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Scelza BA. The cuckoldry conundrum. Evol Anthropol 2024; 33:e22023. [PMID: 38340074 DOI: 10.1002/evan.22023] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/30/2023] [Revised: 01/23/2024] [Accepted: 01/26/2024] [Indexed: 02/12/2024]
Abstract
Concerns about cuckoldry are a dominant theme in evolutionary studies of mating, frequently used to explain sex differences in reproductive strategies. However, studies in nonhuman species have shown that cuckoldry can be associated with important benefits. These insights have not been well integrated with the human literature, which continues to focus on anticuckoldry tactics and negative repercussions for men. I evaluate two key assumptions central to human models of cuckoldry: (1) men are being tricked into investing in nonbiological offspring and (2) investment in nonbiological offspring is wasted. The ethnographic data on fatherhood shows that the concepts of pater and genitor are complex and locally constructed ideas that often include explicit knowledge of extra-pair paternity, countering the idea that nonpaternity results from trickery. Furthermore, rather than being a "waste," paternity loss can be associated with important gains for men, helping to explain why men invest in nonbiological offspring.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brooke A Scelza
- Department of Anthropology, UCLA Anthropology, Los Angeles, CA, USA
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McLean E, Dube A, Kalobekamo F, Slaymaker E, Crampin AC, Sear R. Local and long-distance migration among young people in rural Malawi: importance of age, sex and family. Wellcome Open Res 2024; 8:211. [PMID: 38779043 PMCID: PMC11109702 DOI: 10.12688/wellcomeopenres.19309.2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/14/2024] [Indexed: 05/25/2024] Open
Abstract
Background In sub-Saharan Africa, migration of young people is common and occurs for a variety of reasons. Research focus is often on international or long-distance internal migration; however, shorter moves also affect people's lives and can reveal important information about cultures and societies. In rural sub-Saharan Africa, migration may be influenced by cultural norms and family considerations: these may be changing due to demographic shifts, urbanisation, and increased media access. Methods We used longitudinal data from a Health and Demographic Surveillance Site in rural northern Malawi to present a detailed investigation of migration in young people between 2004-2017. Our focus is on the cultural effects of gender and family, and separate migrations into short and long distance, and independent and accompanied, as these different move types are likely to represent very different events in a young person's life. We use descriptive analyses multi-level multinomial logistic regression modelling. Results & conclusions We found two key periods of mobility 1) in very young childhood and 2) in adolescence/young adulthood. In this traditionally patrilocal area, we found that young women move longer distances to live with their spouse, and also were more likely to return home after a marriage ends, rather than remain living independently. Young people living close to relatives tend to have lower chances of moving, and despite the local patrilineal customs, we found evidence of the importance of the maternal family. Female and male children may be treated differently from as young as age 4, with girls more likely to migrate long distances independently, and more likely to accompany their mothers in other moves.
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Affiliation(s)
- Estelle McLean
- Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK
- Malawi Epidemiology and Intervention Research Unit, Lilongwe, Malawi
| | - Albert Dube
- Malawi Epidemiology and Intervention Research Unit, Lilongwe, Malawi
| | | | - Emma Slaymaker
- Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK
| | - Amelia C Crampin
- Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK
- Malawi Epidemiology and Intervention Research Unit, Lilongwe, Malawi
| | - Rebecca Sear
- Epidemiology and Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK
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Lawson DW, Chen Z, Kilgallen JA, Brand CO, Ishungisa AM, Schaffnit SB, Kumogola Y, Urassa M. Misperception of peer beliefs reinforces inequitable gender norms among Tanzanian men. EVOLUTIONARY HUMAN SCIENCES 2024; 6:e17. [PMID: 38572225 PMCID: PMC10988154 DOI: 10.1017/ehs.2024.6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/14/2023] [Revised: 12/20/2023] [Accepted: 02/02/2024] [Indexed: 04/05/2024] Open
Abstract
Gender role ideology, i.e. beliefs about how genders should behave, is shaped by social learning. Accordingly, if perceptions about the beliefs of others are inaccurate this may impact trajectories of cultural change. Consistent with this premise, recent studies report evidence of a tendency to overestimate peer support for inequitable gender norms, especially among men, and that correcting apparent 'norm misperception' promotes transitions to relatively egalitarian beliefs. However, supporting evidence largely relies on self-report measures vulnerable to social desirability bias. Consequently, observed patterns may reflect researcher measurement error rather than participant misperception. Addressing this shortcoming, we examine men's gender role ideology using both conventional self-reported and a novel wife-reported measure of men's beliefs in an urbanising community in Tanzania. We confirm that participants overestimate peer support for gender inequity. However, the latter measure, which we argue more accurately captures men's true beliefs, implies that this tendency is relatively modest in magnitude and scope. Overestimation was most pronounced among men holding relatively inequitable beliefs, consistent with misperception of peer beliefs reinforcing inequitable norms. Furthermore, older and poorly educated men overestimated peer support for gender inequity the most, suggesting that outdated and limited social information contribute to norm misperception in this context.
