When the life cycle of the human female is viewed from the perspective of parenthood, its major features clearly support a uniquely human pattern of high levels of long-term parental investment and the dependency of multiple young of differing ages. In developed countries menarche occurs at 12 to 13, cultural infertility breaks down in the late teens, and intercourse before marriage requires the use of contraception or abortion. Lactation is so short that birth spacing is dependent on contraception. A cross-species perspective suggests that adolescence in the human species has its own unique set of characteristics—some of which are shared with closest living relatives, the great apes, and others which may be found only in humans. For girls, the first external sign of puberty is the development of the breast bud. This is an odd and noteworthy feature of human development and one that is likely to go unnoticed without comparative mammalian data.

The parenting of other men's children can be interpreted as either mating effort or kin investment. The altruistic parenting of unrelated stranger children is a relatively infrequent event but deserves attention. A very small percentage of children born before 1960 ceased to live with their father before age 6, regardless of parental education. In the latest children's birth cohort 43 percent of fathers ceased to live with a child before it reaches the age of 16. Fertility benefits to deserting children between the ages of 6 and 16 were reduced to approximately one quarter. Children who are raised by men not their genetic fathers are most likely to be children of his current mate. As the returns on education in producing male adult income increased, the cost to fathers of ceasing to live with their offspring becomes increasingly differentiated between those with little education and those with more.

This volume is the 1st in a series sponsored by the Social Science Research Council Committee on Biosocial Perspectives on Parent Behavior and Offspring Development. The relevance of science to research on the family and parenting is that the family remains the universal social institution in which values are transmitted to children as the individuals fulfill their biological potential for reproduction growth and development. The term biosocial 1) emphasizes the unity of biological and socioenvironmental factors and 2) shows how factors fit into the genetically determined of for human beings. Current US school-age pregnancy and parenthood has been described as a national epidemic. Cross-cultural and historical records indicate that adolescent parenthood 1) used to be relatively rare and 2) tended to occur within a marriage to an older spouse and a network of supportive relatives. Rates of adolescent pregnancy and parenthood have been much higher among US blacks many of whom have chosen early childbearing as an alternate life course that promotes their development. These urban poor unmarried mothers and their children have good outcomes; research needs to compare this group with those who have dismal outcomes. US whites tend to complete schooling enter the work force and delay childbearing until their late 20s or early 30s. Little research has failed to study both males and females and much of it is flawed because inappropriate age categories have been used--such as lumping all adolescents aged 19 and under together without distinguishing early middle and late adolescence. Also hazards exist in using chronologic rather than biologic age when studying puberty or maturation. The tradition of studying adolescent pregnancy and parenthood as a social problem has led to a failure to recognize possibly positive outcomes. Much of the data comes from studies of troubled adolescents. Many of the papers in this volume attempt to map the normative range of human reaction from perspectives using animal models historical data and cultural concepts of social maturity.

Objectives Aiming to test the evolutionary significance of relationships linking prenatal growth conditions to adult phenotypes, this study examined whether birth size predicts energetic savings during fasting. We specifically tested a Predictive Adaptive Response (PAR) model that predicts greater energetic saving among adults who were born small. Methods Data were collected from a convenience sample of young adults living in Albuquerque, NM ( n = 34). Indirect calorimetry quantified changes in resting energy expenditure (REE) and active muscular efficiency that occurred in response to a 29‐h fast. Multiple regression analyses linked birth weight to baseline and postfast metabolic values while controlling for appropriate confounders (e.g., sex, body mass). Results Birth weight did not moderate the relationship between body size and energy expenditure, nor did it predict the magnitude change in REE or muscular efficiency observed from baseline to after fasting. Alternative indicators of birth size were also examined (e.g., low v. normal birth weight, comparison of tertiles), with no effects found. However, baseline muscular efficiency improved by 1.1% per 725 g (S.D.) increase in birth weight ( P = 0.037). Conclusions Birth size did not influence the sensitivity of metabolic demands to fasting—neither at rest nor during activity. Moreover, small birth size predicted a reduction in the efficiency with which muscles convert energy expended into work accomplished. These results do not support the ascription of adaptive function to phenotypes associated with small birth size. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Am. J. Hum. Biol. 28:484–492, 2016. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

The human adaptive complex is a coadapted complex of traits including (1) the life history of development, aging, and longevity; (2) diet and dietary physiology; (3) the energetics of reproduction; (4) social relationships among men and women; (5) intergenerational resource transfers; and (6) cooperation among related and unrelated individuals (Kaplan, 1997; Kaplan et al., 2000; Kaplan et al., 2001; Kaplan and Robson, 2002; Kaplan et al., 2003; Robson and Kaplan, 2003; Kaplan and Gurven, 2005; Gurven and Kaplan, 2006; Gurven and Walker, 2006; Kaplan, Gurven, and Lancaster, 2007). It describes a very specialized niche characterized by (1) the highest-quality, most nutrient-dense, largestpackage-size food resources from both plants and animals; (2) learningintensive, sometimes technology-intensive, and often cooperative food acquisition techniques; (3) a large brain to learn and store a great deal of context-dependent environmental information and to develop creative food acquisition techniques; (4) a long period of juvenile dependence to support brain development and learning; (5) low juvenile and even lower adult mortality rates, generating a long, productive life span and population age structure with a high ratio of adult producers to juvenile dependents; (6) a three-generational system of downward resource flows from grandparents to parents to children; (7) biparental investment, with men specializing in energetic support and women combining energetic support with direct care of children; (8) marriage and long-term reproductive unions; and (9) cooperative arrangements among kin and unrelated 514-37876_ch01_1P.qxd 09/18/08 5:07 PM Page 95

