1
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Albert G, Davis A, Bird BM, Arnocky S, Hlay JK, McGee N, Richardson GB, Hodges-Simeon CR. Validating the Revised Mating Effort Questionnaire. ARCHIVES OF SEXUAL BEHAVIOR 2024; 53:2091-2109. [PMID: 38478164 DOI: 10.1007/s10508-023-02793-2] [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] [Received: 07/28/2022] [Revised: 11/16/2023] [Accepted: 12/15/2023] [Indexed: 06/14/2024]
Abstract
The mating effort questionnaire (MEQ) is a multi-dimensional self-report instrument that captures factors reflecting individual effort in upgrading from a current partner, investment in a current partner, and mate seeking when not romantically paired. In the current studies, we sought to revise the MEQ so that it distinguishes among two facets of mate seeking-mate locating and mate attracting-to enable a more nuanced measurement and understanding of individual mating effort. Moreover, we developed additional items to better measure partner investment. In total, the number of items was increased from 12 to 26. In Study 1, exploratory factor analysis revealed that a four-factor solution, reflecting partner upgrading, mate locating, mate attracting, and partner investment, yielded the best fit. In Study 2, this structure was replicated using confirmatory factor analysis in an independent sample. Based on extant studies documenting the relationships between psychopathy, short-term mating effort, and sexual risk taking, a structural equation model (SEM) indicated that trait psychopathy positively predicted mate locating, mate attracting, and partner upgrading and negatively predicted partner investment. A separate SEM showed that partner upgrading positively predicted risky sexual behaviors, while partner upgrading and mate locating positively predicted acceptance of cosmetic surgery.
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Affiliation(s)
- Graham Albert
- Department of Anthropology, Boston University, 232 Bay State Rd, Boston, MA, 02215, USA
| | - Adam Davis
- Department of Psychology, Nipissing University, North Bay, ON, Canada
| | - Brian M Bird
- Department of Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada
| | - Steven Arnocky
- Department of Psychology, Nipissing University, North Bay, ON, Canada
| | - Jessica K Hlay
- Department of Anthropology, Boston University, 232 Bay State Rd, Boston, MA, 02215, USA
| | - Nathan McGee
- School of Human Services, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA
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2
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Chaudhari NN, Imms PE, Chowdhury NF, Gatz M, Trumble BC, Mack WJ, Law EM, Sutherland ML, Sutherland JD, Rowan CJ, Wann LS, Allam AH, Thompson RC, Michalik DE, Miyamoto M, Lombardi G, Cummings DK, Seabright E, Alami S, Garcia AR, Rodriguez DE, Gutierrez RQ, Copajira AJ, Hooper PL, Buetow KH, Stieglitz J, Gurven MD, Thomas GS, Kaplan HS, Finch CE, Irimia A. Increases in regional brain volume across two native South American male populations. GeroScience 2024:10.1007/s11357-024-01168-2. [PMID: 38683289 DOI: 10.1007/s11357-024-01168-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/25/2024] [Accepted: 04/15/2024] [Indexed: 05/01/2024] Open
Abstract
Industrialized environments, despite benefits such as higher levels of formal education and lower rates of infections, can also have pernicious impacts upon brain atrophy. Partly for this reason, comparing age-related brain volume trajectories between industrialized and non-industrialized populations can help to suggest lifestyle correlates of brain health. The Tsimane, indigenous to the Bolivian Amazon, derive their subsistence from foraging and horticulture and are physically active. The Moseten, a mixed-ethnicity farming population, are physically active but less than the Tsimane. Within both populations (N = 1024; age range = 46-83), we calculated regional brain volumes from computed tomography and compared their cross-sectional trends with age to those of UK Biobank (UKBB) participants (N = 19,973; same age range). Surprisingly among Tsimane and Moseten (T/M) males, some parietal and occipital structures mediating visuospatial abilities exhibit small but significant increases in regional volume with age. UKBB males exhibit a steeper negative trend of regional volume with age in frontal and temporal structures compared to T/M males. However, T/M females exhibit significantly steeper rates of brain volume decrease with age compared to UKBB females, particularly for some cerebro-cortical structures (e.g., left subparietal cortex). Across the three populations, observed trends exhibit no interhemispheric asymmetry. In conclusion, the age-related rate of regional brain volume change may differ by lifestyle and sex. The lack of brain volume reduction with age is not known to exist in other human population, highlighting the putative role of lifestyle in constraining regional brain atrophy and promoting elements of non-industrialized lifestyle like higher physical activity.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nikhil N Chaudhari
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center, Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Phoebe E Imms
- Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center, Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Nahian F Chowdhury
- Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center, Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Margaret Gatz
- Center for Economic and Social Research, Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Benjamin C Trumble
- Center for Evolution & Medicine, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
| | - Wendy J Mack
- Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - E Meng Law
- iBRAIN Research Laboratory, Departments of Neuroscience, Computer Systems and Electrical Engineering, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
- Department of Radiology, The Alfred Health Hospital, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
- Department of Neurology, Keck School of Medicine of USC, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | | | | | - Christopher J Rowan
- Renown Institute for Heart and Vascular Health, Reno, NV, USA
- School of Medicine, University of Nevada, Reno, NV, USA
| | - L Samuel Wann
- Division of Cardiology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA
| | - Adel H Allam
- Department of Cardiology, School of Medicine, Al-Azhar University, Al Mikhaym Al Daem, Cairo, Egypt
| | - Randall C Thompson