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Affiliation(s)
- David W. Lawson
- Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
| | - Zhian Chen
- Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
| | | | - Charlotte O. Brand
- Human Behaviour and Cultural Evolution Group, College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Penryn, UK
| | - Alexander M. Ishungisa
- National Institute for Medical Research, Mwanza, Tanzania
- Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
| | | | | | - Mark Urassa
- National Institute for Medical Research, Mwanza, Tanzania
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Ronnkvist S, Thiede BC, Barber E. Child Fostering in a Changing Climate: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa. POPULATION AND ENVIRONMENT 2023; 45:29. [PMID: 38966163 PMCID: PMC11221789 DOI: 10.1007/s11111-023-00435-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 09/06/2023] [Indexed: 07/06/2024]
Abstract
An extensive social science literature has examined the effects of climate change on human migration. Prior studies have focused largely on the out-migration of working-age adults or entire households, with less attention to migration and other forms of geographic mobility among other age groups, including youth. In this study, we focus on the implications of climate variability for the movement of children by examining the association between climate exposures and the in- and out-fostering of children in sub-Saharan Africa. We link high-resolution temperature and precipitation records to data from the Demographic and Health Surveys for 23 sub-Saharan African countries. We fit a series of regression models to measure the overall associations between climate exposures and each outcome, and then evaluate whether these associations are moderated by socioeconomic status, the number of children in the household, and the prevalence of fostering in each country. Precipitation is positively associated with in-fostering overall, and these effects are especially strong among households who already have at least one child and in countries where child fostering is common. We find no overall relationship between either temperature or precipitation exposures and out-fostering, but we do detect significant effects among households with many children and those with more-educated heads. In sum, our findings suggest climate variability can influence child mobility, albeit in complex and in some cases context-specific ways. Given the socioeconomic and health implications of fostering, these results underline another pathway through which climate exposures can affect children's wellbeing. More broadly, this study shows that new attention to the links between climate variability, child fostering, and other understudied forms of spatial mobility is needed to fully understand the effects of climate change on human populations.
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Brandl E, Emmott EH, Mace R. Adoption, Fostering, and Parental Absence in Vanuatu. HUMAN NATURE (HAWTHORNE, N.Y.) 2023; 34:422-455. [PMID: 37642860 PMCID: PMC10543845 DOI: 10.1007/s12110-023-09456-0] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/28/2023] [Indexed: 08/31/2023]
Abstract
Alloparenting, wherein people provide care to children who are not their biological offspring, is a key aspect of human child-rearing. In the Pacific, many children are adopted or fostered by custodial alloparents even when both biological parents are still alive. From a behavioral ecology perspective, such behaviors are puzzling: why parent someone else's child at your expense? Furthermore, little is known about how these arrangements are made in Pacific Islander societies today, who provides care, and what kinds of outcomes fostered children experience. A better understanding of these proximate factors may help reveal the ultimate drivers behind custodial alloparenting. Here, we report findings from a survey carried out with the caregivers of 282 children in rural areas of Vanuatu, an island nation in Melanesia. Most fostered and adopted children lived with relatives such as aunts, uncles, and grandparents (87.5%) rather than unrelated caregivers, with a strong preference for maternal kin. The most common reasons for these arrangements were that the parents had separated (16.7%), were engaging in labor migration (27.1%), or a combination of both (27.1%). Results for investment in children's education and their educational outcomes were mixed, although children removed from crisis situations did more poorly than children removed for aspirational reasons. Our findings suggest that custodial alloparenting helps families adapt to socioeconomic transitions and changing marriage practices. Outcomes may depend on a range of factors, such as the reason children were transferred out of the natal home to begin with.
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Affiliation(s)
- Eva Brandl
- Lise Meitner Research Group BirthRites, Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, 04103, Leipzig, Germany.
