FE12

Question 1

Define incest, then define inbreeding. Be sure to differentiate them from each other

Answer 1

• Inbreeding is the result of mating with relatives, or producing offspring with siblings of similar genetic makeup
• Incest is a cultural taboo that exists under different norms for different cultures with regards to rules or beliefs on who is okay to mate with and who is not

Question 2

Logic suggests that a mechanism that allows children to acquire information about who their kin are cannot function in the same manner in adults when the latter are acquiring information about their degree of relatedness to children. Explain why, and describe how the mechanism operating in the child must differ from that operating in the adult

Answer 2

• Mechanism operates in child’s life is first three years of child’s life.
• Proximity at youth is important. You’re growing up with your kin most likely; because this pattern persists, learning is a cheaper way of making this adaptation than building in this complex mechanism.
• Olfaction
o Occurring when parents smell baby’s belly button area
o Learning one’s MHC can solve problem of proximity flaw (that it changes over time) because MHC doesn’t change over time.
• Children learn that everyone around them is related to them (the one template). Adults learn that a small child that’s around them a lot is related to them.

Question 3

Define the Problem of Constancy, being sure to explain its relevance for the understanding of evolved kin-recognition mechanisms. What phenotypic feature provides a solution to this problem?

Answer 3

• Problem of Constancy: people grow up and don’t look like what they look like as children, so they don’t visually look the same. Not a kin recognition mechanism.
• Olfaction.

Question 4

Research indicates that two different cues are used by children in learning who their siblings are.
i) Describe these two cues

Answer 4

• Comparison/resemblence to yourself

* Parental investment

Question 5

) Logic indicates that one cue is more reliable than the other cue – explain why this is so

Answer 5

• Phenotypic resemblence to yourself would be more a cue of genetic resemblence