scholarly journals Children are important too: juvenile playgroups and maternal childcare in a foraging population, the Agta

2021 ◽  
Vol 376 (1827) ◽  
Author(s):  
Abigail E. Page ◽  
Emily H. Emmott ◽  
Mark Dyble ◽  
Dan Smith ◽  
Nikhil Chaudhary ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Life History ◽  
Child Health ◽  
Observational Data ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Life History Evolution ◽  
Maternal Child Health ◽  
Theme Issue ◽  
Negatively Associated ◽  
Maternal Presence

Non-maternal carers (allomothers) are hypothesized to lighten the mother's workload, allowing for the specialized human life history including relatively short interbirth intervals and multiple dependent offspring. Here, using in-depth observational data on childcare provided to 78 Agta children (a foraging population in the northern Philippines; aged 0–6 years), we explore whether allomaternal childcare substitutes and decreases maternal childcare. We found that allomother caregiving was associated with reduced maternal childcare, but the substitutive effect varied depending on the source and type of care. Children-only playgroups consistently predicted a decrease in maternal childcare. While grandmothers were rarely available, their presence was negatively associated with maternal presence and childcare, and grandmothers performed similar childcare activities to mothers. These results underscore the importance of allomothering in reducing maternal childcare in the Agta. Our findings suggest that flexibility in childcare sources, including children-only playgroups, may have been the key to human life-history evolution. Overall, our results reinforce the necessity of a broad conceptualization of social support in human childcare. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Multidisciplinary perspectives on social support and maternal–child health’.

scholarly journals Children are important too: juvenile playgroups and maternal childcare in a foraging population, the Agta

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abigail Emma Page ◽  
Emily H Emmott ◽  
Mark Dyble ◽  
Daniel Smith ◽  
Nikhil Chaudhary ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Life History ◽  
Observational Data ◽  
Life History Evolution ◽  
Short Time Period ◽  
Maternal Caregivers ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Maternal Presence ◽  
Short Time

Non-maternal caregivers (allomothers) are hypothesised to lighten the mother’s workload, producing human’s specialised life history where multiple dependent offspring are produced over a relatively short time period. Here, using in-depth observational data on who for cares for 78 Agta children (aged 0-6 years, a foraging population in northern Philippines), we explore whether allomaternal childcare substitutes (and thus decreases) maternal childcare. Previous work has investigated the role of fathers, grandmothers and siblings as allomothers, frequently overlooking non-relatives, particularly juveniles providing ‘collective childcare’ in playgroups. We found that mothers’ childcare was reduced by allomothers, but the substitutive effect varied depending on the source and type of care. Playgroups, by playing with children aged 2 and above, consistently predicted a decrease in maternal childcare. While few grandmothers were available, they were nonetheless negatively associated with maternal presence, and thus childcare, as they performed childcare activities, similar to mothers. These results underscore the importance of allomothering in reducing mothers’ childcare workload in the Agta. Mother’s flexibility in obtaining childcare from a range of available sources, including playgroups, may be the key to humans’ life history evolution, underling the necessity of a broad conceptualisation of social support in human childcare.

scholarly journals Who cares for women with children? Crossing the bridge between disciplines

2021 ◽  
Vol 376 (1827) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily H. Emmott ◽  
Sarah Myers ◽  
Abigail E. Page
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Child Health ◽  
Nuclear Family ◽  
Maternal Child Health ◽  
Theme Issue ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approaches ◽  
Holistic Understanding ◽  
Multidisciplinary Perspective ◽  
Maternal Child

It has long been acknowledged that women with children require social support to promote their health and wellbeing, as well as that of their children. However, the dominant conceptualizations of support have been heavily influenced by Western family norms. The consequence, at best, has been to stifle our understanding of the nature and consequences of support for mothers and children. At worst, it has led to systematic discrimination negatively impacting maternal–child health. To fully engage with the complexities of social support, we must take multidisciplinary or interdisciplinary approaches spanning diverse cultural and geographical perspectives. However, multidisciplinary knowledge-processing can be challenging, and it is often unclear how different studies from different disciplines relate. To address this, we outline two epistemological frameworks—the scientific approach and Tinbergen's four questions—that can be useful tools in connecting research across disciplines. In this theme issue on ‘Multidisciplinary perspectives on social support and maternal–child health’, we attempt to foster multidisciplinary thinking by presenting work from a diverse range of disciplines, populations and cultures. Our hope is that these tools, along with papers in this issue, help to build a holistic understanding of social support and its consequences for mothers and their children. Overall, a multidisciplinary perspective points to how the responsibility of childrearing should not fall solely onto mothers. Indeed, this multidisciplinary issue demonstrates that successful childrearing is consistently an activity shared beyond the mother and the nuclear family: an insight that is crucial to harnessing the potential of social support to improve maternal–child health. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Multidisciplinary perspectives on social support and maternal–child health’.

The evolution of childhood as a by-product?

2006 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 288-289
Author(s):  
Peter Kappeler
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Life Histories ◽  
Nonhuman Primates ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Life History Evolution ◽  
History Evolution ◽  
Linguistic Skills

The proposition that selective advantages of linguistic skills have contributed to shifts in ontogenetic landmarks of human life histories in early Homo sapiens is weakened by neglecting alternative mechanisms of life history evolution. Moreover, arguments about biological continuity through sweeping comparisons with nonhuman primates do not support various assumptions of this scenario.