| | - Emily H Emmott
- Department of Anthropology, University College London, London, WC1E 6BT, UK
| | - Ruth Mace
- Department of Anthropology, University College London, London, WC1E 6BT, UK
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“One hand does not bring up a child:” Child fostering among single mothers in Nairobi slums. DEMOGRAPHIC RESEARCH 2022. [DOI: 10.4054/demres.2022.46.30] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/05/2022] Open
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Sear R. The male breadwinner nuclear family is not the 'traditional' human family, and promotion of this myth may have adverse health consequences. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2021; 376:20200020. [PMID: 33938277 PMCID: PMC8090810 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0020] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/03/2021] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The importance of social support for parental and child health and wellbeing is not yet sufficiently widely recognized. The widespread myth in Western contexts that the male breadwinner-female homemaker nuclear family is the 'traditional' family structure leads to a focus on mothers alone as the individuals with responsibility for child wellbeing. Inaccurate perceptions about the family have the potential to distort academic research and public perceptions, and hamper attempts to improve parental and child health. These perceptions may have arisen partly from academic research in disciplines that focus on the Western middle classes, where this particular family form was idealized in the mid-twentieth century, when many of these disciplines were developing their foundational research. By contrast, evidence from disciplines that take a cross-cultural or historical perspective shows that in most human societies, multiple individuals beyond the mother are typically involved in raising children: in evolutionary anthropology, it is now widely accepted that we have evolved a strategy of cooperative reproduction. Expecting mothers to care for children with little support, while expecting fathers to provide for their families with little support, is, therefore, likely to lead to adverse health consequences for mothers, fathers and children. Incorporating evidence-based evolutionary, and anthropological, perspectives into research on health is vital if we are to ensure the wellbeing of individuals across a wide range of contexts. This article is part of the theme issue 'Multidisciplinary perspectives on social support and maternal-child health'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rebecca Sear
- London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK
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Schacht R, Meeks H, Fraser A, Smith KR. Was Cinderella just a fairy tale? Survival differences between stepchildren and their half-siblings. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2021; 376:20200032. [PMID: 33938278 PMCID: PMC8090814 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0032] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 11/24/2020] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The death of a parent, particularly the mother, is linked to a suite of negative outcomes across the life-course. Compounding concerns for child outcomes are expectations of poor treatment by step-parents after parental remarriage. Indeed, folk tales of step-parental abuse abound cross-culturally and are embedded into stories taught to children. To understand why child outcomes might be sensitive to levels of relatedness within the household, evolutionary-oriented research targets patterning in parental expenditure in ways predicted to maximize inclusive fitness. In particular, parents are expected to prioritize investments in their biological children. However, stepfamilies are only formed after children experience multiple unfortunate events (e.g. parental loss, poverty), blurring causal interpretations between step-parental presence and stepchild outcomes. Moreover, stepchildren have been shown to be integral to household functioning, caring for their half-siblings and stabilizing relationships. These results challenge narrow views of adaptive behaviour; specifically, that step-parents, unlike biological parents, do no stand to reap fitness benefits from the care that they provide to their stepchildren. To evaluate these critiques, we analyse the survival outcomes of stepchildren. We include over 400 000 individuals from across a natural fertility period (1847-1940) in the United States state of Utah and examine the consequences of parental loss and step-parental introduction. Our analyses yield three key results: (i) exposure to maternal loss in childhood is associated with elevated mortality risk, (ii) parental remarriage does not increase the risk of mortality among stepchildren compared to non-stepchildren who too had lost a parent, and (iii) stepchildren enjoy higher survival than their half-siblings within the same family. Ultimately, this work contributes to the increasingly recognized importance of cooperative relationships among non-kin for childcare and household functioning. This article is part of the theme issue 'Multidisciplinary perspectives on social support and maternal-child health'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ryan Schacht
- Department of Anthropology, East Carolina University, Greenville 27858, USA
| | - Huong Meeks
- Population Science, Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City 20270, USA
| | - Alison Fraser
- Population Science, Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City 20270, USA
| | - Ken R. Smith
- Population Science, Huntsman Cancer Institute, University of Utah, Salt Lake City 20270, USA
- Department of Family and Consumer Studies, University of Utah, Salt Lake City 20270, USA
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Lawson DW, Schaffnit SB, Kilgallen JA, Kumogola Y, Galura A, Urassa M. He for she? Variation and exaggeration in men's support for women's empowerment in northern Tanzania. EVOLUTIONARY HUMAN SCIENCES 2021; 3:e27. [PMID: 37588561 PMCID: PMC10427278 DOI: 10.1017/ehs.2021.23] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/27/2022] Open
Abstract
Achieving gender equality fundamentally requires a transfer of power from men to women. Yet data on men's support for women's empowerment (WE) remains scant and limited by reliance on self-report methodologies. Here, we examine men's support for WE as a sexual conflict trait, both via direct surveys (n = 590) and indirectly by asking men's wives (n = 317) to speculate on their husband's views. Data come from a semi-urban community in Mwanza, Tanzania. Consistent with reduced resource competition and increased exposure to relatively egalitarian gender norms, higher socioeconomic status predicted greater support for WE. However, potential demographic indicators of sexual conflict (high fertility, polygyny, large spousal age gap) were largely unrelated to men's support for WE. Contrasting self- and wife-reported measures suggests that men frequently exaggerate their support for women in self-reported attitudes. Discrepancies were especially pronounced among men claiming the highest support for WE, but smallest among men who held a professional occupation and whose wife participated in wage labour, indicating that these factors predict genuine support for WE. We discuss the implications of these results for our understanding of both individual variation and patriarchal gender norms, emphasising the benefits of greater exchange between the evolutionary human sciences and global health research on these themes.
