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American journal of physical anthropology
12, 2020;173 (4): 619-629.

Life history and socioecology of infancy.

Courtney Helfrecht, Jennifer W Roulette, Avery Lane, Birhanu Sintayehu, Courtney L Meehan
Author Information
  1. Courtney Helfrecht: Department of Anthropology, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama, USA. ORCID
  2. Jennifer W Roulette: Department of Anthropology, San Diego State University, San Diego, California, USA.
  3. Avery Lane: Department of Anthropology, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, USA. ORCID
  4. Birhanu Sintayehu: Department of Educational Planning and Management, College of Education and Behavioral Sciences, Haramaya University, Dire Dawa, Ethiopia.
  5. Courtney L Meehan: Department of Anthropology, Washington State University, Pullman, Washington, USA. ORCID
PMID: 32955732 DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.24145

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: Evolution of human maternal investment strategies is hypothesized to be tied to biological constraints and environmental cues. It is likely, however, that the socioecological context in which mothers' decisions are made is equally important. Yet, a lack of studies examining maternal investment from a cross-cultural, holistic approach has hindered our ability to investigate the evolution of maternal investment strategies. Here, we take a systems-level approach to study how human life history characteristics, environments, and socioecology influence maternal investment in their children.
MATERIALS AND METHODS: We test how infant age and sex, maternal age, parity, and child loss, and the composition of a child's cooperative breeding network are associated with maternal investment across three small-scale (hunter-gatherer, horticultural, and agropastoral), sub-Saharan populations (N = 212). Naturalistic behavioral observations also enable us to illustrate the breadth and depth of the human cooperative breeding system.
RESULTS: Results indicate that infant age, maternal age and parity, and an infant's cooperative childcare network are significantly associated with maternal investment, controlling for population. We also find that human allomaternal care is conducted by a range of caregivers, occupying different relational, sex, and age categories. Moreover, investment by allomothers is widely distributed.
DISCUSSION: Our findings illustrate the social context in which children are reared in contemporary small-scale populations, and in which they were likely reared throughout our evolutionary history. The diversity of the caregiving network, coupled with life history characteristics, is predictive of maternal investment strategies, demonstrating the importance of cooperation in the evolution of human ontogeny.

Keywords

allomothers cooperative breeding human evolution parental investment

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MeSH Term

Adolescent
Adult
Africa South of the Sahara
Anthropology
Biological Evolution
Caregivers
Cooperative Behavior
Environment
Female
Humans
Infant
Infant Care
Infant, Newborn
Male
Middle Aged
Mother-Child Relations
Mothers
Social Support
Sociobiology
Young Adult
Journal Article Observational Study Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.
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Word Cloud

Created with Highcharts 10.0.0maternalinvestmenthumanagehistorycooperativestrategiesevolutionbreedingnetworklikelycontextapproachlifecharacteristicssocioecologychildreninfantsexparityassociatedsmall-scalepopulationsalsoillustrateallomothersrearedOBJECTIVES:Evolutionhypothesizedtiedbiologicalconstraintsenvironmentalcueshoweversocioecologicalmothers'decisionsmadeequallyimportantYetlackstudiesexaminingcross-culturalholistichinderedabilityinvestigatetakesystems-levelstudyenvironmentsinfluenceMATERIALSANDMETHODS:testchildlosscompositionchild'sacrossthreehunter-gathererhorticulturalagropastoralsub-SaharanN=212NaturalisticbehavioralobservationsenableusbreadthdepthsystemRESULTS:Resultsindicateinfant'schildcaresignificantlycontrollingpopulationfindallomaternalcareconductedrangecaregiversoccupyingdifferentrelationalcategoriesMoreoverwidelydistributedDISCUSSION:findingssocialcontemporarythroughoutevolutionarydiversitycaregivingcoupledpredictivedemonstratingimportancecooperationontogenyLifeinfancyparental

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