On a Typology of Food Sharing Practices in Hunter-Gatherer Societies : Transfer, Exchange and Re-distribution

Abstract

In hunter-gatherer societies such as the Inuit and the San, hunters are frequently observed giving their food to others voluntarily or in response to demands. Such behavior is called "food sharing". Cultural anthropologists regard food sharing practices as a characteristic of hunter-gatherer societies. Studies of food sharing have emphasized 1) its origins, 2) its effects or functions, 3) its features and forms and 4) changes it experiences. In food sharing studies, many anthropologists, such as Service (1966), regard the food sharing practices of hunter-gatherers as a form of exchange based on "generalized reciprocity", following Sahlins' concept of "reciprocity" (Sahlins 1965). In this paper, I first review several anthropological studies on different forms of food sharing to illustrate some serious limitations to the concept of "reciprocity" as applied to food sharing. I then propose a new typology of food sharing for classification, description, and comparison. Finally, I examine the usefulness of the new typology by analyzing food sharing among two Inuit groups of the Canadian Arctic, one the Akulivik Inuit and the other the Clyde River Inuit. Through the review of prior studies, it is evident that until now various food-sharing behaviors have been categorized under one heading only: food sharing. If we focus on the ways sharing is initiated (by rule, voluntary, or on demand) and the flow of food (transfer, exchange, or re-distribution), we can theoretically show the following nine types of sharing forms: transfer by rule, voluntary transfer, transfer on demand, exchange by rule, voluntary exchange, exchange on demand, re-distribution by rule, voluntary re-distribution and re-distribution on demand. I applied this new typology to the Inuit cases of the Canadian Arctic for description and analysis in this paper. As a result, I found that transfer and re-distribution are more prominent characteristics of Inuit food sharing than exchange. Also, that demand sharing is not emphasized among the Inuit in Canada. I argue that with the nine types of food sharing, we can describe, analyze and compare almost all kinds of food sharing practices in hunter-gatherer societies. Furthermore, this typology may be extended to apply to the study of the sharing of food, money, goods or services in small-scale societies and to the study of food sharing in non-hunter-gather human groups in the world.