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Ross CT, Hooper PL, Smith JE, Jaeggi AV, Smith EA, Gavrilets S, Zohora FT, Ziker J, Xygalatas D, Wroblewski EE, Wood B, Winterhalder B, Willführ KP, Willard AK, Walker K, von Rueden C, Voland E, Valeggia C, Vaitla B, Urlacher S, Towner M, Sum CY, Sugiyama LS, Strier KB, Starkweather K, Major-Smith D, Shenk M, Sear R, Seabright E, Schacht R, Scelza B, Scaggs S, Salerno J, Revilla-Minaya C, Redhead D, Pusey A, Purzycki BG, Power EA, Pisor A, Pettay J, Perry S, Page AE, Pacheco-Cobos L, Oths K, Oh SY, Nolin D, Nettle D, Moya C, Migliano AB, Mertens KJ, McNamara RA, McElreath R, Mattison S, Massengill E, Marlowe F, Madimenos F, Macfarlan S, Lummaa V, Lizarralde R, Liu R, Liebert MA, Lew-Levy S, Leslie P, Lanning J, Kramer K, Koster J, Kaplan HS, Jamsranjav B, Hurtado AM, Hill K, Hewlett B, Helle S, Headland T, Headland J, Gurven M, Grimalda G, Greaves R, Golden CD, Godoy I, Gibson M, Mouden CE, Dyble M, Draper P, Downey S, DeMarco AL, Davis HE, Crabtree S, Cortez C, Colleran H, Cohen E, Clark G, Clark J, Caudell MA, Carminito CE, Bunce J, Boyette A, Bowles S, Blumenfield T, Beheim B, Beckerman S, Atkinson Q, Apicella C, Alam N, Mulder MB. Reproductive inequality in humans and other mammals. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2220124120. [PMID: 37216525 PMCID: PMC10235947 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2220124120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/06/2022] [Accepted: 04/16/2023] [Indexed: 05/24/2023] Open
Abstract
To address claims of human exceptionalism, we determine where humans fit within the greater mammalian distribution of reproductive inequality. We show that humans exhibit lower reproductive skew (i.e., inequality in the number of surviving offspring) among males and smaller sex differences in reproductive skew than most other mammals, while nevertheless falling within the mammalian range. Additionally, female reproductive skew is higher in polygynous human populations than in polygynous nonhumans mammals on average. This patterning of skew can be attributed in part to the prevalence of monogamy in humans compared to the predominance of polygyny in nonhuman mammals, to the limited degree of polygyny in the human societies that practice it, and to the importance of unequally held rival resources to women's fitness. The muted reproductive inequality observed in humans appears to be linked to several unusual characteristics of our species-including high levels of cooperation among males, high dependence on unequally held rival resources, complementarities between maternal and paternal investment, as well as social and legal institutions that enforce monogamous norms.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cody T. Ross
- Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM87501
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig04103, Germany
| | - Paul L. Hooper
- Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM87501
- Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM87131
| | | | - Adrian V. Jaeggi
- Institut für Anthropologie und Anthropologisches Museum, University of Zürich, Zürich8006, Switzerland
| | - Eric Alden Smith
- Department of Anthropology, University of Washington, Seattle, WA98195
| | - Sergey Gavrilets
- Departments of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Mathematics, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN37996
| | - Fatema tuz Zohora
- International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Dhaka1000, Bangladesh
| | - John Ziker
- Department of Anthropology, Boise State University, Boise, ID83725
| | | | | | - Brian Wood
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig04103, Germany
- Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA90095
| | | | - Kai P. Willführ
- Institute for Social Science, University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg26129, Germany
| | - Aiyana K. Willard
- Centre for Culture and Evolution, Brunel University, LondonUB8 3PH, United Kingdom
| | - Kara Walker
- College of Veterinary Medicine, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC27695
| | | | - Eckart Voland
- Institute for Philosophy, Justus-Liebig University, Giessen35390, Germany
| | | | - Bapu Vaitla
- Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA02115
| | - Samuel Urlacher
- Department of Anthropology, Baylor University, Waco, TX76706
- Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Toronto, CAM5G 1M1
| | - Mary Towner
- Department of Integrative Biology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK74078
| | - Chun-Yi Sum
- College of General Studies, Boston University, Boston, MA02215
| | | | - Karen B. Strier
- Department of Zoology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI53706
| | | | - Daniel Major-Smith
- Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Bristol, BristolBS8 1QU, United Kingdom
| | - Mary Shenk
- Department of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA16802
| | - Rebecca Sear
- Department of Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, LondonWC1E 7HT, United Kingdom
| | - Edmond Seabright
- Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM87131
| | - Ryan Schacht
- Department of Anthropology, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC27858