- Saint Luke's Mid America Heart Institute, University of Missouri, Kansas City, MO, USA
| | - David E Michalik
- Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, University of California, Irvine, Orange, CA, USA
- MemorialCare Miller Children's & Women's Hospital, Long Beach Medical Center, Long Beach, CA, USA
| | - Michael Miyamoto
- Division of Cardiology, Mission Heritage Medical Group, Providence Health, Mission Viejo, CA, USA
| | | | - Daniel K Cummings
- Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA
- Economic Science Institute, Argyros School of Business and Economics, Chapman University, Orange, CA, USA
| | - Edmond Seabright
- Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA
| | - Sarah Alami
- Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA
| | - Angela R Garcia
- Center for Evolution & Medicine, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
| | - Daniel E Rodriguez
- Institute of Biomedical Research, San Simon University, Cochabamba, Bolivia
| | | | | | - Paul L Hooper
- Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA
| | - Kenneth H Buetow
- Center for Evolution & Medicine, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
| | - Jonathan Stieglitz
- Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, Toulouse 1 Capitol University, Toulouse, France
| | - Michael D Gurven
- Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
| | - Gregory S Thomas
- MemorialCare Health Systems, Fountain Valley, CA, USA
- Division of Cardiology, University of California, Irvine, Orange, CA, USA
| | - Hillard S Kaplan
- Economic Science Institute, Argyros School of Business and Economics, Chapman University, Orange, CA, USA
| | - Caleb E Finch
- Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center, Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
- Departments of Biological Sciences, Anthropology and Psychology, Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Andrei Irimia
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Viterbi School of Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
- Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center, Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
- Department of Quantitative and Computational Biology, Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
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3
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Dalzero A, Beheim BA, Kaplan H, Stieglitz J, Hooper PL, Ross CT, Gurven M, Lukas D. Cross-cousin marriage among Tsimane forager-horticulturalists during demographic transition and market integration. EVOLUTIONARY HUMAN SCIENCES 2024; 6:e18. [PMID: 38572226 PMCID: PMC10988167 DOI: 10.1017/ehs.2024.11] [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: 06/13/2023] [Revised: 02/02/2024] [Accepted: 02/12/2024] [Indexed: 04/05/2024] Open
Abstract
Although still prevalent in many human societies, the practice of cousin marriage has precipitously declined in populations undergoing rapid demographic and socioeconomic change. However, it is still unclear whether changes in the structure of the marriage pool or changes in the fitness-relevant consequences of cousin marriage more strongly influence the frequency of cousin marriage. Here, we use genealogical data collected by the Tsimane Health and Life History Project to show that there is a small but measurable decline in the frequency of first cross-cousin marriage since the mid-twentieth century. Such changes are linked to concomitant changes in the pool of potential spouses in recent decades. We find only very modest differences in fitness-relevant demographic measures between first cousin and non-cousin marriages. These differences have been diminishing as the Tsimane have become more market integrated. The factors that influence preferences for cousin marriage appear to be less prevalent now than in the past, but cultural inertia might slow the pace of change in marriage norms. Overall, our findings suggest that cultural changes in marriage practices reflect underlying societal changes that shape the pool of potential spouses.
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Affiliation(s)
- Arianna Dalzero
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Bret A. Beheim
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Hillard Kaplan
- Economic Science Institute, Chapman University, Orange, California, USA
| | - Jonathan Stieglitz
- Toulouse School of Economics and Institute for Advanced Study, University of Toulouse 1 Capitole, Toulouse, France
| | - Paul L. Hooper
- Economic Science Institute, Chapman University, Orange, California, USA
- Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
| | - Cody T. Ross
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Michael Gurven
- Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, California, USA
| | - Dieter Lukas
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
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4
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Hults CM, Francis RC, Clint EK, Smith W, Sober ER, Garland T, Rhodes JS. Still little evidence sex differences in spatial navigation are evolutionary adaptations. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2024; 11:231532. [PMID: 38234440 PMCID: PMC10791541 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.231532] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/09/2023] [Accepted: 12/20/2023] [Indexed: 01/19/2024]
Abstract
A putative male advantage in wayfinding ability is the most widely documented sex difference in human cognition and has also been observed in other animals. The common interpretation, the sex-specific adaptation hypothesis, posits that this male advantage evolved as an adaptive response to sex differences in home range size. A previous study a decade ago tested this hypothesis by comparing sex differences in home range size and spatial ability among 11 species and found no relationship. However, the study was limited by the small sample size, the lack of species with a larger female home range and the lack of non-Western human data. The present study represents an update that addresses all of these limitations, including data from 10 more species and from human subsistence cultures. Consistent with the previous result, we found little evidence that sex differences in spatial navigation and home range size are related. We conclude that sex differences in spatial ability are more likely due to experiential factors and/or unselected biological side effects, rather than functional outcomes of natural selection.
