The logic of labor exchange in a Dominican village: Competitive altruism, biologic markets, and the nexus of male social relations

Peasant societies rely on labor exchange because agricultural inputs surpass what small landholders can perform on an individual basis and wage labor is not feasible. Anthropologists suggest reciprocity causes labor exchange; however, only a single test imperfectly confirms this proposition. Competitive altruism may also be operating if: (1) people differ in ability; (2) ability predicts reputations; and (3) individuals make choices about partnership formation based on reputations or ability, where people with the greatest ability can demand asymmetric rewards from partnerships. Secondly, anthropologists suggest males negotiate social relationships through labor exchange; however, no data exists concerning this relationship's direction and effect size. Lastly, the link between labor exchange and social affiliation has yet to be contextualized within a broader framework of Caribbean male behavior. Ten months of labor exchange data collected from a Dominican village is presented from the village's primary cash opportunity, Bay Oil Distillation. Results indicate competitive altruism predicts labor exchange, not reciprocity. In Dominica, men differ in ability and ability predicts altruistic reputations. Altruistic reputations predict group sizes willing to assist in distillation. Group size positively predicts the amount of labor others give. Greater days labor given, as well as living proximity, predicts reciprocal partnership formation. Labor given has a "concave-up" quadratic relationship with labor received, as the majority of dyads do not form reciprocal partnerships. Men with the best reputations form the most same-sex partnerships. A QAP test confirms economic anthropological assumptions that labor exchange is predicated upon pre-existing social relationships. Lastly, an MRQAP test confirms previous Caribbean ethnographic research suggesting male same-sex social affiliation is based on residential proximity, land access discrepancies, reputational similarity, but not age matching. Lastly, females are attuned to male reputations, as females are more likely to be romantically involved with men who have reputations for hard working but not altruism. Bay oil distillation appears to be a biologic market for male relationships signaled through separate reputational systems for either same-sex (altruistic reputations) or between-sex (hard working reputations) partnerships. Public policy implications are considered in light of biologic market theory and competitive altruism.