| | - Brooke Scelza
- Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA90095
| | - Shane Scaggs
- Department of Anthropology, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH43210
| | - Jonathan Salerno
- Department of Human Dimensions of Natural Resources, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO80523
| | - Caissa Revilla-Minaya
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig04103, Germany
| | - Daniel Redhead
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig04103, Germany
| | - Anne Pusey
- Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, NC27708
| | - Benjamin Grant Purzycki
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig04103, Germany
- Department of the Study of Religion, Aarhus University, Aarhus8000, Denmark
| | - Eleanor A. Power
- Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM87501
- Department of Methodology, London School of Economics and Political Science, LondonWC2A 2AE, United Kingdom
| | - Anne Pisor
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig04103, Germany
- Department of Anthropology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA99164
| | - Jenni Pettay
- Department of Biology, University of Turku, Turku20014, Finland
| | - Susan Perry
- Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA90095
| | - Abigail E. Page
- Department of Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, LondonWC1E 7HT, United Kingdom
| | - Luis Pacheco-Cobos
- Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas y Agropecuarias, Universidad Veracruzana, Veracruz94294, Mexico
| | - Kathryn Oths
- Department of Anthropology, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL35487
| | - Seung-Yun Oh
- Korea Insurance Research Institute, Seoul150-606, Korea
| | - David Nolin
- Department of Sociology, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA01003
| | - Daniel Nettle
- Département d’Etudes Cognitives, Ecole Normale Supérieure, Université PSL, Paris75230, France
| | - Cristina Moya
- Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis, CA95616
| | - Andrea Bamberg Migliano
- Institut für Anthropologie und Anthropologisches Museum, University of Zürich, Zürich8006, Switzerland
| | - Karl J. Mertens
- Department of Anthropology, Boise State University, Boise, ID83725
| | - Rita A. McNamara
- School of Psychology, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington6012, New Zealand
| | - Richard McElreath
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig04103, Germany
| | - Siobhan Mattison
- Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM87131
| | - Eric Massengill
- Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM87131
| | - Frank Marlowe
- Department of Biological Anthropology, University of Cambridge, CambridgeCB2 1TN, United Kingdom
| | - Felicia Madimenos
- Department of Anthropology, Queens College (CUNY), New York, NY11367
| | - Shane Macfarlan
- Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT84112
| | - Virpi Lummaa
- Department of Biology, University of Turku, Turku20014, Finland
| | - Roberto Lizarralde
- Facultad de Ciencias Económicas y Sociales, Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas1010A, Venezuela
| | - Ruizhe Liu
- Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM87131
| | - Melissa A. Liebert
- Department of Anthropology, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, AZ86011
| | - Sheina Lew-Levy
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig04103, Germany
- Department of Psychology, Durham University, DurhamDH1 3LE, United Kingdom
| | - Paul Leslie
- Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC27599
| | | | - Karen Kramer
- Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT84112
| | - Jeremy Koster
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig04103, Germany
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH45221
| | | | | | - A. Magdalena Hurtado
- School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ85287
| | - Kim Hill
- School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ85287
| | - Barry Hewlett
- Department of Anthropology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA99164
| | - Samuli Helle
- Department of Biology, University of Turku, Turku20014, Finland
| | | | | | - Michael Gurven
- Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA93106
| | | | - Russell Greaves
- Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT84112
| | - Christopher D. Golden
- Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA02115
| | - Irene Godoy
- Department of Animal Behaviour, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld33615, Germany
| | - Mhairi Gibson
- Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Bristol, BristolBS8 1QU, United Kingdom
| | - Claire El Mouden
- School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, University of Oxford, OxfordOX1 2JD, United Kingdom
| | - Mark Dyble
- Department of Anthropology, University College London, LondonWC1E 6BT, United Kingdom
| | - Patricia Draper
- School of Global Integrative Studies, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE68588
| | - Sean Downey
- Department of Anthropology, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH43210
| | | | | | - Stefani Crabtree
- Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM87501
