Resumen de Social norms as strategy of regulation of reproduction among hunting-fishing-gathering societies
There is an incongruity between the demographic data observed among contemporary hunter-fisher-gatherers (e.g. the existence of different growth rates, the capability of achieving high growing rates, and long-term demographic stability) and that of Pleistocene hunter-fisher-gatherers (e.g. low population density, and a lack of demographic expansion). The low demographic density in the Pleistocene has been explained as a consequence of low technological capability, intrinsic biology, and ecological and climatic catastrophes. In addition to this, the foraging societies have been categorized to follow a natural fertility, in opposition to controlled fertility. For long, it has been neglected that population growth among hunter-fisher-gatherers can also be regulated by controlling the social relations and reproductive relations between men and women, accordingly to the socioeconomic roles they have and, hence, in accordance to a particular socioeconomic behaviour.
The aim of this doctoral thesis is to approach to the social and reproductive relations between the men and women in a foraging society in order to identify patterns and interrelations. Methodologically, I take into account ethnohistorical sources, ethnographic studies, modern demographic studies, and medical studies, which I combine into a multi-agent based simulation program that simulates demographic processes. In the simulations, I test the hypothesis presented in this thesis: social norms have an effect on reproduction (natural fertility) and, by extension, on the demographic growth of hunting-fishing-gathering societies. The results obtained in this doctoral thesis support this hypothesis, pointing to three main tendencies: 1) in the simulation in which social norms are excluded, the artificial population experiences a rapid demographic growth (unattested in the archaeological record and ethnographic studies); 2) in the simulations including the less restrictive social norms, the artificial population experiences a slower demographic growth, although it still remains to be unsustainable in the long-term; 3) in the simulations with the most restrictive norms the artificial population is demographically stable. Therefore, it is very plausible that Palaeolithic hunter-fisher-gatherers also developed certain social mechanisms that regulated their demographic growth. The manner in which labour is divided (organized) is at the same time the manner in which the subjective value of the productive contribution of the individuals participating in the production is distributed. The difference in production activities according to sex makes it possible to set an interdependence and at the same time to relativize the value of the product obtained, and by extension, the value assigned to the people producing it. The organization of labour, together with the regulation of reproduction brings together a legitimization of a social inequality based on gender.