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Affiliation(s)
- Connor M. Hults
- Department of Psychology, University of Illinois, 603 E. Daniel St., Champaign, IL 61820, USA
| | | | - Edward K. Clint
- Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Oregon Institute of Technology, Klamath Falls, OR, USA
| | - Winter Smith
- Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Oregon Institute of Technology, Klamath Falls, OR, USA
| | - Elliott R. Sober
- Department of Philosophy, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, USA
| | - Theodore Garland
- Department of Evolution, Ecology, and Organismal Biology, University of California, Riverside, CA, USA
| | - Justin S. Rhodes
- Department of Psychology, University of Illinois, 603 E. Daniel St., Champaign, IL 61820, USA
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5
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Kraft TS, Seabright E, Alami S, Jenness SM, Hooper P, Beheim B, Davis H, Cummings DK, Rodriguez DE, Cayuba MG, Miner E, de Lamballerie X, Inchauste L, Priet S, Trumble BC, Stieglitz J, Kaplan H, Gurven MD. Metapopulation dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 transmission in a small-scale Amazonian society. PLoS Biol 2023; 21:e3002108. [PMID: 37607188 PMCID: PMC10443873 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3002108] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/17/2023] [Accepted: 07/17/2023] [Indexed: 08/24/2023] Open
Abstract
The severity of infectious disease outbreaks is governed by patterns of human contact, which vary by geography, social organization, mobility, access to technology and healthcare, economic development, and culture. Whereas globalized societies and urban centers exhibit characteristics that can heighten vulnerability to pandemics, small-scale subsistence societies occupying remote, rural areas may be buffered. Accordingly, voluntary collective isolation has been proposed as one strategy to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 and other pandemics on small-scale Indigenous populations with minimal access to healthcare infrastructure. To assess the vulnerability of such populations and the viability of interventions such as voluntary collective isolation, we simulate and analyze the dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 infection among Amazonian forager-horticulturalists in Bolivia using a stochastic network metapopulation model parameterized with high-resolution empirical data on population structure, mobility, and contact networks. Our model suggests that relative isolation offers little protection at the population level (expected approximately 80% cumulative incidence), and more remote communities are not conferred protection via greater distance from outside sources of infection, due to common features of small-scale societies that promote rapid disease transmission such as high rates of travel and dense social networks. Neighborhood density, central household location in villages, and household size greatly increase the individual risk of infection. Simulated interventions further demonstrate that without implausibly high levels of centralized control, collective isolation is unlikely to be effective, especially if it is difficult to restrict visitation between communities as well as travel to outside areas. Finally, comparison of model results to empirical COVID-19 outcomes measured via seroassay suggest that our theoretical model is successful at predicting outbreak severity at both the population and community levels. Taken together, these findings suggest that the social organization and relative isolation from urban centers of many rural Indigenous communities offer little protection from pandemics and that standard control measures, including vaccination, are required to counteract effects of tight-knit social structures characteristic of small-scale populations.
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Affiliation(s)
- Thomas S. Kraft
- Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, United States of America
- Department of Anthropology, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California, United States of America
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology, and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Edmond Seabright
- School of Collective Intelligence, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Rabat, Morocco
- University of New Mexico, Department of Anthropology, Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States of America
| | - Sarah Alami
- Department of Anthropology, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California, United States of America
- School of Collective Intelligence, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Rabat, Morocco
| | - Samuel M. Jenness
- Department of Epidemiology, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America
| | - Paul Hooper
- Department of Health Economics and Anthropology, Economic Science Institute, Argyros School of Business and Economics, Chapman University, Orange, California, United States of America
| | - Bret Beheim
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology, and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Helen Davis
- Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States of America
| | - Daniel K. Cummings
- Department of Health Economics and Anthropology, Economic Science Institute, Argyros School of Business and Economics, Chapman University, Orange, California, United States of America
| | | | | | - Emily Miner
- Department of Anthropology, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California, United States of America
| | - Xavier de Lamballerie
- Unité des Virus Émergents (UVE: Aix-Marseille Univ–IRD 190 –Inserm 1207 –IHU Méditerranée Infection), Marseille, France
| | - Lucia Inchauste
- Unité des Virus Émergents (UVE: Aix-Marseille Univ–IRD 190 –Inserm 1207 –IHU Méditerranée Infection), Marseille, France
| | - Stéphane Priet
- Unité des Virus Émergents (UVE: Aix-Marseille Univ–IRD 190 –Inserm 1207 –IHU Méditerranée Infection), Marseille, France
| | - Benjamin C. Trumble
- School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States of America
- Center for Evolution and Medicine, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States of America
| | | | - Hillard Kaplan
- Department of Health Economics and Anthropology, Economic Science Institute, Argyros School of Business and Economics, Chapman University, Orange, California, United States of America
| | - Michael D. Gurven
- Department of Anthropology, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, California, United States of America
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6
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Dubourg E, Thouzeau V, de Dampierre C, Mogoutov A, Baumard N. Exploratory preferences explain the human fascination for imaginary worlds in fictional stories. Sci Rep 2023; 13:8657. [PMID: 37246187 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-35151-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/02/2022] [Accepted: 05/13/2023] [Indexed: 05/30/2023] Open
Abstract
Imaginary worlds are present and often central in many of the most culturally successful modern narrative fictions, be it in novels (e.g., Harry Potter), movies (e.g., Star Wars), video games (e.g., The Legend of Zelda), graphic novels (e.g., One Piece) and TV series (e.g., Game of Thrones). We propose that imaginary worlds are popular because they activate exploratory preferences that evolved to help us navigate the real world and find new fitness-relevant information. Therefore, we hypothesize that the attraction to imaginary worlds is intrinsically linked to the desire to explore novel environments and that both are influenced by the same underlying factors. Notably, the inter-individual and cross-cultural variability of the preference for imaginary worlds should follow the inter-individual and cross-cultural variability of exploratory preferences (with the personality trait Openness-to-experience, age, sex, and ecological conditions). We test these predictions with both experimental and computational methods. For experimental tests, we run a pre-registered online experiment about movie preferences (N = 230). For computational tests, we leverage two large cultural datasets, namely the Internet Movie Database (N = 9424 movies) and the Movie Personality Dataset (N = 3.5 million participants), and use machine-learning algorithms (i.e., random forest and topic modeling). In all, consistent with how the human preference for spatial exploration adaptively varies, we provide empirical evidence that imaginary worlds appeal more to more explorative people, people higher in Openness-to-experience, younger individuals, males, and individuals living in more affluent environments. We discuss the implications of these findings for our understanding of the cultural evolution of narrative fiction and, more broadly, the evolution of human exploratory preferences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Edgar Dubourg
- Institut Jean Nicod, Département d'études cognitives, Ecole normale supérieure, Université PSL, EHESS, CNRS, Paris, France.