Endocrinology

2019 ◽  
pp. 612-672
Author(s):  
Richard G. Bribiescas
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Social Dynamics ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Life History Evolution ◽  
Sexually Dimorphic ◽  
Human Variation ◽  
Men And Women ◽  
Metabolic Hormones ◽  
Gene Environment ◽  
Key Aspects

This chapter on endocrinology aims to shed light on the biology of hormones within the context of human life history evolution. An evolutionary perspective contributes to not only our understanding of human evolution, but also to the contemporary and emerging health challenges across the spectrum of ecologies and environments. Evolutionary endocrinology extends our understanding of human biology and health through the engagement of gene–environment interactions, social dynamics, human variation, and how hormones regulate life history traits such as growth, immune function, metabolism, and ageing. This chapter describes key aspects of endocrinology that are specific to men and women, while also being mindful of the importance of human variation. For example, men and women exhibit reproductive states that deploy specific functions. In women, these are menstruation, gestation, and lactation. These processes are governed largely by the hypothalamic–pituitary–ovarian axis and how it responds to environmental challenges such as nutritional demands, activity, and social stresses. Men also exhibit reproductive states, although they are mostly in the form of investment in sexually dimorphic tissue and behavioural variation. These states are governed by hormones which allocate resources between tissues that are indicative of different forms of reproductive effort. These include sexually dimorphic muscle tissue and adiposity. Spermatogenesis is obviously key but has differential effects on fertility compared to gametogenesis in women. Additional aspects of human evolutionary endocrinology include stress homoeostasis and metabolism, which involve the hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal axis as well as the thyroid and other metabolic hormones.

scholarly journals Inclusive fitness and differential productivity across the life course determine intergenerational transfers in a small-scale human society

2015 ◽  
Vol 282 (1803) ◽  
pp. 20142808 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul L. Hooper ◽  
Michael Gurven ◽  
Jeffrey Winking ◽  
Hillard S. Kaplan
Keyword(s):  
Life History ◽  
Inclusive Fitness ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Intergenerational Transfers ◽  
Essential Element ◽  
Life History Evolution ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Human Society ◽  
Extended Lifespan ◽  
The Life Course

Transfers of resources between generations are an essential element in current models of human life-history evolution accounting for prolonged development, extended lifespan and menopause. Integrating these models with Hamilton's theory of inclusive fitness, we predict that the interaction of biological kinship with the age-schedule of resource production should be a key driver of intergenerational transfers. In the empirical case of Tsimane’ forager–horticulturalists in Bolivian Amazonia, we provide a detailed characterization of net transfers of food according to age, sex, kinship and the net need of donors and recipients. We show that parents, grandparents and siblings provide significant net downward transfers of food across generations. We demonstrate that the extent of provisioning responds facultatively to variation in the productivity and demographic composition of families, as predicted by the theory. We hypothesize that the motivation to provide these critical transfers is a fundamental force that binds together human nuclear and extended families. The ubiquity of three-generational families in human societies may thus be a direct reflection of fundamental evolutionary constraints on an organism's life-history and social organization.

scholarly journals Does maternal grandmother's support improve maternal and child nutritional health outcomes? Evidence from Merida, Yucatan, Mexico

2021 ◽  
Vol 376 (1827) ◽  
Author(s):  
Adriana Vázquez-Vázquez ◽  
Mary S. Fewtrell ◽  
Hidekel Chan-García ◽  
Carolina Batún-Marrufo ◽  
Federico Dickinson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Child Health ◽  
Health Outcomes ◽  
Perceived Stress ◽  
Emotional Support ◽  
Maternal Child Health ◽  
Raising Children ◽  
First Time Mothers ◽  
Mother And Child ◽  
First Time

In humans, high levels of investment are required to raise offspring, because of the prolonged developmental period and short interbirth intervals. The costs borne by individual mothers may be mitigated by obtaining social support from others. This strategy could be particularly valuable for first-time mothers, who lack first-hand experience and whose offspring have higher mortality risk than later-born siblings. As raising children is potentially stressful, mothers may gain from others sharing their experience, providing knowledge/information and emotional support. Being genetically related to both mother and grandchild, maternal grandmothers may be especially well placed to provide such support, while also gaining fitness benefits. We tested the over-arching hypothesis that first-time mothers and their young children supported by the maternal grandmother would have lower levels of stress and better health outcomes, compared to mother–infant dyads lacking such grandmaternal support. A cohort of 90 mother–infant dyads (52 with grandmaternal support, 38 without) was recruited in Merida, Mexico. We assessed anthropometry and body composition in both mother and child, along with maternally perceived stress and child temperament, and documented maternal social relationships. No differences were found in perceived stress/temperament or anthropometry of either mothers or children, according to the presence/absence of grandmaternal support. However, a composite score of whether grandmothers provided advice on infant feeding was positively associated with child nutritional status. Mothers without grandmaternal support reported seeking more informational and emotional support from other female relatives for childcare, potentially compensating for limited/absent grandmaternal support. Our findings may help develop interventions to improve maternal and child health by targeting the dynamics of maternal social networks. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Multidisciplinary perspectives on social support and maternal–child health’.

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