We feel it is important to explain to the readership of Human Nature why we decided to break with our tradition of publishing only those papers based on evolutionary approaches to human behavior that are highly empirical in terms of substantive testing of theoretical predictions with data. Our decision to publish an investigation of the conduct of a professional society needs to be explained to those who are not aware of the history that lies behind it. Although the readers of Human Nature come from a wide variety of disciplines, a solid core of both readers and Consulting Editors identify themselves as Evolutionary Anthropologists or Human Evolutionary Ecologists, do research in nonindustrialized societies, and practice scientific methodology. This is the group that was most damaged in reputation and status by the original publication in 2001 of Darkness in El Dorado by Patrick Tierney (New York: W. W. Norton) and, that same year, by the President and Executive Board of the American Anthropological Association, who launched an unstructured investigation into accusations of scientifically motivated genocide against James Neel, a geneticist, and Napoleon Chagnon, an anthropologist. Evolutionary anthropologists were very disturbed by what seemed to be a witchhunting psychology that rippled through the AAA meetings, the AAA-sponsored investigation, and subsequent web postings. A number of us decided that we needed Hum Nat DOI 10.1007/s12110-011-9106-8

Previous articleNext article No AccessBOOK REVIEWSLife Histories of the Dobe !Kung: Food, Fatness, and Well-being over the Life-span. Nancy Howell Jane B. LancasterJane B. Lancaster Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Journal of Anthropological Research Volume 67, Number 1SPRING 2011 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/jar.67.1.41304159 Views: 11Total views on this site © The University of New Maxico 2011PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Teen motherhood is the prevalent childbearing pattern in most traditional populations. Yet early motherhood is associated with negative biological and social outcomes in the developed world. We review the teen pregnancy literature in light of this discrepancy, emphasizing two core debates. The first debate centers on whether teens have poor pregnancy outcomes compared to older women, and whether negative outcomes are biologically based. Second, we consider the debate over the confounding effects of socio-economic conditions associated with being young. When teens are considered as a group, results are inconsistent across studies. When teens are disaggregated by age, the strongest finding across studies is that biological risk is concentrated in only the youngest of mothers. Negative consequences are associated with teen motherhood not because of chronological age per se, but because of relative developmental maturity and the availability of non-maternal support. In most traditional societies as well as in some sectors of developed societies, teen motherhood occurs within the context of extended kin networks and is subsidized through reliable economic and childcare assistance. Child-rearing practices, rather than pregnancy per se, may explain much of the discrepancy in the prevalence, success and attitudes toward teen motherhood in traditional and developed societies.

This chapter presents a theory of brain and life span evolution and applies it to both primates in general, and to the hominid line, in particular. To address the simultaneous effects of natural selection on the brain and on the life span, it extends the standard life history theory in biology which organizes research into the evolutionary forces shaping age-schedules of fertility and mortality. This extension, the embodied capital theory, integrates existing models with an economic analysis of capital investments and the value of life.

Emily Post, an upper-middle class American divorcée, not yet the byword for correct social behaviour, as her Blue Book of Etiquette was to be published seven years later, set off from New York in April 1915 to motor to San Francisco. Armed with many misconceptions about the Wild West, she took two evening dresses, a block and tackle and a solid silver picnic set, and planned to see how far she could go in comfort. Her attitudes changed dramatically as she drove west, and she wrote perceptively about the disjunction between myth and reality and the inherent theatricality of the tourist experience. This paper analyses three incidents in her journey: the meeting with a taciturn cowboy who hailed from Massachusetts, her assessment of the vaudeville nature of a Native American dance performance, and her sensation of being behind the scenes at a theatre as a trainload of passengers were served by the legendary Harvey Girls. The creation of the myth of the Old West was well under way in 1915; this micro-study of an elite traveller's reactions suggests that the myth did not go uncontested.

The Journal of American CultureVolume 29, Issue 2 p. 228-229 Ballots and Bibles: Ethnic Politics and the Catholic Church in Providence Jane Lancaster, Jane Lancaster Brown UniversitySearch for more papers by this author Jane Lancaster, Jane Lancaster Brown UniversitySearch for more papers by this author First published: 05 May 2006 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1542-734X.2006.00333.xRead the full textAboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onEmailFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume29, Issue2June 2006Pages 228-229 RelatedInformation

We examine the demographic correlates of paternity confidence, or men's assessment of the likelihood that they are the genetic father of a particular child. Evolutionary theory predicts that men will provide less parental investment for putative genetic offspring who are unlikely to be their actual offspring, but confidence of paternity has not been as extensively examined as its importance would merit. Using self-reported data on paternity confidence in 3,360 pregnancies reported by men living in Albuquerque, New Mexico, we find that low paternity confidence is more common among unmarried couples and for unplanned pregnancies. We also find that men are more likely not to state paternity confidence (i.e., they refuse to answer the question) if a pregnancy is unplanned. We additionally examine the pregnancy outcomes associated with confidence of paternity. We find that low paternity confidence pregnancies are significantly more likely to be aborted, and pregnancies for which paternity confidence is unstated are more likely to be aborted or to miscarry. Both abortion and miscarriage are associated with unmarried couples, with unplanned pregnancies, and with couples who have fewer children together.