| | - Valentin Thouzeau
- Institut Jean Nicod, Département d'études cognitives, Ecole normale supérieure, Université PSL, EHESS, CNRS, Paris, France
| | - Charles de Dampierre
- Institut Jean Nicod, Département d'études cognitives, Ecole normale supérieure, Université PSL, EHESS, CNRS, Paris, France
| | - Andrei Mogoutov
- Institut Jean Nicod, Département d'études cognitives, Ecole normale supérieure, Université PSL, EHESS, CNRS, Paris, France
| | - Nicolas Baumard
- Institut Jean Nicod, Département d'études cognitives, Ecole normale supérieure, Université PSL, EHESS, CNRS, Paris, France
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7
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Davis HE, Gurven M, Cashdan E. Navigational Experience and the Preservation of Spatial Abilities into Old Age Among a Tropical Forager-Farmer Population. Top Cogn Sci 2023; 15:187-212. [PMID: 35170860 PMCID: PMC10078734 DOI: 10.1111/tops.12602] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/18/2021] [Revised: 01/18/2022] [Accepted: 01/19/2022] [Indexed: 02/01/2023]
Abstract
Navigational performance responds to navigational challenges, and both decline with age in Western populations as older people become less mobile. But mobility does not decline everywhere; Tsimané forager-farmers in Bolivia remain highly mobile throughout adulthood, traveling frequently by foot and dugout canoe for subsistence and social visitation. We, therefore, measured both natural mobility and navigational performance in 305 Tsimané adults, to assess differences with age and to test whether greater mobility was related to better navigational performance across the lifespan. Daily mobility was measured by GPS tracking, regional mobility through interview, navigational performance through pointing accuracy and perspective taking in environmental space, and mental rotation by a computerized task. Although mental rotation and spatial perspective taking declined with age, mobility and pointing accuracy remained high from mid-life through old age. Greater regional mobility was associated with greater accuracy at pointing and perspective taking, suggesting that spatial experience at environmental scales may help maintain navigational performance in later adulthood.
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Affiliation(s)
- Helen E Davis
- Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University
| | - Michael Gurven
- Department of Anthropology, University of California-Santa Barbara
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8
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Cultural transmission vectors of essential knowledge and skills among Tsimane forager-farmers. EVOL HUM BEHAV 2022. [DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2022.08.002] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/21/2022]
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9
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Crittenden AN, Farahani A, Herlosky KN, Pollom TR, Mabulla IA, Ruginski IT, Cashdan E. Harm Avoidance and Mobility During Middle Childhood and Adolescence among Hadza Foragers. HUMAN NATURE-AN INTERDISCIPLINARY BIOSOCIAL PERSPECTIVE 2021; 32:150-176. [PMID: 33945076 DOI: 10.1007/s12110-021-09390-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 02/09/2021] [Indexed: 12/23/2022]
Abstract
Cross-cultural sex differences in mobility and harm avoidance have been widely reported, often emphasizing fitness benefits of long-distance travel for males and high costs for females. Data emerging from adults in small-scale societies, however, are challenging the assumption that female mobility is restricted during reproduction. Such findings warrant further exploration of the ontogeny of mobility. Here, using a combination of machine-learning, mixed-effects linear regression, and GIS mapping, we analyze range size, daily distance traveled, and harm avoidance among Hadza foragers during middle childhood and adolescence. Distance traveled increased with age and, while male adolescents had the longest daily ranges, average daily distance traveled by each sex was similar. We found few age- or sex-related patterns in harm-avoidant responses and a high degree of individual variation. When queried on the same issues, children and their parents were often in alignment as to expectations pertaining to harm avoidance, and siblings tended to behave in similar ways. To the extent that sex differences in mobility did emerge, they were associated with ecological differences in physical threats associated with sex-specific foraging behaviors. Further, we found no strong association between harm avoidance and mobility. Young Hadza foragers of both sexes are highly mobile, regardless of how harm avoidant they are. Taken together, our findings indicate that the causal arrows between harm avoidance and mobility must be evaluated in ecologically specific frameworks where cultural expectations of juvenile mobility can be contextualized.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Alan Farahani
- Department of Anthropology, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV, USA
| | | | - Trevor R Pollom
- Department of Anthropology, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV, USA
| | | | - Ian T Ruginski
- Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
- Department of Geography, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Elizabeth Cashdan
- Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
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10
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Wood BM, Harris JA, Raichlen DA, Pontzer H, Sayre K, Sancilio A, Berbesque C, Crittenden AN, Mabulla A, McElreath R, Cashdan E, Jones JH. Gendered movement ecology and landscape use in Hadza hunter-gatherers. Nat Hum Behav 2021; 5:436-446. [PMID: 33398143 PMCID: PMC8060163 DOI: 10.1038/s41562-020-01002-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 30] [Impact Index Per Article: 10.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/20/2019] [Accepted: 10/21/2020] [Indexed: 01/28/2023]
Abstract
Understanding how gendered economic roles structure space use is critical to evolutionary models of foraging behaviour, social organization and cognition. Here, we examine hunter-gatherer spatial behaviour on a very large scale, using GPS devices worn by Hadza foragers to record 2,078 person-days of movement. Theory in movement ecology suggests that the density and mobility of targeted foods should predict spatial behaviour and that strong gender differences should arise in a hunter-gatherer context. As predicted, we find that men walked further per day, explored more land, followed more sinuous paths and were more likely to be alone. These data are consistent with the ecology of male- and female-targeted foods and suggest that male landscape use is more navigationally challenging in this hunter-gatherer context. Comparisons of Hadza space use with space use data available for non-human primates suggest that the sexual division of labour likely co-evolved with increased sex differences in spatial behaviour and landscape use.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brian M Wood
- Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA.
