Patience in foraging-horticultural society: a test of competing hypotheses

Patience, or the ability to delay gratification, matters in the behavioral and medical sciences and in public policy because it correlates with a wide range of desirable outcomes. For instance, patience correlates positively with income, wealth, conservation of natural resources, health, and savings...

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Autores principales: Godoy, Ricardo, Byron, Elizabeth, Reyes-Garcia, Victoria, Leonard, William. R., Patel, K., Apaza, Lilian, Perez, Eddy, Vadez, Vincent, Wilkie, David
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: University of Chicago Press 2004
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/157599
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author Godoy, Ricardo
Byron, Elizabeth
Reyes-Garcia, Victoria
Leonard, William. R.
Patel, K.
Apaza, Lilian
Perez, Eddy
Vadez, Vincent
Wilkie, David
author_browse Apaza, Lilian
Byron, Elizabeth
Godoy, Ricardo
Leonard, William. R.
Patel, K.
Perez, Eddy
Reyes-Garcia, Victoria
Vadez, Vincent
Wilkie, David
author_facet Godoy, Ricardo
Byron, Elizabeth
Reyes-Garcia, Victoria
Leonard, William. R.
Patel, K.
Apaza, Lilian
Perez, Eddy
Vadez, Vincent
Wilkie, David
author_sort Godoy, Ricardo
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description Patience, or the ability to delay gratification, matters in the behavioral and medical sciences and in public policy because it correlates with a wide range of desirable outcomes. For instance, patience correlates positively with income, wealth, conservation of natural resources, health, and savings and negatively with crime and drug addiction. Anthropologists have made few contributions to crosscultural studies of patience despite its importance. Drawing on five-quarter panel data from 154 Amerindians (10-80 years of age) from the Tsimane’ foraging horticultural society in the Bolivian Amazon, we use hyperbolic and exponential discounting to estimate patience and the correlation between patience and (a) modern human capital, (b) personal affluence, and (c) age. Levels of impatience in Tsimane’ society are higher than in Western societies. We find a strong negative correlation between schooling and impatience and a weaker, but still negative, correlation between impatience and modern human-capital skills. We find mixed support for (b), probably because of sharing and reciprocity. We also find mixed support for (c), probably because of a truncated sample and measurement error of the age variable. We discuss areas for future research to encourage anthropologists to contribute to the cross-cultural understanding of patience.
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spelling CGSpace1575992024-10-24T12:50:57Z Patience in foraging-horticultural society: a test of competing hypotheses Godoy, Ricardo Byron, Elizabeth Reyes-Garcia, Victoria Leonard, William. R. Patel, K. Apaza, Lilian Perez, Eddy Vadez, Vincent Wilkie, David foraging horticulture Patience, or the ability to delay gratification, matters in the behavioral and medical sciences and in public policy because it correlates with a wide range of desirable outcomes. For instance, patience correlates positively with income, wealth, conservation of natural resources, health, and savings and negatively with crime and drug addiction. Anthropologists have made few contributions to crosscultural studies of patience despite its importance. Drawing on five-quarter panel data from 154 Amerindians (10-80 years of age) from the Tsimane’ foraging horticultural society in the Bolivian Amazon, we use hyperbolic and exponential discounting to estimate patience and the correlation between patience and (a) modern human capital, (b) personal affluence, and (c) age. Levels of impatience in Tsimane’ society are higher than in Western societies. We find a strong negative correlation between schooling and impatience and a weaker, but still negative, correlation between impatience and modern human-capital skills. We find mixed support for (b), probably because of sharing and reciprocity. We also find mixed support for (c), probably because of a truncated sample and measurement error of the age variable. We discuss areas for future research to encourage anthropologists to contribute to the cross-cultural understanding of patience. 2004-07 2024-10-24T12:50:57Z 2024-10-24T12:50:57Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/157599 en Limited Access University of Chicago Press Godoy, Ricardo; Byron, Elizabeth; Reyes-Garcia, Victoria; Leonard William. R.; Patel, K.; Apaza, Lilian; Perez, Eddy; Vadez, Vincent; Wilkie, David. 2004. Patience in foraging-horticultural society: a test of competing hypotheses. Journal of Anthropological Research 60(2): 179-202. https://doi.org/10.1086/jar.60.2.3630815
spellingShingle foraging
horticulture
Godoy, Ricardo
Byron, Elizabeth
Reyes-Garcia, Victoria
Leonard, William. R.
Patel, K.
Apaza, Lilian
Perez, Eddy
Vadez, Vincent
Wilkie, David
Patience in foraging-horticultural society: a test of competing hypotheses
title Patience in foraging-horticultural society: a test of competing hypotheses
title_full Patience in foraging-horticultural society: a test of competing hypotheses
title_fullStr Patience in foraging-horticultural society: a test of competing hypotheses
title_full_unstemmed Patience in foraging-horticultural society: a test of competing hypotheses
title_short Patience in foraging-horticultural society: a test of competing hypotheses
title_sort patience in foraging horticultural society a test of competing hypotheses
topic foraging
horticulture
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/157599
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