ABSTRACT
This paper compares sharing behavior in two hunter-gatherer societies, the Western Desert Aborigines of Australia and the Indians of the northwestern coast of California. Contrasts in habitat, reliability, and spatial occurrence of key resources, and other circumstantial differences are used to explain fundamental variations in the nature of sharing of food and access to resources. Predictions are offered about when and under what circumstances one should generally expect to find sharing as opposed to aggrandizive behavior among food collectors.