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany.
| | - Jacob A Harris
- Institute of Human Origins, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
| | - David A Raichlen
- Human and Evolutionary Biology Section, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Herman Pontzer
- Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA
| | - Katherine Sayre
- Human and Evolutionary Biology Section, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA
| | - Amelia Sancilio
- The Center for Health and The Social Sciences, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
| | | | | | - Audax Mabulla
- Department of Archaeology and Heritage, University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
| | - Richard McElreath
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Elizabeth Cashdan
- Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
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11
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Pisor AC, Jones JH. Do people manage climate risk through long-distance relationships? Am J Hum Biol 2020; 33:e23525. [PMID: 33103823 DOI: 10.1002/ajhb.23525] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/02/2020] [Revised: 10/08/2020] [Accepted: 10/09/2020] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVES Long-distance social relationships have been a feature of human evolutionary history; evidence from the paleoanthropological, archeological, and ethnographic records suggest that one function of these relationships is to manage the risk of resource shortfalls due to climate variability. We should expect long-distance relationships to be especially important when shortfalls are chronic or temporally positively autocorrelated, as these are more likely to exhaust local adaptations for managing risk. Further, individuals who experience shortfalls not as rare shocks, but as patterned events, should be more likely to pay the costs of maintaining long-distance relationships. We test these hypotheses in the context of two communities of Bolivian horticulturalists, where climate variability-especially precipitation variability-is relevant to production and access to long-distance connections is improving. METHODS Data on individuals' migration histories, social relationships, and other relevant variables were collected in 2017 (n = 119). Precipitation data were obtained from the US National Center for Atmospheric Research, allowing us to estimate participants' exposure to drought and excess precipitation. RESULTS Exposure duration, proximity in time, and frequency did not predict having a greater number of long-distance relationships. Males, extraverted individuals, and those who had traveled more did have more long-distance relationships, however. CONCLUSION Another function of long-distance relationships is to access resources that can never be obtained locally; ethnographic data suggest this is their primary function in rural Bolivia. We conclude by refining our predictions about the conditions under which long-distance relationships are likely to help individuals manage the risks posed by climate variability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anne C Pisor
- Department of Anthropology, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, USA.,Department of Human Behavior, Ecology, and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - James Holland Jones
- Department of Earth System Science, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA
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12
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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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13
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Nowell A, French JC. Adolescence and innovation in the European Upper Palaeolithic. EVOLUTIONARY HUMAN SCIENCES 2020; 2:e36. [PMID: 37588373 PMCID: PMC10427464 DOI: 10.1017/ehs.2020.37] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Childhood and adolescence are two stages of development that are unique to the human life course. While childhood in the Pleistocene has received considerable attention in recent years, adolescence during the same period remains an understudied area of research. Yet it is during adolescence that key social, physical and cognitive milestones are reached. Thus, through studying adolescents, there is enormous potential for improving our understanding of Upper Palaeolithic lifeways more broadly. The reason for the dearth of these types of studies may be the perceived methodological difficulty of identifying adolescents in the archaeological record. In many ways, it is easier to distinguish children (sensu lato) from adults based on size, developmental age and associated artefacts. Adolescents, however, are often seen as more ambiguous, more liminal. Working within an evolutionary framework and using a definition of adolescence rooted in biology, we draw on psychology, ethnography and palaeodemography to develop a model of what it might have meant to be a 'teenager' in the European Upper Palaeolithic. Citing the biological, social and cognitive changes that occur during this life stage, we propose an important role of teenagers in the origins and spread of new ideas and innovations throughout the Late Pleistocene.
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Affiliation(s)
- April Nowell
- Department of Anthropology, University of Victoria, PO Box 1700 STN CSC, Victoria, BC, CanadaV8W 2Y2
| | - Jennifer C. French
- University College London, Institute of Archaeology, 31–34 Gordon Square, LondonWC1H 0PY, UK
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14
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Scelza BA, Hinde K. Crucial Contributions : A Biocultural Study of Grandmothering During the Perinatal Period. HUMAN NATURE-AN INTERDISCIPLINARY BIOSOCIAL PERSPECTIVE 2020; 30:371-397. [PMID: 31802396 PMCID: PMC6911617 DOI: 10.1007/s12110-019-09356-2] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
Abstract
Maternal grandmothers play a key role in allomaternal care, directly caring for and provisioning their grandchildren as well as helping their daughters with household chores and productive labor. Previous studies have investigated these contributions across a broad time period, from infancy through toddlerhood. Here, we extend and refine the grandmothering literature to investigate the perinatal period as a critical window for grandmaternal contributions. We propose that mother-daughter co-residence during this period affords targeted grandmaternal effort during a period of heightened vulnerability and appreciable impact. We conducted two focus groups and 37 semi-structured interviews with Himba women. Interviews focused on experiences from their first and, if applicable, their most recent birth and included information on social support, domains of teaching and learning, and infant feeding practices. Our qualitative findings reveal three domains in which grandmothers contribute: learning to mother, breastfeeding support, and postnatal health and well-being. We show that informational, emotional, and instrumental support provided to new mothers and their neonates during the perinatal period can aid in the establishment of the mother-infant bond, buffer maternal energy balance, and improve nutritional outcomes for infants. These findings demonstrate that the role of grandmother can be crucial, even when alloparenting is common and breastfeeding is frequent and highly visible. Situated within the broader anthropological and clinical literature, these findings substantiate the claim that humans have evolved in an adaptive sociocultural perinatal complex in which grandmothers provide significant contributions to the health and well-being of their reproductive-age daughters and grandchildren.
