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.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Article number | e2220124120 |
Journal | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |
Volume | 120 |
Issue number | 22 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 2023 |
Keywords
- egalitarian syndrome
- inequality
- mating systems
- monogamy
- reproductive skew
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General
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In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Vol. 120, No. 22, e2220124120, 2023.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Reproductive inequality in humans and other mammals
AU - Ross, Cody T.
AU - Hooper, Paul L.
AU - Smith, Jennifer E.
AU - Jaeggi, Adrian V.
AU - Smith, Eric Alden
AU - Gavrilets, Sergey
AU - tuz Zohora, Fatema
AU - Ziker, John
AU - Xygalatas, Dimitris
AU - Wroblewski, Emily E.
AU - Wood, Brian
AU - Winterhalder, Bruce
AU - Willführ, Kai P.
AU - Willard, Aiyana K.
AU - Walker, Kara
AU - von Rueden, Christopher
AU - Voland, Eckart
AU - Valeggia, Claudia
AU - Vaitla, Bapu
AU - Urlacher, Samuel
AU - Towner, Mary
AU - Sum, Chun Yi
AU - Sugiyama, Lawrence S.
AU - Strier, Karen B.
AU - Starkweather, Kathrine
AU - Major-Smith, Daniel
AU - Shenk, Mary
AU - Sear, Rebecca
AU - Seabright, Edmond
AU - Schacht, Ryan
AU - Scelza, Brooke
AU - Scaggs, Shane
AU - Salerno, Jonathan
AU - Revilla-Minaya, Caissa
AU - Redhead, Daniel
AU - Pusey, Anne
AU - Purzycki, Benjamin Grant
AU - Power, Eleanor A.
AU - Pisor, Anne
AU - Pettay, Jenni
AU - Perry, Susan
AU - Page, Abigail E.
AU - Pacheco-Cobos, Luis
AU - Oths, Kathryn
AU - Oh, Seung Yun
AU - Nolin, David
AU - Nettle, Daniel
AU - Moya, Cristina
AU - Migliano, Andrea Bamberg
AU - Mertens, Karl J.
AU - McNamara, Rita A.
AU - McElreath, Richard
AU - Mattison, Siobhan
AU - Massengill, Eric
AU - Marlowe, Frank
AU - Madimenos, Felicia
AU - Macfarlan, Shane
AU - Lummaa, Virpi
AU - Lizarralde, Roberto
AU - Liu, Ruizhe
AU - Liebert, Melissa A.
AU - Lew-Levy, Sheina
AU - Leslie, Paul
AU - Lanning, Joseph
AU - Kramer, Karen
AU - Koster, Jeremy
AU - Kaplan, Hillard S.
AU - Jamsranjav, Bayarsaikhan
AU - Hurtado, A. Magdalena
AU - Hill, Kim
AU - Hewlett, Barry
AU - Helle, Samuli
AU - Headland, Thomas
AU - Headland, Janet
AU - Gurven, Michael
AU - Grimalda, Gianluca
AU - Greaves, Russell
AU - Golden, Christopher D.
AU - Godoy, Irene
AU - Gibson, Mhairi
AU - El Mouden, Claire
AU - Dyble, Mark
AU - Draper, Patricia
AU - Downey, Sean
AU - DeMarco, Angelina L.
AU - Davis, Helen Elizabeth
AU - Crabtree, Stefani
AU - Cortez, Carmen
AU - Colleran, Heidi
AU - Cohen, Emma
AU - Clark, Gregory
AU - Clark, Julia
AU - Caudell, Mark A.
AU - Carminito, Chelsea E.
AU - Bunce, John
AU - Boyette, Adam
AU - Bowles, Samuel
AU - Blumenfield, Tami
AU - Beheim, Bret
AU - Beckerman, Stephen
AU - Atkinson, Quentin
AU - Apicella, Coren
AU - Alam, Nurul
AU - Mulder, Monique Borgerhoff
N1 - Funding Information: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS. Thanks to Geoff Wild, Christoph Hauert, Woodrow Denham, Martin Surbeck, Kevin Langergraber, Joseph Henrich, Robert Boyd, Kay E. Holekamp, Russell Van Horn, Eli Swanson, Dieter Lukas, Peter Nonacs, and Jane Lancaster for helpful input and feedback. This work was conducted as a part of the “Emergence of Hierarchy and Leadership in Mammalian Societies” group at the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis, supported by NSF Award DBI-1300426 and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. It was supported by NSF awards SMA-1329089 and SMA-1743019, and the Santa Fe Institute, as well as the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture. S.G. was supported by the US Army Research Office grants W911NF-14-1-0637, W911NF-17-1-0150, and the Office of Naval Research grant W911NF-18-1-0138. Additional funding for data collection was provided by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research awards: 8913 and 7970, by Funding Information: Thanks to Geoff Wild, Christoph Hauert, Woodrow Denham, Martin Surbeck, Kevin Langergraber, Joseph Henrich, Robert Boyd, Kay E. Holekamp, Russell Van Horn, Eli Swanson, Dieter Lukas, Peter Nonacs, and Jane Lancaster for helpful input and feedback. This work was conducted as a part of the “Emergence of Hierarchy and Leadership in Mammalian Societies” group at the National Institute for Mathematical and Biological Synthesis, supported by NSF Award DBI-1300426 and the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. It was supported by NSF awards SMA-1329089 and SMA-1743019, and the Santa Fe Institute, as well as the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture. S.G. was supported by the US Army Research Office grants W911NF-14-1-0637, W911NF-17-1-0150, and the Office of Naval Research grant W911NF-18-1-0138. Additional funding for data collection was provided by the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research awards: 8913 and 7970, by NSF awards: BCS-0924630, BCS-0925910, BCS-0848360, BCS-0514559, BCS-0613226, BCS-0827277, SES-9870429, and DDRIG-1357209, by the National Geographic Society awards: HJ-099R-17, 20113909, 8671-09, and 7968-06, by the Kone Foundation awards: 086809, 088423, and 088423, and by the Jacobs Foundation, the UCSB Broom Center for Demography, and the UCSB Department of Anthropology. We also express our gratitude to all of the people who provided data, to individuals who assisted in data collection and management, and to the scholars who made their data and results freely available. SI Appendix, S9 contains an expanded acknowledgment section. Funding Information: NSF awards: BCS-0924630, BCS-0925910, BCS-0848360, BCS-0514559, BCS-0613226, BCS-0827277, SES-9870429, and DDRIG-1357209, by the National Geographic Society awards: HJ-099R-17, 20113909, 8671-09, and 7968-06, by the Kone Foundation awards: 086809, 088423, and 088423, and by the Jacobs Foundation,theUCSBBroomCenterforDemography,andtheUCSBDepartment of Anthropology. We also express our gratitude to all of the people who provided data, to individuals who assisted in data collection and management, and to the scholars who made their data and results freely available. SI Appendix, S9 contains an expanded acknowledgment section. Publisher Copyright: Copyright © 2023 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. This open access article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY).
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
KW - egalitarian syndrome
KW - inequality
KW - mating systems
KW - monogamy
KW - reproductive skew
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85164208158&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85164208158&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1073/PNAS.2220124120
DO - 10.1073/PNAS.2220124120
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85164208158
SN - 0027-8424
VL - 120
JO - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
JF - Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
IS - 22
M1 - e2220124120
ER -