tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785493.post5007178302563578290..comments2024-01-04T04:11:55.717+02:00Comments on Dienekes’ Anthropology Blog: Female-to-Male Breeding Ratio in Modern Humans (Labuda et al. 2010)Dienekeshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02082684850093948970noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785493.post-34299031882067413682010-07-13T18:36:26.749+03:002010-07-13T18:36:26.749+03:00Where a number of men died in warfare, like the Am...Where a number of men died in warfare, like the Amazon horticultural and new Guinea Highland groups, it is tempting to immediately assume widespread polygny but in fact in such cultures there if often widespread female infanticide as well has shorter life span for women and shortened life expectancy. Under such conditions, it is the limitation of the number of surviving females that is the critical thing - this serves as an indirect form of population control, keeping these populations from exceeding their carrying capacity too often, and generating larger areas of "no-mansland' between villages, which helps the forest regenerate during the long period of ecological succession need between periods of cultivation (to restore soil fertility).<br /><br />Ratios of men to women might not actually be that high in cultures with warfare and high male mortality, in other worlds. <br /><br />High status men with extra wives still occur, but this may have nothing to do with who are actually the fathers of the children these wives have. Polygamous marriages did , however give rise to slightly lower numbers of children per female, at least in my sample in West Africa. More cultural mechanisms limiting population growth???Helga Vierich-Dreverhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09568382320650892770noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785493.post-14749377621711759712010-03-08T19:31:47.603+02:002010-03-08T19:31:47.603+02:00There is lots of Amazonian violence (and evidence ...There is lots of Amazonian violence (and evidence from New Guinea pre-contact is about 1/7th of men are murdered), but it only matters if it impacts their death rate during years when they are having more children more than death in childbirth and from violence impacts women's death rate. Polygny historically has usually been limited to high status inividuals, not a predominant practice.Andrew Oh-Willekehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02537151821869153861noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785493.post-50890311618385211802010-03-03T08:04:04.138+02:002010-03-03T08:04:04.138+02:00Long periods of peace are not frequent in human hi...Long periods of peace are not frequent in human history. War is permananet and about 50% of the males dies of violence. That comes from the Amazonas indians study.Jhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05676167615981895061noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785493.post-6662651240211393702010-03-03T02:28:10.985+02:002010-03-03T02:28:10.985+02:00This also reminds me to a statistik about the diff...This also reminds me to a statistik about the different chances of men and women to get a mate.<br /><br />It said, that the most attractive man out of 20 can have 50% of all women if he wants so.<br />Compared to a 75% of men that the most attractive women in a group of 20 can have (I would have guessed 100% LOL)<br /><br />The difference became bigger at the lower end.<br /><br />While the least attractive women out of 20, still had a chance with 12% of the males, the least attractive male out of 20 only had a chance with 2% of the females.<br /><br />For the averages it suposedly was, that an average man can have 1 out of 8 women. While an average women can have 1 out of 3 men.Fantyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07969348276219179258noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785493.post-827947942014076632010-03-02T23:08:16.716+02:002010-03-02T23:08:16.716+02:00Ratios from 1.1 to 1.4 don't seem that small t...Ratios from 1.1 to 1.4 don't seem that small to me.<br /><br />I wonder how bottleneck dependent that kind of statistic is.<br /><br />Long periods of peace with ratios close to 1, and small numbers of episodes where large numbers of men are wiped out in wars and many women are taken by the victors seem like a pretty plausible historic pattern, and is consistent with the lower ratio for East Asia that has had political unity (and hence fewer genocidal wars) for a much longer period of time.Andrew Oh-Willekehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02537151821869153861noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7785493.post-19320552774504323652010-03-02T23:02:04.325+02:002010-03-02T23:02:04.325+02:00Dear wife: its only 0.3 other children that I hav...Dear wife: its only 0.3 other children that I have had for our 1.<br /><br />Dear husband: could you please fix the [fill in] and maybe bring home a new mammoth for dinner tonight.Marniehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10850856778953207810noreply@blogger.com