- Department of Environment and Society, Utah State University, Logan, UT84322
| | - Carmen Cortez
- Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis, CA95616
| | - Heidi Colleran
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig04103, Germany
| | - Emma Cohen
- School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography, University of Oxford, OxfordOX1 2JD, United Kingdom
| | - Gregory Clark
- Department of Economics, University of California, Davis, CA95616
| | | | - Mark A. Caudell
- Department of Anthropology, Washington State University, Pullman, WA99164
| | - Chelsea E. Carminito
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH45221
| | - John Bunce
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig04103, Germany
| | - Adam Boyette
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig04103, Germany
| | | | - Tami Blumenfield
- Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM87131
- School of Ethnology and Sociology, Yunnan University, Yunnan650106, China
| | - Bret Beheim
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig04103, Germany
| | - Stephen Beckerman
- Department of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA16802
| | - Quentin Atkinson
- School of Psychology, University of Auckland, Auckland1010, New Zealand
| | - Coren Apicella
- Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA19104
| | - Nurul Alam
- International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Dhaka1000, Bangladesh
| | - Monique Borgerhoff Mulder
- Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM87501
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig04103, Germany
- Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis, CA95616
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Koster J, McElreath R, Hill K, Yu D, Shepard G, van Vliet N, Gurven M, Trumble B, Bird RB, Bird D, Codding B, Coad L, Pacheco-Cobos L, Winterhalder B, Lupo K, Schmitt D, Sillitoe P, Franzen M, Alvard M, Venkataraman V, Kraft T, Endicott K, Beckerman S, Marks SA, Headland T, Pangau-Adam M, Siren A, Kramer K, Greaves R, Reyes-García V, Guèze M, Duda R, Fernández-Llamazares Á, Gallois S, Napitupulu L, Ellen R, Ziker J, Nielsen MR, Ready E, Healey C, Ross C. The life history of human foraging: Cross-cultural and individual variation. Sci Adv 2020; 6:eaax9070. [PMID: 32637588 PMCID: PMC7314517 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aax9070] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/03/2019] [Accepted: 03/17/2020] [Indexed: 05/30/2023]
Abstract
Human adaptation depends on the integration of slow life history, complex production skills, and extensive sociality. Refining and testing models of the evolution of human life history and cultural learning benefit from increasingly accurate measurement of knowledge, skills, and rates of production with age. We pursue this goal by inferring hunters' increases and declines of skill from approximately 23,000 hunting records generated by more than 1800 individuals at 40 locations. The data reveal an average age of peak productivity between 30 and 35 years of age, although high skill is maintained throughout much of adulthood. In addition, there is substantial variation both among individuals and sites. Within study sites, variation among individuals depends more on heterogeneity in rates of decline than in rates of increase. This analysis sharpens questions about the coevolution of human life history and cultural adaptation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jeremy Koster
- Department of Anthropology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA
- Department of Human Behavior, Evolution, and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Richard McElreath
- Department of Human Behavior, Evolution, and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
- Department of Anthropology and Graduate Group in Ecology, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, USA
| | - Kim Hill
- School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
| | - Douglas Yu
- State Key Laboratory of Genetic Resources and Evolution, Kunming Institute of Zoology, Kunming, China
- School of Biological Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK
- Center for Excellence in Animal Evolution and Genetics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Kunming, China
| | - Glenn Shepard
- Division of Human Sciences, Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi, Belém, Brazil
| | | | - Michael Gurven
- Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA
| | - Benjamin Trumble
- School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
- Center for Evolution and Medicine, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
| | - Rebecca Bliege Bird
- Department of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA
| | - Douglas Bird
- Department of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA
| | - Brian Codding
- Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - Lauren Coad
- Center for International Forestry Research, Bogor, Indonesia
- Interdisciplinary Centre for Conservation Science, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
| | | | - Bruce Winterhalder
- Department of Anthropology and Graduate Group in Ecology, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA, USA
| | - Karen Lupo
- Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, USA
