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Title Serial Monogamy as Polygyny or Polyandry?: Marriage in the Tanzanian Pimbwe
Full text http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/2cx2k0p4
Date 2009
Author(s) Borgerhoff Mulder, Monique
Abstract Applications of sexual selection theory to humans lead us to expect that because of mammalian sex differences in obligate parental investment there will be gender differences in fitness variances, and males will benefit more than females from multiple mates. Recent theoretical work in behavioral ecology suggests reality is more complex. In this paper, focused on humans, predictions are derived from conventional parental investment theory regarding expected outcomes associated with serial monogamy and are tested with new data from a postreproductive cohort of men and women in a primarily horticultural population in western Tanzania (Pimbwe). Several predictions derived from the view that serial monogamy is a reproductive strategy from which males benefit are not supported. Furthermore, Pimbwe women are the primary beneficiaries of multiple marriages. The implications for applications of sexual selection theory to humans are discussed, in particular the fact that in some populations women lead sexual and reproductive lives that are very different from those derived from a simple Bateman-Trivers model.
Subject(s) Social Sciences, general; Biological Psychology; Behavioural Sciences; Anthropology; Sexual selection; Parental investment; Female strategies; Serial monogamy; Divorce; African marriage
Coverage pp 130-150
Language english
Publisher eScholarship, University of California
Relation http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/2cx2k0p4
Type of publication article
Format application/pdf
Source Borgerhoff Mulder, Monique. (2009). Serial Monogamy as Polygyny or Polyandry?: Marriage in the Tanzanian Pimbwe. Human Nature: An Interdisciplinary Biosocial Perspective, 20(2), pp 130-150. doi: 10.1007/s12110-009-9060-x. Retrieved from: http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/2cx2k0p4
Rights public
Identifier qt2cx2k0p4
Repository Berkeley - University of California
Added to C-A: 2014-02-03;10:11:41