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TZID:Europe/Paris
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DTSTART:20251026T030000
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UID:calendar.105197.field_date.0@www.iast.fr
DTSTAMP:20260413T174930Z
CREATED:20260302T092001Z
DESCRIPTION:Cameron Curtin\, “Institutions and the cultural evolution of co
 operation: Insights from Oaxaca\, Mexico”\, IAST Lunch Seminar\, Toulouse:
  IAST\, April 10\, 2026\, 12:45–13:45\, room Auditorium 4 (first floor -TS
 E building).\n\nAlthough humans are capable of remarkable feats of coopera
 tion\, failures of cooperation lie at the root of many of humanity’s bigge
 st challenges\, from managing common resources to combating the spread of 
 infectious disease. Moreover\, there is puzzling variation between groups 
 in when people cooperate\, how intensely\, and with whom. Why do we see th
 is variation? To shed light on this question\, I will present two studies 
 that examine how institutions– packages of social norms– structure coopera
 tion within communities of Oaxaca\, Mexico.\nI’ll begin by discussing a fr
 amework for understanding how culturally evolved institutions harness psyc
 hological and social mechanisms to stabilize cooperation. In the first stu
 dy\, I put this framework to the test at my fieldsite\, a Zapotec village 
 in Oaxaca. Drawing on data from participant observation\, interviews\, sur
 veys\, and vignettes\, I dissect two of the village’s cooperative institut
 ions\, uncovering the mechanisms through which they foster mutual aid and 
 collective action.\nIn the second study\, I examine how cooperation relate
 s to institutional variation. Leveraging secondary and newly-coded ethnogr
 aphic data from 418 self-governing Oaxacan municipalities\, I show that co
 mmunities with stronger traditional political institutions (such as those 
 that more harshly sanction defectors) mobilize more cooperation for the gr
 oup benefit. Taken together\, these studies provide insights into the evol
 ution of human cooperation\, elucidating the role of culturally evolved in
 stitutions.
DTSTART;TZID=Europe/Paris:20260410T134500
DTEND;TZID=Europe/Paris:20260410T144500
LAST-MODIFIED:20260319T012001Z
LOCATION:Toulouse: IAST\, April 10\, 2026\, 12:45–13:45\, room Auditorium 4
  (first floor -TSE building)
SUMMARY:IAST Lunch Seminar
URL;TYPE=URI:https://www.iast.fr/seminars/2026-institutions-and-cultural-ev
 olution-cooperation-insights-oaxaca-mexico
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