Lecture 12 Flashcards
Hunter-Gatherers / Foragers
Societies that obtain subsistence from wild resources, share widely, and often move frequently.
Nomadic
Moving frequently to accommodate resource availability.
Life History Theory
The concept that organisms have a fixed energy budget, balancing growth, maintenance, and reproduction.
Energy Allocation
How an organism divides energy between growth, maintenance, and reproduction.
Trade-offs
The balancing act between investing in current reproduction vs. future reproduction and survival.
Primate Life History
The pattern among primates of big brains, long lives, slow growth, and few offspring per litter.
Altricial Young
Offspring that are born in a relatively helpless state and require extensive parental care.
Precocial Young
Offspring that are relatively mature and mobile at birth.
Inter-Birth Interval (IBI)
The time between successive births, which varies among primates based on reproductive trade-offs.
Menopause
A life history trait in which human females stop reproducing early, possibly to invest in grandchildren.
Grandmothering Hypothesis
The idea that human females evolved menopause to help ensure the survival of their grandchildren.
Human Behavioral Ecology
The study of how ecological and social factors influence human behavior and adaptation.
Parental Investment
The time and energy parents devote to raising offspring.
Alloparenting
Care provided by individuals other than the biological parents.
Inclusive Fitness
Direct Fitness (personal fitness) + Indirect Fitness (fitness from family)
Cooperation in Humans
Human cooperation occurs on a much larger scale than in other animals, influencing social structures.
