Optimising human community sizes.
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Dunbar RIM
PROVIDER: S-EPMC5756541 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jan
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Publications
Optimising human community sizes.
Dunbar Robin I M RIM Sosis Richard R
Evolution and human behavior : official journal of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society 20180101 1
We examine community longevity as a function of group size in three historical, small scale agricultural samples. Community sizes of 50, 150 and 500 are disproportionately more common than other sizes; they also have greater longevity. These values mirror the natural layerings in hunter-gatherer societies and contemporary personal networks. In addition, a religious ideology seems to play an important role in allowing larger communities to maintain greater cohesion for longer than a strictly secu ...[more]
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