The expendable male hypothesis
The expendable male hypothesis
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DOI：
10.1098/rstb.2018.0080
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发表时间：
2019-09-02
影响因子：
6.3
通讯作者：
Hare, Darragh
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Mattison, Siobhan M.;Quinlan, Robert J.;Hare, Darragh
母系制度是一种亲属制度，血统和继承权沿着女性血统授予。母系谜题这一具有理论影响力的概念认为，母系社会为理解男性在母系社会中的角色提出了特殊的问题。民族志研究将这个难题描述为男人在控制其原生亲属（即他们所属的血统）和其后裔亲属（即他们的配偶和亲生子女）的欲望之间所经历的紧张关系。进化论著作将这一悖论描述为一个人以牺牲自己的亲生后代为代价来投资自己的侄女和侄子而产生的结果。在这两种情况下，这个难题的基本原理都基于两个基本假设：（i）男性对女性和资源拥有权威； (ii) 男性对养育子女的结果感兴趣。在本文中，我们提出了一个新的假设，该假设表明某些生态条件使男性在当地的亲属关系结构中可以被牺牲，从而推翻了上述假设。当 (i) 妇女在没有男子大力帮助的情况下，有能力满足家庭的生存需要时，就会出现这种情况； (ii) 男性从父母对孩子的投资中几乎得不到什么好处。我们得出的结论是，可牺牲的男性假说可以在许多情况下解释母系的进化，并指出以女性为中心的方法对以男性为中心的亲属关系模型固有的假设提出质疑，从进化的角度来看是合理的。本文是“人类和其他哺乳动物中女性偏向的亲属关系的进化”主题的一部分。
Matriliny is a system of kinship in which descent and inheritance are conferred along the female line. The theoretically influential concept of the matrilineal puzzle posits that matriliny poses special problems for understanding men's roles in matrilineal societies. Ethnographic work describes the puzzle as the tension experienced by men between the desire to exert control over their natal kin (i.e. the lineage to which they belong) and over their affinal kin (i.e. their spouses and their biological children). Evolutionary work frames the paradox as one resulting from a man investing in his nieces and nephews at the expense of his own biological offspring. In both cases, the rationale for the puzzle rests on two fundamental assumptions: (i) that men are in positions of authority over women and over resources; and (ii) that men are interested in the outcomes of parenting. In this paper, we posit a novel hypothesis that suggests that certain ecological conditions render men expendable within local kinship configurations, nullifying the above assumptions. This arises when (i) women, without significant assistance from men, are capable of meeting the subsistence needs of their families; and (ii) men have little to gain from parental investment in children. We conclude that the expendable male hypothesis may explain the evolution of matriliny in numerous cases, and by noting that female-centred approaches that call into doubt assumptions inherent to male-centred models of kinship are justified in evolutionary perspective.This article is part of the theme issue 'The evolution of female-biased kinship in humans and other mammals'.