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Affiliation(s)
- Brooke A Scelza
- Department of Anthropology, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1553, USA. .,Center for Behavior, Evolution and Culture, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1553, USA.
| | - Katie Hinde
- School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA.,Center for Evolution and Medicine, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA
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15
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Micheletti AJC, Ruxton GD, Gardner A. Why war is a man's game. Proc Biol Sci 2018; 285:rspb.2018.0975. [PMID: 30111597 PMCID: PMC6111185 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2018.0975] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/30/2018] [Accepted: 07/20/2018] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Interest in the evolutionary origins and drivers of warfare in ancient and contemporary small-scale human societies has greatly increased in the last decade, and has been particularly spurred by exciting archaeological discoveries that suggest our ancestors led more violent lives than previously documented. However, the striking observation that warfare is an almost-exclusively male activity remains unexplained. Three general hypotheses have been proposed, concerning greater male effectiveness in warfare, lower male costs, and patrilocality. But while each of these factors might explain why warfare is more common in men, they do not convincingly explain why women almost never participate. Here, we develop a mathematical model to formally assess these hypotheses. Surprisingly, we find that exclusively male warfare may evolve even in the absence of any such sex differences, though sex biases in these parameters can make this evolutionary outcome more likely. The qualitative observation that participation in warfare is almost exclusive to one sex is ultimately explained by the fundamentally sex-specific nature of Darwinian competition—in fitness terms, men compete with men and women with women. These results reveal a potentially key role for ancestral conditions in shaping our species' patterns of sexual division of labour and violence-related adaptations and behavioural disorders.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Graeme D Ruxton
- School of Biology, University of St Andrews, Dyers Brae, St Andrews KY16 9TH, UK
| | - Andy Gardner
- School of Biology, University of St Andrews, Dyers Brae, St Andrews KY16 9TH, UK
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16
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von Rueden C, Alami S, Kaplan H, Gurven M. Sex differences in political leadership in an egalitarian society. EVOL HUM BEHAV 2018; 39:402-411. [PMID: 30319239 PMCID: PMC6178229 DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2018.03.005] [Citation(s) in RCA: 42] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/22/2022]
Abstract
We test the contribution of sex differences in physical formidability, education, and cooperation to the acquisition of political leadership in a small-scale society. Among forager-farmers from the Bolivian Amazon, we find that men are more likely to exercise different forms of political leadership, including verbal influence during community meetings, coordination of community projects, and dispute resolution. We show that these differences in leadership are not due to gender per se but are associated with men's greater number of cooperation partners, greater access to schooling, and greater body size and physical strength. Men's advantage in cooperation partner number is tied to their participation in larger groups and to the opportunity costs of women's intrahousehold labor. We argue these results highlight the mutual influence of sexual selection and the sexual division of labor in shaping how women and men acquire leadership.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chris von Rueden
- Jepson School of Leadership Studies, University of Richmond, 28 Westhampton Way, Richmond, VA 23173, USA
| | - Sarah Alami
- Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
| | - Hillard Kaplan
- Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131 USA
| | - Michael Gurven
- Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
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17
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Geary DC. Evolutionary perspective on sex differences in the expression of neurological diseases. Prog Neurobiol 2018; 176:33-53. [PMID: 29890214 DOI: 10.1016/j.pneurobio.2018.06.001] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/05/2017] [Revised: 04/25/2018] [Accepted: 06/05/2018] [Indexed: 12/20/2022]
Abstract
Sex-specific brain and cognitive deficits emerge with malnutrition, some infectious and neurodegenerative diseases, and often with prenatal or postnatal toxin exposure. These deficits are described in disparate literatures and are generally not linked to one another. Sexual selection may provide a unifying framework that integrates our understanding of these deficits and provides direction for future studies of sex-specific vulnerabilities. Sexually selected traits are those that have evolved to facilitate competition for reproductive resources or that influence mate choices, and are often larger and more complex than other traits. Critically, malnutrition, disease, chronic social stress, and exposure to man-made toxins compromise the development and expression of sexually selected traits more strongly than that of other traits. The fundamental mechanism underlying vulnerability might be the efficiency of mitochondrial energy capture and control of oxidative stress that in turn links these traits to current advances in neuroenergetics, stress endocrinology, and toxicology. The key idea is that the elaboration of these cognitive abilities, with more underlying gray matter or more extensive inter-modular white matter connections, makes them particularly sensitive to disruptions in mitochondrial functioning and oxidative stress. A framework of human sexually selected cognitive abilities and underlying brain systems is proposed and used to organize what is currently known about sex-specific vulnerabilities.
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Affiliation(s)
- David C Geary
- Department of Psychological Sciences, Interdisciplinary Neuroscience, University of Missouri, MO, 65211-2500, Columbia, United States.
