The expendable male hypothesis

Abstract

Matrilineal descent confers lineage membership via the female line. In matrilineal descent systems, men share lineage membership not with their own children, but with their sisters children. The theoretically influential concept of the matrilineal puzzle posits that men experience tension between the desire to exert control over their natal kin (i.e., the lineage to which they belong) and over their affinal kin (i.e., their spouses and their biological children). The rationale for this puzzle rests on two fundamental assumptions: (i) that men are always in positions of authority over women; and (ii) that men are interested in the outcomes of parenting. In this paper, we suggest that the matrilineal puzzle does not exist from an evolutionary perspective. Instead, we examine what ecological conditions might render men expendable within local kinship configurations-specifically when (i) women, without significant assistance from men, are capable of meeting the subsistence needs of their families; and (ii) men have little to gain from parental investment in children. We conclude that the expendable male hypothesis may explain the evolution of matrilineal descent in numerous cases, and by noting that female-centered approaches that call into doubt assumptions inherent to male-centered models of kinship are justified in evolutionary perspective.\n\nO_QD\"...for some females there exist important advantages for male care ... For many females male parental care has small or negligible effects on female reproductive success, suggesting that as a general explanation for social monogamy, the Male Care is Essential Hypothesis is inadequate.\" - Gowaty 1996 [1]\n\nC_QD