"Status, Sharing, and Signaling: Does costly signaling explain excessive food-sharing by elites in Lamalera, Indonesia" by Dr. Dave Nolin (Visiting Assistant Professor, UCD Anthropology)

Abstract: Previous research (Nolin 2008, 2010) has shown that reciprocal sharing with kin and geographically close neighbors explains roughly half of the variance in between-household food-sharing relationships in the fishing and whaling community of Lamalera, Indonesia. What explains the remainder? Using data collected in 2006, I test the hypothesis that excess, unreciprocated giving by elites may be motivated by a strategy of status signaling. The results show a positive association between excess sharing and leadership status, consistent with the sharing-as-signaling hypothesis, but a negative relationship between giving and material wealth. These results are interpreted in terms of the differences between political and economic elites in Lamalera.