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18
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19
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Conroy-Beam D, Buss DM. Euclidean distances discriminatively predict short-term and long-term attraction to potential mates. EVOL HUM BEHAV 2017. [DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2017.04.004] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
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20
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Gurven M, Stieglitz J, Trumble B, Blackwell AD, Beheim B, Davis H, Hooper P, Kaplan H. The Tsimane Health and Life History Project: Integrating anthropology and biomedicine. Evol Anthropol 2017; 26:54-73. [PMID: 28429567 PMCID: PMC5421261 DOI: 10.1002/evan.21515] [Citation(s) in RCA: 93] [Impact Index Per Article: 13.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/22/2017] [Indexed: 12/21/2022]
Abstract
The Tsimane Health and Life History Project, an integrated bio-behavioral study of the human life course, is designed to test competing hypotheses of human life-history evolution. One aim is to understand the bidirectional connections between life history and social behavior in a high-fertility, kin-based context lacking amenities of modern urban life (e.g. sanitation, banks, electricity). Another aim is to understand how a high pathogen burden influences health and well-being during development and adulthood. A third aim addresses how modernization shapes human life histories and sociality. Here we outline the project's goals, history, and main findings since its inception in 2002. We reflect on the implications of current findings and highlight the need for more coordinated ethnographic and biomedical study of contemporary nonindustrial populations to address broad questions that can situate evolutionary anthropology in a key position within the social and life sciences.
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Affiliation(s)
- Michael Gurven
- Department of AnthropologyUniversity of California‐Santa BarbaraSanta Barbara CA
| | | | - Benjamin Trumble
- Center for Evolution and Medicine; School of Human Evolution and Social ChangeArizona State UniversityTempeAZ
| | - Aaron D. Blackwell
- Department of AnthropologyUniversity of California‐Santa BarbaraSanta Barbara CA
| | - Bret Beheim
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and CultureMax Planck Institute for Evolutionary AnthropologyLeipzigGermany
| | - Helen Davis
- Department of AnthropologyUniversity of UtahSalt Lake CityUT
| | | | - Hillard Kaplan
- Department of AnthropologyUniversity of New MexicoAlbuquerqueNM
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21
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Cashdan E, Kramer KL, Davis HE, Padilla L, Greaves RD. Mobility and Navigation among the Yucatec Maya: Sex Differences Reflect Parental Investment, Not Mating Competition. HUMAN NATURE-AN INTERDISCIPLINARY BIOSOCIAL PERSPECTIVE 2017; 27:35-50. [PMID: 26650606 PMCID: PMC4742514 DOI: 10.1007/s12110-015-9250-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 01/24/2023]
Abstract
Sex differences in range size and navigation are widely reported, with males traveling farther than females, being less spatially anxious, and in many studies navigating more effectively. One explanation holds that these differences are the result of sexual selection, with larger ranges conferring mating benefits on males, while another explanation focuses on greater parenting costs that large ranges impose on reproductive-aged females. We evaluated these arguments with data from a community of highly monogamous Maya farmers. Maya men and women do not differ in distance traveled over the region during the mate-seeking years, suggesting that mating competition does not affect range size in this monogamous population. However, men’s regional and daily travel increases after marriage, apparently in pursuit of resources that benefit families, whereas women reduce their daily travel after marriage. This suggests that parental effort is more important than mating effort in this population. Despite the relatively modest overall sex difference in mobility, Maya men were less spatially anxious than women, thought themselves to be better navigators, and pointed more accurately to distant locations. A structural equation model showed that the sex by marital status interaction had a direct effect on mobility, with a weaker indirect effect of sex on mobility mediated by navigational ability.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elizabeth Cashdan
- Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - Karen L Kramer
- Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA.
| | - Helen E Davis
- Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - Lace Padilla
- Department of Psychology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT, USA
| | - Russell D Greaves
- Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
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Why Go There? Evolution of Mobility and Spatial Cognition in Women and Men : An Introduction to the Special Issue. HUMAN NATURE-AN INTERDISCIPLINARY BIOSOCIAL PERSPECTIVE 2017; 27:1-15. [PMID: 26768735 DOI: 10.1007/s12110-015-9253-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/22/2022]
Abstract
Males in many non-monogamous species have larger ranges than females do, a sex difference that has been well documented for decades and seems to be an aspect of male mating competition. Until recently, parallel data for humans have been mostly anecdotal and qualitative, but this is now changing as human behavioral ecologists turn their attention to matters of individual mobility. Sex differences in spatial cognition were among the first accepted psychological sex differences and, like differences in ranging behavior, are documented for a growing set of species. This special issue is dedicated to exploring the possible adaptive links between these cognitive and ranging traits. Multiple hypotheses, at various levels of analysis, are considered. At the functional (ultimate) level, a mating-competition hypothesis suggests that range expansion may augment mating opportunities, and a fertility-and-parental-care hypothesis suggests that range contraction may facilitate offspring provisioning. At a more mechanistic (proximate) level, differences in cue availability may support or inhibit particular sex-specific navigation strategies, and spatial anxiety may usefully inhibit travel that would not justify its costs. Studies in four different cultures-Twe, Tsimane, Yucatec Maya, and Faroese-as well as an experimental study using virtual reality tools are the venue for testing these hypotheses. Our hope is to stimulate more research on the evolutionary and developmental processes responsible for this suite of linked behavioral and cognitive traits.
