• notabot@lemm.ee
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      1 month ago

      Robin Dunbar, an anthropologist, found a relationship between primate brain size and average social group size, and extrapolated that to humans, giving a comfortable group size of around 150 people, known as Dunbar’s number. If you work on the principal that that would be about the average size of a tribe in an unstressed hunter society, it would seem quite pkausible that a hunting group would be around 50 people. It’s large enough to take down pretty much anything you’d want to hunt, and small enough to coordinate efficiently.

      • MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml
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        1 month ago

        As far as i know, it was typically around 100 - 120 people and before i knew that i read somewhere that around 100 is the number of relationships the brain can handle.

      • ch00f@lemmy.world
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        1 month ago

        And it followed into some human culture. Certain Amish groups split up when their population approaches that number.

        • notabot@lemm.ee
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          1 month ago

          That makes sense, it keeps communities small enough to be cohesive but large enough to function, and spreads the groups to mitigate risks.