Evolution and Human Reproduction: A longitudinal study of the Dogon of Mali

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed scholarly work is a book to be titled: Evolution and Human Reproduction: A longitudinal study in the Dogon of Mali. It draws on over 20 years of quantitative data that the author collected in nine rural villages (population 5000) situated along the Bandiagara Escarpment. The Dogon are a natural fertility population which means that their reproductive patterns are not confounded by contraception. Hence they are ideal for studying the evolved mechanisms that underlie reproduction and behavior. The book will address such questions as: What causes variation in female fertility and child mortality? Are life history trade-offs observable in the data? What are the developmental origins of metabolic disease? How many lifetime menses do women experience if they spend most of the time pregnant or in lactational amenorrhea? In such women is the risk for breast cancer lower? Why did menopause evolve and what effect do grandparents have on children's growth and survival? What is the function of menstrual huts? Do women synchronize their menstrual cycles? The book is distinguished from its peers primarily by the availability of the author's unique, longitudinal data sets on fertility, mortality, menstruation, health, hormones, growth, and genetics. Sample sizes are large. For example, the study of menstruation includes data from a census of women present at the menstrual huts on each of 736 consecutive nights, including 550 menstrual onsets. The study of child growth, development, and survival includes 1700 children, most of whom were followed from infancy to late adolescence. The data on grandparents has a sample size of 6800 grandparents. State of the art statistical methods, such as logistic regression, Cox regression, and hazards modeling, were used in the analyses. The target audience is physicians and scientists.