| | - Dave Schmitt
- Department of Anthropology, Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX, USA
| | - Paul Sillitoe
- Anthropology Department, Durham University, Durham, UK
| | | | - Michael Alvard
- Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA
| | | | - Thomas Kraft
- Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, USA
| | - Kirk Endicott
- Department of Anthropology, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH, USA
| | - Stephen Beckerman
- Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - Stuart A. Marks
- Department of Biology, University of Richmond, Richmond, VA, USA
- Department of Anthropology, University of the Free State, 205 Nelson Mandela Drive, Bloemfontein 9300, South Africa
| | - Thomas Headland
- Department of Anthropology, SIL International, Dallas, TX, USA
| | - Margaretha Pangau-Adam
- Department of Conservation Biology, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
- Biology Department–FMIPA, Cenderawasih University, Papua, Indonesia
| | - Anders Siren
- Department of Geography and Geology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland
| | - Karen Kramer
- Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - Russell Greaves
- Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - Victoria Reyes-García
- Institució Catalana de Recerca i Estudis Avançats (ICREA), Barcelona, Spain
- Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Maximilien Guèze
- Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Romain Duda
- Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
- Unit Medical Anthropology and Ecology of Disease Emergence, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France
| | - Álvaro Fernández-Llamazares
- Helsinki Institute of Sustainability Science (HELSUS), Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
| | | | - Lucentezza Napitupulu
- Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
| | - Roy Ellen
- School of Anthropology and Conservation, University of Kent, Canterbury, UK
| | - John Ziker
- Department of Anthropology, Boise State University, Boise, ID, USA
| | - Martin R. Nielsen
- Department of Food and Resource Economics, University of Copenhagen, Frederiksberg, Denmark
| | - Elspeth Ready
- Department of Human Behavior, Evolution, and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
- Department of Anthropology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USA
| | - Christopher Healey
- School of Culture, History and Language, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia
| | - Cody Ross
- Department of Human Behavior, Evolution, and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
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3
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Borgerhoff Mulder M, Towner MC, Baldini R, Beheim BA, Bowles S, Colleran H, Gurven M, Kramer KL, Mattison SM, Nolin DA, Scelza BA, Schniter E, Sear R, Shenk MK, Voland E, Ziker J. Differences between sons and daughters in the intergenerational transmission of wealth. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2019; 374:20180076. [PMID: 31303159 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2018.0076] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Persistent interest lies in gender inequality, especially with regard to the favouring of sons over daughters. Economists are concerned with how privilege is transmitted across generations, and anthropologists have long studied sex-biased inheritance norms. There has, however, been no focused cross-cultural investigation of how parent-offspring correlations in wealth vary by offspring sex. We estimate these correlations for 38 wealth measures, including somatic and relational wealth, from 15 populations ranging from hunter-gatherers to small-scale farmers. Although small sample sizes limit our statistical power, we find no evidence of ubiquitous male bias, at least as inferred from comparing parent-son and parent-daughter correlations. Rather we find wide variation in signatures of sex bias, with evidence of both son and daughter-biased transmission. Further, we introduce a model that helps pinpoint the conditions under which simple mid-point parent-offspring wealth correlations can reveal information about sex-biased parental investment. Our findings are relevant to the study of female-biased kinship by revealing just how little normative descriptors of kinship systems, such as patrilineal inheritance, capture intergenerational correlations in wealth, and how variable parent-son and parent-daughter correlations can be. This article is part of the theme issue 'The evolution of female-biased kinship in humans and other mammals'.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Mary C Towner
- 3 Department of Integrative Biology, Oklahoma State University Stillwater , Stillwater, OK , USA
| | - Ryan Baldini
- 2 Graduate Group in Ecology, University of California Davis , Davis, CA , USA
| | - Bret A Beheim
- 4 Department of Human Behavior, Ecology, and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology , Leipzig, Sachsen , Germany
| | | | - Heidi Colleran
- 6 Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History , Jena, Thüringen , Germany
| | - Michael Gurven
- 7 Department of Anthropology, University of California Santa Barbara , Santa Barbara, CA , USA
