Institute for Social, Behavioral, and Economic Research, University of California Santa Barbara, , Santa Barbara, CA 93106-3210, USA, Integrative Anthropological Sciences, Department of Anthropology, University of California Santa Barbara, , Santa Barbara, CA 93106-3210, USA, Department of Anthropology, University of Washington, , Seattle, WA, USA, Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology, University of Washington, , Seattle, WA, USA, Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, , Albuquerque, NM, USA.
Proc Biol Sci. 2013 Dec 11;281(1776):20132876. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2013.2876. Print 2014 Feb 7.
Controversy over the adaptive significance of male hunting in subsistence societies hinges on the relative importance of familial provisioning and mate-quality signalling. This paper examines the proximate and ultimate motivations of hunting behaviour from a neuroendocrine perspective, using salivary testosterone and cortisol data collected before, during and after hunting focal follows from 31 Tsimane hunters aged 18-82 years. Despite circadian declines in hormone levels, testosterone and cortisol of Tsimane hunters increased at the time of a kill, and remained high as successful hunters returned home. Previous studies of hormonal changes during competitions find that high-stakes and success in the presence of relevant audiences result in increased neuroendocrine arousal. If men hunt primarily to provision their families, then an additional audience would not be expected to impact testosterone or cortisol, nor would the size of the animal killed. However, if signalling male quality by 'showing off' was a larger relative driver of men's hunting behaviour, one would expect greater hormonal response in cases where men returned with large sharable kills, especially in the presence of community members. Consistent with provisioning models of male hunting motivation, neither kill size nor encountering an audience of villagers while returning from hunting was associated with hormonal changes for successful hunters.
关于生计社会中男性狩猎的适应意义的争议，取决于家庭供养和配偶质量信号的相对重要性。本文从神经内分泌的角度，利用从 31 名年龄在 18 到 82 岁的 Tsimane 猎人在狩猎前后收集的唾液睾酮和皮质醇数据，来研究狩猎行为的近因和终极动机。尽管激素水平存在昼夜节律性下降，但 Tsimane 猎人的睾酮和皮质醇在捕杀时会增加，并且在成功的猎人返回家中后仍保持高水平。之前关于竞争期间激素变化的研究发现，在有相关观众的情况下，高风险和成功会导致神经内分泌唤醒增加。如果男性主要通过“炫耀”来展示自己的优质基因从而进行狩猎，那么额外的观众不应影响睾酮或皮质醇水平，也不应影响所捕杀动物的大小。然而，如果通过“炫耀”来展示男性品质是男性狩猎行为的更大驱动力，那么人们会期望在男性带着大的可分享猎物返回时，尤其是在有社区成员在场的情况下，会出现更大的荷尔蒙反应。与男性狩猎动机的供应模型一致，成功的猎人在捕杀大小或在从狩猎返回时遇到村民观众方面都没有与荷尔蒙变化相关。
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