The shift towards more exclusive sexual relationships within societies allows males to know their offspring and inherit social status, disrupting the previous female-dominated inheritance. This shift may have originated from males forming relationships with females and their offspring through acts of generosity, as observed in matriarchal baboons. However, the exact moment of this shift and its frequency are unknown, leading to potential societal problems as males gain advantages from these exclusive relationships.
In a special episode of People I (Mostly) Admire, Steve Levitt talks to Cat Bohannon about her new book Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution.
- RESOURCES:
- Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution, by Cat Bohannon (2023).
- "Genomic Inference of a Severe Human Bottleneck During the Early to Middle Pleistocene Transition," by Wangjie Hu, Ziqian Hao, Pengyuan Du, Fabio Di Vincenzo, Giorgio Manzi, Jialong Cui, Yun-Xin Fu, Yi-Hsuan, and Haipeng Li (Science, 2023).
- "The Greatest Invention in the History of Humanity," by Cat Bohannon (The Atlantic, 2023).
- "A Newborn Infant Chimpanzee Snatched and Cannibalized Immediately After Birth: Implications for 'Maternity Leave' in Wild Chimpanzee," by Hitonaru Nishie and Michio Nakamura (American Journal of Biological Anthropology, 2018).
- "War in the Womb," by Suzanne Sadedin (Aeon, 2014).
- "Timing of Childbirth Evolved to Match Women’s Energy Limits," by Erin Wayman (Smithsonian Magazine, 2012).
- "Bonobo Sex and Society," by Frans B. M. de Waal (Scientific American, 2006).