| | - Karen L Kramer
- 8 Department of Anthropology, University of Utah , Salt Lake City, UT , USA
| | - Siobhán M Mattison
- 9 Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico , Albuquerque, NM , USA
| | - David A Nolin
- 10 Department of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA , USA
| | - Brooke A Scelza
- 11 Department of Anthropology, University of California Los Angeles , Los Angeles, CA , USA
| | - Eric Schniter
- 12 Economic Science Institute Chapman University , CA 92866
| | - Rebecca Sear
- 13 Department of Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine , London , UK
| | - Mary K Shenk
- 10 Department of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University , University Park, PA , USA
| | - Eckart Voland
- 14 Institut fur Philosophie, Justus Liebig Universitat Giessen , Giessen, Hessen , Germany
| | - John Ziker
- 15 Department of Anthropology, Boise State University , Boise, ID , USA
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4
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Ross CT, Mulder MB, Oh SY, Bowles S, Beheim B, Bunce J, Caudell M, Clark G, Colleran H, Cortez C, Draper P, Greaves RD, Gurven M, Headland T, Headland J, Hill K, Hewlett B, Kaplan HS, Koster J, Kramer K, Marlowe F, McElreath R, Nolin D, Quinlan M, Quinlan R, Revilla-Minaya C, Scelza B, Schacht R, Shenk M, Uehara R, Voland E, Willführ K, Winterhalder B, Ziker J. Correction to: ‘Greater wealth inequality, less polygyny: rethinking the polygyny threshold model’. J R Soc Interface 2018; 15:rsif.2018.0752. [PMID: 30381348 PMCID: PMC6228491 DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2018.0752] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/02/2022] Open
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5
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Ross CT, Borgerhoff Mulder M, Oh SY, Bowles S, Beheim B, Bunce J, Caudell M, Clark G, Colleran H, Cortez C, Draper P, Greaves RD, Gurven M, Headland T, Headland J, Hill K, Hewlett B, Kaplan HS, Koster J, Kramer K, Marlowe F, McElreath R, Nolin D, Quinlan M, Quinlan R, Revilla-Minaya C, Scelza B, Schacht R, Shenk M, Uehara R, Voland E, Willführ K, Winterhalder B, Ziker J. Greater wealth inequality, less polygyny: rethinking the polygyny threshold model. J R Soc Interface 2018; 15:20180035. [PMID: 30021924 PMCID: PMC6073648 DOI: 10.1098/rsif.2018.0035] [Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/14/2018] [Accepted: 06/25/2018] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Monogamy appears to have become the predominant human mating system with the emergence of highly unequal agricultural populations that replaced relatively egalitarian horticultural populations, challenging the conventional idea-based on the polygyny threshold model-that polygyny should be positively associated with wealth inequality. To address this polygyny paradox, we generalize the standard polygyny threshold model to a mutual mate choice model predicting the fraction of women married polygynously. We then demonstrate two conditions that are jointly sufficient to make monogamy the predominant marriage form, even in highly unequal societies. We assess if these conditions are satisfied using individual-level data from 29 human populations. Our analysis shows that with the shift to stratified agricultural economies: (i) the population frequency of relatively poor individuals increased, increasing wealth inequality, but decreasing the frequency of individuals with sufficient wealth to secure polygynous marriage, and (ii) diminishing marginal fitness returns to additional wives prevent extremely wealthy men from obtaining as many wives as their relative wealth would otherwise predict. These conditions jointly lead to a high population-level frequency of monogamy.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cody T Ross
- Behavioral Sciences Program, Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, USA
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | | | - Seung-Yun Oh
- Korea Insurance Research Institute, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Republic of Korea
| | - Samuel Bowles
- Behavioral Sciences Program, Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, USA
| | - Bret Beheim
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - John Bunce
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Mark Caudell
- Allen School for Global Animal Health, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA
| | - Gregory Clark
- Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis, CA, USA
| | - Heidi Colleran
- Dept. of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Carmen Cortez
- Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis, CA, USA
| | - Patricia Draper
- Department of Anthropology, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE, USA
| | | | - Michael Gurven
- Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA, USA
| | | | | | - Kim Hill
- School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
| | - Barry Hewlett
- Department of Anthropology, Washington State University, Vancouver, WA, USA
| | - Hillard S Kaplan
- Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA
| | - Jeremy Koster
- Department of Anthropology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA
