Hunter-gatherer societies are characterized by decentralized decision making and shared access to resources. Goods are distributed via reciprocal exchange, sharing, and gift-giving, in the end resulting in relatively equal distribution. Work effort, however, is not distributed equally; the best hunters exert a disproportionate share of productive effort. We argue that these features of the hunter-gatherer economy are interrelated, and are consistent with the view that customary gift-giving and sharing arrangements manage usage of open-access resources. In particular, sharing rules can induce optimal hunting effort, while gift-giving can serve to elicit information about hunter productivity.

猎人-采集者社会的特点是决策权下放，资源共享。货物通过相互交换，共享和送礼进行分配，最终导致相对均等的分配。但是，工作量分配不均。最好的猎人在生产工作中所占的比例不成比例。我们认为，猎人与采集者经济的这些特征是相互关联的，并且与以下观点一致：习惯性的送礼和共享安排可以管理开放获取资源的使用。特别是，共享规则可以诱导最佳的狩猎工作，而送礼可以用来获取有关猎人生产力的信息。