Hadza People - Social Structure

Social Structure

The Hadza are organized into bands, called 'camps' in the literature, of typically 20–30 people, though of over a hundred may form during berry season. There is no tribal or other governing hierarchy, and conflict may be resolved by one of the parties voluntarily moving to another camp. The Hadza live in a communal setting and engage in cooperative child rearing, where many individuals (both related and unrelated) provide high quality care for children.

The Hadza move camp for a number of reasons. Conflict is resolved primarily by leaving camp; camps frequently split for this reason. Camps are abandoned when someone falls ill and dies, as illness is associated with the place they fell ill. There is also seasonal migration between dry-season refuges, better hunting grounds while water is more abundant, and areas with large numbers of tubers or berry trees when they are in season. If a man kills a particularly large animal such as a giraffe far from home, a camp will temporarily relocate to the kill site. (Smaller animals are brought back to the camp.) Shelters can be built in a few hours, and most of the possessions owned by an individual can be carried on their backs.

The Hadza are predominantly monogamous, though there is no social enforcement of monogamy. While men and woman value traits such as hard work when evaluating for mates they also value physical attractiveness. In fact, many of their preferences for attractiveness, such as symmetry, averageness and sexually dimorphic voice pitch are similar to preferences found in Western countries.

Thanks to a Harvard University study, the Hadza people have served as a model for the dawn of modern social networking, on how our ancestors may have formed ties with kin and non-kin based on shared attributes, contributing to the necessary evolution in cooperative processes needed for today's civilizations social groups to thrive.