Grandparenthood from the Evolutionary Perspective

Abstract

Humans belong to the few species in which females and males live for a relatively long time after the end of their reproductive period. In this paper, I present theoretical concepts explaining the relatively long post-reproductive life span of humans and the menopause: the grandmother hypothesis and the diet, intelligence and longevity model (also known as the embodied capital model). The grandmother hypothesis, offering an evolutionary explanation of the menopause, shows that throughout most of the human history, childrearing has been a cooperative endeavour. In all societies across the world, mothers, fathers, grandparents, and other family members cooperate in networks consisting of kins and non-kins in order to assist with child rearing. The paper also argues how ethnographic research can contribute to the testing of evolutionary theories of grandparenthood in contemporary societies.