Status, reproductive success, and marrying polygynously

Josephson, Steven C.

doi:10.1016/0162-3095(93)90027-f

Cited by 23 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…The female-choice model is similar to the polygyny-threshold model (Verner and Wilson 1966), which predicts no differences in the health (fitness) of monogamous and polygynous women, as women will rationally choose wealthy polygynous men. However, the two models may even co-exist in some societies, and irrespective of which model predominates, polygynous relationships are said to favour men, but constitute a cost to women (Becker 1981;Davies 1989;Chisholm and Burbank 1991;Josephson 1993;Sellen et al 2000). This cost may be in the form of poorer average health for each woman and her children, resulting from competition for limited resources and unfair treatment of the women.…”

Section: Theoretical Perspectives On the Relationships Between Polygymentioning

confidence: 98%

Polygyny and child survival in Nigeria: Age-dependent effects

Ukwuani

Cornwell

Suchindran

2002

Journal of Population Research

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Mortality risks under age five are estimated using data from the 1990 Nigerian Demographic and Health Survey for children in monogamous and polygynous families. Integrating existing theories on polygyny's relationship with infant and child mortality and some demographic concepts, the study shows that polygyny has different effects on infant and child mortality at different ages. The results indicate that polygyny does not have a significant effect on neonatal mortality (age less than one month). In contrast to the results of previous research, polygyny is significantly associated with lower child mortality during the post-neonatal period (1-11 months), but not during childhood (12-59 months). The study found socio-economic factors to be important confounders of the relationship between polygyny and mortality during the neonatal and post-neonatal periods. The protective effect of polygyny during the post-neonatal period suggests the need to further investigate circumstances that may favour post-neonatal child survival in polygynous families including availability of childcare.Polygyny 1 was the predominant form of marriage in pre-industrial societies (Murdock 1967;Strassmann 1997), and evidence from sub-Saharan Africa suggests that polygyny remains an important sociocultural institution in this region. In spite of the influences of modernization, the prevalence rate for polygyny is still very high in sub-Saharan Africa, and there is evidence that many monogamous men have a strong desire for more wives (Aryee 1978;Speizer 1995;Stokes 1995;Ezeh 1997). However, recent national surveys in sub-Saharan Africa suggest the level of polygyny is declining (Timaeus and Reynar 1998).Research on the implications of polygyny for demographic outcomes has been biased toward the relationship of polygyny with reproductive behaviour. The lack of emphasis on the relationship between polygyny and mortality is rather surprising, given the high mortality rates in sub-Saharan Africa (United Nations 1988; Population Reference Bureau 1996), and the relationship between reproductive behaviour and mortality (Alam 1995;Hobcraft, McDonald and Rutstein 1985;Rutstein 2000). The limited research that previously examined polygyny and child mor-

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Section: Theoretical Perspectives On the Relationships Between Polygymentioning

confidence: 98%

Polygyny and child survival in Nigeria: Age-dependent effects

Ukwuani

Cornwell

Suchindran

2002

Journal of Population Research

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“…Rather, this analysis suggests there were no costs to women of polygynous marriages in terms of lowered fertility, as predicted by the polygyny threshold model. Though a few studies have found a negative effect of polygyny on fertility (Pebley & Mbugua, 1989;Hern, 1992;Josephson, 1993), polygyny takes many forms and is confounded by a number of variables which also affect fertility (such as socioeconomic status, age of husband etc.). This makes it difficult to generalise such findings across populations.…”

Section: Marriage Variablesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The effects of kin on female fertility in rural Gambia

Sear

Mace

McGregor

2003

Evolution and Human Behavior

116

126

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This is an electronic version of an Article published in Evolution and AbstractHuman females reproduce relatively rapidly throughout their reproductive years compared to the other great apes. It has been suggested that women are able to sustain this rapid pace by co-opting family members to help raise their children. We tested the hypothesis that the presence of kin will increase the reproductive rates of women using a longitudinal database collected from rural Gambia. We found that both the husband's mother and, to a lesser extent, the husband's father increased the probability that a woman would give birth. A woman's parents, however, had no effect on her fertility rate, nor did her elder sisters or co-wives. The presence of a woman's elder brothers even decreased her probability of giving birth. There was no evidence that elder children acted as 'helpers at the nest', as the existence of living elder children slowed down rather than increased birth rates. We suggest that the increased fertility in the presence of mothers-in-law may be due to these women helping out their daughters-in-law with domestic and subsistence duties. Given that it is paternal, rather than maternal, relatives who increase fertility, social pressures on women from older kin to bear many children may also be important.

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“…Josephson (1993) effectively shows that the wives of polygynous Mormons in the 19th century had fewer children than their counterparts married to a monogynous husband, but that they had a similar number of grandchildren; hence, the possible inaccuracy of lifetime reproductive success in the estimation of the fitness of reproductive behavior. However, even if the incipient Mormon society is contrasted with common Western culture in institutionalizing polygyny, it was not free from other Western cultural values, in particular, those that recommend endowing each offspring with the tools (education, economic help) necessary to secure social success.…”

Section: Long-term Reproductive Successmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…It is a mere adaptation to the available information when oral tradition is the only record of recent individual or group history (e.g., Borgerhoff Mulder, 1989;Casimir and Rao, 1995;Crognier, 1996;Cronk, 1991;Hill and Hurtado, 1996;Irons, 1979;Pennington and Harpending, 1988). Sometimes, however, when the studies address Western historical or subpresent societies, several successive generations may be considered (e.g., Josephson, 1993;Voland et al, 1997). Last but not least, the expected maximization of fitness has become the maximization of reproductive success, an appraisal in human groups that is far from easy, knowing the large variety of proximate and distal determinants of the reproductive score (Bongaarts and Potter, 1983).…”

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confidence: 98%

Reproductive success: Which meaning?

Crognier

2003

American J Hum Biol

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The theory of kin selection (the part played by behavior in the changes of mean inclusive fitness) induced many human sociobiologists to think that since behavior was involved in the increase in fitness, this last entity could apply to the individual. Approximated by the individual's lifetime reproductive success, this measure became the keyword of studies linking social and cultural behavior to biological adaptive processes. To be commonly applicable to human populations, it had to be simplified to represent the number of offspring reaching sexual maturity and most existing studies are based on this definition. The current trend, however, seems to consider that, like inbreeding, reproductive success takes its signification in the depth of successive generations. These diverse measures were tested in two traditional populations, Berber and Aymara, and show that finding a satisfactory evaluation of reproductive success is a problem that is still far from a solution.

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Status, reproductive success, and marrying polygynously

Cited by 23 publications

References 21 publications

Polygyny and child survival in Nigeria: Age-dependent effects

Polygyny and child survival in Nigeria: Age-dependent effects

The effects of kin on female fertility in rural Gambia

Reproductive success: Which meaning?

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