Hedging desperation: How kinship networks reduced cannibalism in historical China
利用1470-1910年中国历史数据，研究发现儒家宗族作为非正式内部市场，通过资源汇集和风险分担，减少了干旱饥荒时期的食人现象，揭示了亲属网络在文明发展中的作用。
Survival cannibalism persisted across human societies until recently. What drove the decline in cannibalism and other forms of violence? Using data from the 1470–1910 period, this paper documents that in historical China, the Confucian clan—an institutionalized kinship network—acted as an informal internal market to facilitate intra-clan resource pooling and risk-sharing, thus reducing the need for cannibalism during times of drought-related famine. The risk mitigation role of the clan remains robust after controlling for economic development and other factors and ruling out alternative channels. Thus, kinship networks and their associated culture contributed to human civilizational development before the advent of formal markets.