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Affiliation(s)
- David W. Lawson
- Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, California, USA
| | - Susan B. Schaffnit
- Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, California, USA
| | - Joseph A. Kilgallen
- Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, California, USA
| | | | - Anthony Galura
- Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, California, USA
| | - Mark Urassa
- National Institute for Medical Research, Mwanza, Tanzania
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Lawson DW, Schaffnit SB, Hassan A, Urassa M. Shared interests or sexual conflict? Spousal age gap, women's wellbeing and fertility in rural Tanzania. EVOL HUM BEHAV 2021. [DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2020.08.009] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
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Macfarlan SJ, Schacht R, Schniter E, Garcia JJ, Guevara Beltran D, Lerback J. The role of dispersal and school attendance on reproductive dynamics in small, dispersed populations: Choyeros of Baja California Sur, Mexico. PLoS One 2020; 15:e0239523. [PMID: 33027256 PMCID: PMC7540897 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0239523] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/10/2020] [Accepted: 09/08/2020] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Individuals from small populations face challenges to initiating reproduction because stochastic demographic processes create local mate scarcity. In response, flexible dispersal patterns that facilitate the movement of individuals across groups have been argued to reduce mate search costs and inbreeding depression. Furthermore, factors that aggregate dispersed peoples, such as rural schools, could lower mate search costs through expansion of mating markets. However, research suggests that dispersal and school attendance are costly to fertility, causing individuals to delay marriage and reproduction. Here, we investigate the role of dispersal and school attendance on marriage and reproductive outcomes using a sample of 54 married couples from four small, dispersed ranching communities in Baja California Sur, Mexico. Our analyses yield three sets of results that challenge conventional expectations. First, we find no evidence that dispersal is associated with later age at marriage or first reproduction for women. For men, dispersal is associated with younger ages of marriage than those who stay in their natal area. Second, in contrast to research suggesting that dispersal decreases inbreeding, we find that female dispersal is associated with an increase in genetic relatedness among marriage partners. This finding suggests that human dispersal promotes female social support from genetic kin in novel locales for raising offspring. Third, counter to typical results on the role of education on reproductive timing, school attendance is associated with younger age at marriage for men and younger age at first birth for women. While we temper causal interpretations and claims of generalizability beyond our study site given our small sample sizes (a feature of small populations), we nonetheless argue that factors like dispersal and school attendance, which are typically associated with delayed reproduction in large population, may actually lower mate search costs in small, dispersed populations with minimal access to labor markets.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shane J. Macfarlan
- Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, United States of America
- Center for Latin American Studies, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, United States of America
- Global Change and Sustainability Center, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, United States of America
| | - Ryan Schacht
- Department of Anthropology, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, United States of America
| | - Eric Schniter
- Economic Science Institute, Chapman University, Orange, CA, United States of America
- School of Humanities & Social Science, Salt Lake Community College, Salt Lake City, UT, United States of America
| | - Juan José Garcia
- Department of Anthropology, California State University Fullerton, Fullerton, CA, United States of America
| | - Diego Guevara Beltran
- Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, United States of America
| | - Jory Lerback
- Department of Geology & Geophysics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, United States of America
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Sharing the Load: How Do Coresident Children Influence the Allocation of Work and Schooling in Northwestern Tanzania? Demography 2020; 56:1931-1956. [PMID: 31502230 DOI: 10.1007/s13524-019-00818-x] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/26/2022]
Abstract
Economic and evolutionary models of parental investment often predict education biases toward earlier-born children, resulting from either household resource dilution or parental preference. Previous research, however, has not always found these predicted biases-perhaps because in societies where children work, older children are more efficient at household tasks and substitute for younger children, whose time can then be allocated to school. The role of labor substitution in determining children's schooling remains uncertain, however, because few studies have simultaneously considered intrahousehold variation in both children's education and work. Here, we investigate the influence of coresident children on education, work, and leisure in northwestern Tanzania, using detailed time use data collected from multiple children per household (n = 1,273). We find that age order (relative age, compared with coresident children) within the household is associated with children's time allocation, but these patterns differ by gender. Relatively young girls do less work, have more leisure time, and have greater odds of school enrollment than older girls. We suggest that this results from labor substitution: older girls are more efficient workers, freeing younger girls' time for education and leisure. Conversely, relatively older boys have the highest odds of school enrollment among coresident boys, possibly reflecting traditional norms regarding household work allocation and age hierarchies. Gender is also important in household work allocation: boys who coreside with more girls do fewer household chores. We conclude that considering children as both producers and consumers is critical to understanding intrahousehold variation in children's schooling and work.
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