Haphazard Sharing of Plant Food among the Baka Hunter-Gatherers in Southeast Cameroon

Abstract

Most studies of food sharing among hunter-gatherers have focused on meat. However, sharing of meat is not the only food sharing practice among hunter-gatherers. Today, the Baka hunter-gatherers live a semi-sedentary lifestyle in southeast Cameroon, spending more than half of the year in semi-permanent settlements near roads. As their lifestyle has changed, their diets have become dependent on agricultural crops. Plant foods, including agricultural crops, show less variation in yield among harvesters than wild meat, and therefore they are not expected to be shared as frequently as meat. However, we observed that the Baka frequently practiced food sharing even in their settlements. Among the Baka, the women who cook decide to whom to give the food. They gave dishes preferentially to close kin, which contributed to increasing their inclusive fitness, and therefore kin selection at least partly explained their food sharing practices. However, they also gave dishes preferentially to their husbands' kin, which did not necessarily increase the women's inclusive fitness. In addition, sharing with distant kin formed a considerable part of the sharing network. Furthermore, visits made to the cooks influenced the subsequent sharing. In summary, the Baka practice food sharing according to plural and complex principles, and because of this hybrid nature, their food sharing practices appear to be haphazard. The results also have implications for the distinction between sharing and reciprocal gift-exchange. Food sharing among the Baka is characterized by imbalances in mutual giving and returning. Although it is much easier to balance mutual giving and returning for agricultural crops than meats, they do not pay attention to this. Unlike reciprocal gift-exchange, which involve a timeline of alternating mutual giving and returning, sharing is practiced of the basis on contingent face-to-face interactions in everyday life.