Spanish anthropologists Jordi Augustí and Xavier Rubio-Campillo (2016) conducted a virtual experiment to study factors underlying the extinction of Neandertals.
In their experimental model, they included the location of the group with a definitive home range (where resources are collected), the size of the group, cannibalism (in order to eliminate competition and gain additional resources), and the chance that a group will fracture in two (fission).
What their computer model revealed was provocative.
From a game-theory point-of-view, cannibalism appears to be an optimal way to obtain resources. Here, it is important to distinguish between two kinds of cannibalism: endocannibalism and exocannibalism.
Endocannibalism is where a group eats its own members. This type of cannibalism can be practiced for nutritional reasons.
Exocannibalism, in contrast, involves eating members from other groups. Exocannibalism might be practiced to eliminate competition from a group’s resources (food, shelter, etc.), to frighten away other groups, and/or for symbolic or nutritional reasons.
Augustí and Rubio-Campillo found that when resources were plentiful, neither endo- nor exocannibalism would be necessary to survive. However, when resources were scarce and/or the environmental conditions were difficult (e.g., extreme cold), cannibalism may have been an optimal trait.
