L13 - Marriage

Question 1

What is marriage?

Answer 1

• socially recognized union, normatively endorsed, between two or more individuals
• restrictions on sexual relations
• investment of resources in offspring

Question 2

Human Marriage vs. Animal Pair-bonds

Answer 2

• human marriage associated with division of labor and reciprocal provisioning (rather than just courtship feeding)
• often involves third parties (e.g. relatives)

Question 3

Synchronic variation

Answer 3

the number of concurrent spouses permitted

Question 4

Diachronic variation

Answer 4

whether divorce and remarriage are permitted

Question 5

Polyandrous Marriage

Answer 5

• 1% of SCCC societies permit it
• generally fraternal polyandry
• response to peculiar social and or/ecological conditions (severe scarcity of marriageable men, harsh ecology requiring pooling of male labor)
• but poorly understood

Question 6

Polygyny threshold model

Answer 6

• shows how females may gain a higher level of biological fitness by mating with a male who already has a mate
• being second wife to wealthy man may be better than being only wife of poor man

Question 7

Support for polygyny threshold model

Answer 7

• wealthier men attract more wives
• prediction: no cost to polygyny
• but reproductive opportunities reduced for polygynous women
• but is generally outweighed by access to resources

Question 8

Male coercion model (sexual conflict)

Answer 8

• wealthy men benefit form polygynous marriage at expense of women
• prediction: polygyny costs to women and children (elevated child mortality)

Question 9

What accounts for transitions to

monogamous marriage?

Answer 9

• socially imposed monogamy (polygyny disincentives paternal care and leads to social scramble for mates)
• may evolve via cultural group selection
• prediction: excess unmarried men lead to social unrest and poor wellbeing/fitness for whole group

Question 10

Monogamous marriage as monogamous inheritance

Answer 10

• monogamy favored for both sexes when parental inheritance becomes fundamental to offspring success
• consistent with monogamous marriage emerging in Europe and Asia with insensitive plough-based ag
• consistent with observation that mono. marriage and inheritance often coincides with polygynous mating

Question 11

Result summary of study on polygynous villages

Answer 11

• across villages: higher food insecurity, poorer child health
• within villages: wealthier and children in male-headed poly households do better
• group-level association accounted for by differences in ecological vulnerability and socioeconomic marginalization
• abolishing polygyny may have negative consequences for women