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Gagnon KT, Cashdan EA, Stefanucci JK, Creem-Regehr SH. Sex Differences in Exploration Behavior and the Relationship to Harm Avoidance. HUMAN NATURE-AN INTERDISCIPLINARY BIOSOCIAL PERSPECTIVE 2017; 27:82-97. [PMID: 26650605 DOI: 10.1007/s12110-015-9248-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 31] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
Abstract
Venturing into novel terrain poses physical risks to a female and her offspring. Females have a greater tendency to avoid physical harm, while males tend to have larger range sizes and often outperform females in navigation-related tasks. Given this backdrop, we expected that females would explore a novel environment with more caution than males, and that more-cautious exploration would negatively affect navigation performance. Participants explored a novel, large-scale, virtual environment in search of five objects, pointed in the direction of each object from the origin, and then navigated back to the objects. We found that females demonstrated more caution while exploring as reflected in the increased amounts of pausing and revisiting of previously traversed locations. In addition, more pausing and revisiting behaviors led to degradation in navigation performance. Finally, individual levels of trait harm avoidance were positively associated with the amount of revisiting behavior during exploration. These findings support the idea that the fitness costs associated with long-distance travel may encourage females to take a more cautious approach to spatial exploration, and that this caution may partially explain the sex differences in navigation performance.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kyle T Gagnon
- Department of Psychology, University of Utah, 380 S. 1530 E. Room 502, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA.
| | | | - Jeanine K Stefanucci
- Department of Psychology, University of Utah, 380 S. 1530 E. Room 502, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA
| | - Sarah H Creem-Regehr
- Department of Psychology, University of Utah, 380 S. 1530 E. Room 502, Salt Lake City, UT, 84112, USA
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Martin MA, Garcia G, Kaplan HS, Gurven MD. Conflict or congruence? Maternal and infant-centric factors associated with shorter exclusive breastfeeding durations among the Tsimane. Soc Sci Med 2016; 170:9-17. [PMID: 27732906 DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.10.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/06/2016] [Revised: 10/03/2016] [Accepted: 10/05/2016] [Indexed: 12/25/2022]
Abstract
Six months of exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) is considered optimal for infant health, though globally most infants begin complementary feeding (CF) earlier-including among populations that practice prolonged breastfeeding. Two frameworks for understanding patterns of early CF emerge in the literature. In the first, maternal and infant needs trade-off, as "maternal-centric" factors-related to time and energy demands, reproductive investment, cultural influences, and structural barriers- favor supplanting breastfeeding with earlier and increased CF. A second framework considers that "infant-centric" factors-related to infant energetic needs-favor CF before six months to supplement breastfeeding. We apply these two frameworks in examining early CF among the Tsimane-a high-fertility, high-mortality, forager-horticulturalist population residing in the Bolivian Amazon. Data were collected from a mixed-longitudinal sample of 161 Tsimane mother-infant pairs from August 2012-April 2013. Tsimane mothers generally reported introducing CF because of perceived infant needs. However, CF is introduced with continued intensive breastfeeding, and generally coupled with premastication. Risks of earlier CF relative to the minimum hazard (estimated at 5 births) were elevated for lower and higher parity mothers, but were significantly greater only after 9 births. Seventeen percent of mothers reported introducing CF because of low milk supply. Introducing CF because of low milk was most common from 0 to 3 months of age and among higher parity mothers, which may reflect physiological constraints. Maternal reproductive trade-offs and perceived infant needs may help explain the low prevalence of EBF to six months among other populations in which breastfeeding is not structurally or culturally constrained.
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Affiliation(s)
- Melanie A Martin
- University of California Santa Barbara, Department of Anthropology, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-3210, USA.
| | - Geni Garcia
- University of California Santa Barbara, Department of Anthropology, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-3210, USA.
| | - Hillard S Kaplan
- University of New Mexico, Department of Anthropology, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA.
| | - Michael D Gurven
- University of California Santa Barbara, Department of Anthropology, Santa Barbara, CA 93106-3210, USA.
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Trumble BC, Gaulin SJC, Dunbar MD, Kaplan H, Gurven M. No Sex or Age Difference in Dead-Reckoning Ability among Tsimane Forager-Horticulturalists. HUMAN NATURE-AN INTERDISCIPLINARY BIOSOCIAL PERSPECTIVE 2015; 27:51-67. [DOI: 10.1007/s12110-015-9246-3] [Citation(s) in RCA: 17] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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Doll LM, Cárdenas RA, Burriss RP, Puts DA. Sexual Selection and Life History: Earlier Recalled Puberty Predicts Men’s Phenotypic Masculinization. ADAPTIVE HUMAN BEHAVIOR AND PHYSIOLOGY 2015. [DOI: 10.1007/s40750-015-0031-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 13] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
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28
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Schniter E, Gurven M, Kaplan HS, Wilcox NT, Hooper PL. Skill ontogeny among Tsimane forager-horticulturalists. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY 2015; 158:3-18. [DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.22757] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/06/2014] [Revised: 04/06/2015] [Accepted: 04/08/2015] [Indexed: 11/07/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Eric Schniter
- Economic Science Institute, Chapman University, One University Drive; Orange CA 92866
| | - Michael Gurven
- Integrative Anthropological Sciences Unit, Department of Anthropology, University of California-Santa Barbara; Santa Barbara CA 93106
| | - Hillard S. Kaplan
- Department of Anthropology; University of New Mexico, 1 University of New Mexico; Albuquerque NM 87131
| | - Nathaniel T. Wilcox
- Economic Science Institute, Chapman University, One University Drive; Orange CA 92866
| | - Paul L. Hooper
- Department of Anthropology; Emory University; Atlanta GA 30322
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