FEATURE ARTICLE
Grass-roots Justice in Tanzania
Cultural evolution and game theory help to explain how a history of cooperation influences the success of social organizations
Brian Paciotti, Craig Hadley, Christopher Holmes, Monique Mulder
Tanzania is a country troubled by political corruption and crime,
but one of the country's many ethnic groups, the Sukuma, has
recently achieved remarkable success in building sustainable
communities with social controls. These rapidly created justice and
economic systems require high levels of cooperation. Using
anthropological techniques including an "ultimatum game,"
the authors examine the Sukuma's achievements as a case study in
cultural evolution and argue that cooperative institutions promote adaptation.
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