Food sharing networks in lowland Nicaragua: An application of the social relations model to count data

• We implement the multilevel Social Relations Model (SRM) for count data as a network response variable.
• We examine gifts of meat exchanged over a yearlong period among 25 households in lowland Nicaragua.
• Food sharing networks largely correspond to kin-based networks of social interaction.
• The results provide support for multiple evolutionary models of food sharing and cooperation.
• We discuss further extensions to the SRM and methodological considerations for related research.

Previous research on food sharing in small-scale societies provides support for multiple evolutionary hypotheses, but evolutionary anthropologists have devoted relatively little attention to the broader relational context of inter-household transfers of food. The present research observes transfers of meat over a yearlong period among 25 households of indigenous Mayangna and Miskito horticulturalists in Nicaragua. To analyze these data, we extend the multilevel formulation of the social relations model to count data, namely the number of portions of meat exchanged between households. Along with other covariates, we examine the effect of an “association index,” which reflects the amount of time that households interact with one another. The association index exhibits a positive effect on sharing, and our overall results indicate that food sharing networks largely correspond to kin-based networks of social interaction, suggesting that food sharing is embedded in broader social relationships between households. We discuss possible extensions of our methodological approach, as appropriate for research on food sharing and social network analysis more broadly.