A phenomenon well known in anthropological literature (for example, Goody 1969;Junod 1927; Murdock 1949; Radcliffe-Brown 1952) is the relatively frequent occurrence of the avunculate-that is, cultures in which a maternal brother has some institutionalized interest in his sister's offspring. This particular relationship takes a variety of forms when i t occurs, an extreme being actual residence of a mother-offspring unit with a maternal uncle (avuncular residence). It is possible that the avunculate as well as other aspects of human sociality can be explained by the underlying patterns of genetic relationships among certain members of the society.'
kin selectionAll cultures are characterized by some form of kinship and, while it is obvious that these nominal systems do not correspond perfectly to underlying biological relationships (Sahlins 1977), it is equally obvious that people care a great deal about their relatives. Hamilton (1964) recognized that parental care is but a special case of this more general phenomenon-concern for relatives. This evolutionary mechanism has been termed "kin selection" (Maynard Smith 1964) and provides an evolutionary explanation for the behavior of those group members who assist other group members in securing relatively scarce resources (such as food, shelter) at some apparent personal cost. Since natural selection operates through the representation of genes in succeeding generations, any one individual can pass on its own genes either by reproducing or by helping a relative (with whom some genes are shared by common descent) to reproduce. Thus, if two individuals are sufficiently related, one of them may further its own ultimate reproductive success by helping the other, even at some apparent personal cost. More precisely, altruism via kin selection should evolve in this manner if K> l/r, where K equals the ratio of (a) the benefit to the altruist's relatives as a result of the behavior in question to (b) the cost to the altruist, and where r equals the coefficient of relationship. In this formulation, benefit and cost are measured in terms of ultimate reproductive success, and r is the proportion
Recent theoretical developments, such as kin selection, suggest that there may be an association between genetic relationships and the functions of culture. In particular, the average level of paternity certainty in cultures with high levels of female extramarital promiscuity may correlate with certain aspects of the social structure. Data from the Human Relations Area Files exhibit patterns consistent with these expectations. That is, paternity uncertainty as measured by female promiscuity is associated with specific marital patterns and kinship terminology systems.promiscuity and paternity 151
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