Building Context in Everyday Life.

Social context is generally thought to influence how humans act. Here we argue that humans rarely accept the context as it is given, but rather undertake conscious actions to make it favourable. The example chosen is from northern Cameroon, where nomad herdsmen induce the sedentary farmers to trust them, by different means: creation of interpersonal links, exhibition of ``good behaviours'' by respecting certain norms. Trust is considered as an element of the context, necessary for them to perform acts that present a certain risk. An attempt was made to translate one of the traditional behaviours into a model, implemented in an artificial society: autonomous agents would make gifts in order to create an image of themselves in a group. In the simulations, a form of reputation stratification appears in time. One notes that an agent can build the image it wants only if the part of the population that wants to be involved in the same dynamic is big enough. As a conclusion, we suggest that although individuals try to create consciously a context for their living, this is not just an individual choice, but needs a common background of rules, a context enabling context creation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]