The Role of Adult Male Kin in Venezuelan Rainforest Children's Survival

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This project analyzes child survival and health in a tropical forest society of Amazonian Venezuela. The project will analyze census data collected over 36 years for the Bari tribe to assess the contribution to a child's survival of `secondary fathers` -- men who had societal-recognized extra-marital affairs with the child's mother and who are believed to have contributed to the development of the fetus, and thus have parental rights and obligations. Preliminary data show that some children's secondary fathers seem to contribute enough resources to improve their life chances over the survival prospects for their own siblings; but data also show that some women who never recognize secondary fathers have children whose survival prospects are equally good The project will test the hypothesis that a women's adult siblings and fathers can provide support which ensures her children's survival. This research is important because it corrects a bias in the theory of human evolution which stresses the importance of women, specifically grandmothers, to the survival of children. This research will assess the role of men, including grandfathers, in a child's survival. Most policy oriented discussion of the importance of male kin focuses on the father, and presumes that for each child only one father is recognized. This ethnographic case in which multiple fathers are societal recognized will show how maternal grandfathers and uncles can substitute for fathers in major ways. This ethnographic example is important for sorting out what is constant and panhuman about the male contribution to children, and what is culturally variable and contingent on environmental circumstances.