| | - Karen Kramer
- Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Logan, UT, USA
| | - Frank Marlowe
- Department of Biological Anthropology, University of Cambridge, UK
| | - Richard McElreath
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - David Nolin
- Department of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | - Marsha Quinlan
- Department of Anthropology, Washington State University, Vancouver, WA, USA
| | - Robert Quinlan
- Department of Anthropology, Washington State University, Vancouver, WA, USA
| | | | - Brooke Scelza
- Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Ryan Schacht
- Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Logan, UT, USA
| | - Mary Shenk
- Department of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University, Philadelphia, PA, USA
| | | | - Eckart Voland
- Institut für Philosophie der Universität Giessen, Giessen, Germany
| | - Kai Willführ
- Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany
| | | | - John Ziker
- Department of Anthropology, Boise State University, Boise, ID, USA
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Henrich J, Ensminger J, McElreath R, Barr A, Barrett C, Bolyanatz A, Cardenas JC, Gurven M, Gwako E, Henrich N, Lesorogol C, Marlowe F, Tracer D, Ziker J. Response—Evolution of Fairness. Science 2010. [DOI: 10.1126/science.329.5990.389-b] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Joseph Henrich
- Departments of Psychology and Economics, University of British Columbia, 2136 West Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4, Canada
| | - Jean Ensminger
- Division of the Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
| | - Richard McElreath
- Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA
| | - Abigail Barr
- Centre for the Study of African Economies, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, Manor Road, Oxford OX1 3UQ, UK
| | - Clark Barrett
- Department of Anthropology, University of California, 341 Haines Hall, Box 951553, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA
| | | | - Juan Camilo Cardenas
- Facultad de Economia, Universidad de Los Andes, K1 Number 18A-70, Bogotá, Colombia
| | - Michael Gurven
- Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
| | - Edwins Gwako
- Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Guilford College, 5800 West Friendly Avenue, Greensboro, NC 27410, USA
| | - Natalie Henrich
- Centre for Health Evaluation and Outcome Sciences, Providence Health Care Research Institute, Vancouver, BC V6Z 1Y6, Canada
| | - Carolyn Lesorogol
- George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Washington University, 1 Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA
| | - Frank Marlowe
- Department of Anthropology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306, USA
| | - David Tracer
- Department of Anthropology, University of Colorado, Post Office Box 173364, Campus Box 103, Denver, CO 80217, USA
| | - John Ziker
- Department of Anthropology, Boise State University, 1910 University Drive, Boise, ID 83725, USA
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Henrich J, Ensminger J, McElreath R, Barr A, Barrett C, Bolyanatz A, Cardenas JC, Gurven M, Gwako E, Henrich N, Lesorogol C, Marlowe F, Tracer D, Ziker J. Markets, Religion, Community Size, and the Evolution of Fairness and Punishment. Science 2010; 327:1480-4. [PMID: 20299588 DOI: 10.1126/science.1182238] [Citation(s) in RCA: 388] [Impact Index Per Article: 27.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Joseph Henrich
- Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, 2136 West Mall, Vancouver, British Columbia V6T 1Z4, Canada.
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Henrich J, McElreath R, Barr A, Ensminger J, Barrett C, Bolyanatz A, Cardenas JC, Gurven M, Gwako E, Henrich N, Lesorogol C, Marlowe F, Tracer D, Ziker J. Costly Punishment Across Human Societies. Science 2006; 312:1767-70. [PMID: 16794075 DOI: 10.1126/science.1127333] [Citation(s) in RCA: 571] [Impact Index Per Article: 31.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
Abstract
Recent behavioral experiments aimed at understanding the evolutionary foundations of human cooperation have suggested that a willingness to engage in costly punishment, even in one-shot situations, may be part of human psychology and a key element in understanding our sociality. However, because most experiments have been confined to students in industrialized societies, generalizations of these insights to the species have necessarily been tentative. Here, experimental results from 15 diverse populations show that (i) all populations demonstrate some willingness to administer costly punishment as unequal behavior increases, (ii) the magnitude of this punishment varies substantially across populations, and (iii) costly punishment positively covaries with altruistic behavior across populations. These findings are consistent with models of the gene-culture coevolution of human altruism and further sharpen what any theory of human cooperation needs to explain.
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Affiliation(s)
- Joseph Henrich
- Department of Anthropology, Emory University, 1557 Dickey Drive, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA.
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