Page "Aché people" Paragraph 50

During food acquisition, Aché foragers are frequently observed engaging in activities that require some time or effort and appeared mainly designed to raise the foraging return rate of another adult or unrelated child: cooperative foraging.

The data suggest that foraging cooperation is widespread and intense, accounting for a good fraction of total foraging time, and including a high number of potentially costly acts that are performed daily.

Cooperation also includes some actions that are not very costly to the donor but highly beneficial to the recipient.

Most importantly, the cooperative patterns observed during food acquisition are almost certainly related to the well studied Aché food sharing patterns.

Reciprocation of foraging cooperation takes place in the form of food redistribution.

Finally, cooperation during food acquisition represents only a fraction of total cooperative activity in Aché society.

Indeed, cooperative food acquisition, food sharing, and cooperation in other realms such as child rearing, mobility, camp construction, defense, etc., are all part of an integrated system of reciprocal altruism and cooperative promotion of group welfare among the Aché.