invoked to provide a selective benefit to the actor. _Sharing_ and _helping_ are fundamentally different behavior categories and should not be confused. Patterns of resource sharing in chimpanzees correspond to predictions made by a selfish model but not to those of a reciprocal altruism model, and many observations of human gift exchange are consistent with the selfish, but not the altruistic, model. This suggests that presumed hominid meat exchange may have been the result of competition, not altruism or even cooperation, and that evolutionary models of "altruistic" behavior should be treated with caution.'
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creators_name:
  - family: Moore
    given: Jim
    honourific: ''
    lineage: ''
date: 1984
date_type: published
datestamp: 1998-09-06
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dir: disk0/00/00/01/75
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eprintid: 175
fileinfo: /style/images/fileicons/text_html.png;/175/1/Recip.html
full_text_status: public
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keywords: 'reciprocity, altruism, chimpanzee, rank, cooperation, share, hominid'
lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:53:43
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metadata_visibility: show
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pagerange: 5-14
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publication: Ethology and Sociobiology
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refereed: TRUE
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rev_number: 8
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status_changed: 2007-09-12 16:24:40
subjects:
  - bio-ani-behav
  - bio-behav
  - bio-etho
  - bio-evo
  - bio-primat
  - bio-socio
  - evol-psy
succeeds: ~
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thesistype: ~
title: The evolution of reciprocal sharing
type: journalp
userid: 117
volume: 5
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