Overview
By the year 2030, the average life expectancy of women in industrialized countries could reach ninety-exceeding that of men by about ten years. At the present time, postmenopausal women represent more than fifteen percent of the world’s population and this figure is likely to grow. From an evolutionary perspective, these demographic numbers pose some intriguing questions. Darwinian theory holds that a successful life is measured in terms of reproduction. How is it, then, that a woman’s lifespan can greatly exceed her childbearing and childrearing years? Is this phenomenon simply a byproduct of improved standards of living, or do older women-grandmothers in particular-play a measurable role in increasing their family members’ biological success? Until now, these questions have not been examined in a thorough and comprehensive manner. Bringing togethertheoretical and empirical work byinternationally recognized scholars in anthropology, psychology, ethnography, and the social sciences, Grandmotherhood explores the evolutionary purpose and possibilities of female post-generative life. Students and scholars of human evolution, anthropology, and even gerontology will look to this volume as a major contribution to the current literature in evolutionary studies.
Full Product Details
Author: Chris Knight , Camilla Power , Eckart Voland , Anthanasios Chasiotis
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
Imprint: Rutgers University Press
Edition: First Paperback Edition
Dimensions:
Width: 15.60cm
, Height: 2.00cm
, Length: 23.50cm
Weight: 0.596kg
ISBN: 9780813571416
ISBN 10: 0813571413
Pages: 354
Publication Date: 10 August 2005
Audience:
College/higher education
,
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
,
Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: In Print 
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Table of Contents
Preface and Acknowledgements Introduction Grandmotherhood: A Short Overview of Three Fields of Research on the Evolutionary Significance of Postgenerative Female Life Eckart Voland, Athanasios Chasiotis, and Wulf Schiefenhövel Part I LIFE HISTORY: The Evolutionary Route to Grandmothers Chapter 1 Primate Predispositions for Human Grandmaternal Behavior Andreas Paul Chapter 2 Menopause: Adaptation and Epiphenomenon Jocelyn Scott Peccei Chapter 3 Human Longevity and Reproduction: An Evolutionary Perspective Natalia S. Gavrilova and Leonid A. Gavrilov Chapter 4 Grandmothers, Politics, and Getting Back to Science Chris Knight and Camilla Power Chapter 5 Human Female Longevity: How Important Is Being a Grandmother? Cheryl Sorenson Jamison, Paul L. Jamison, and Laurel L. Cornell Chapter 6 Human Age Structures, Paleodemography, and the Grandmother Hypothesis Kristen Hawkes and Nicholas Blurton Jones Part II BEHAVIOR: Modern Outcomes of Past Adaptations Chapter 7 Are Humans Cooperative Breeders? Ruth Mace and Rebecca Sear Chapter 8 Hadza Grandmothers as Helpers: Residence Data Nicholas Blurton Jones, Kristen Hawkes, and James O'Connell Chapter 9 The Role of Maternal Grandmothers in Trobriand Adoptions Wulf Schiefenhövel and Andreas Grabolle Chapter 10 Kinship Organization and the Impact of Grandmothers on Reproductive Success among the Matrilineal Khasi and Patrilineal Bengali of Northeast India Donna L. Leonetti, Dilip C. Nath, Natabar S. Hemam, and Dawn B. Neill Chapter 11 The Helping and the Helpful Grandmother: The Role of Maternal and Paternal Grandmothers in Child Mortality in the Seventeenth- and Eighteenth-Century Population of French Settlers in Quebec, Canada Jan Beise Chapter 12 ""The Husband's Mother Is the Devil in House"": Data on the Impact of the Mother-in-Law on Stillbirth Mortality in Historical Krummhörn (1750-1874) and Some Thoughts on the Evolution of Postgenerative Female Life Eckart Voland and Jan Beise Chapter 13 Exploring the Variation in Intergenerational Relationships among Germans and Turkish Immigrants: An Evolutionary Perspective of Behavior in a Modern Social Setting Akiko Nosaka and Athanasios Chasiotis Chapter 14 Variability of Grandmothers' Roles Axel Schölmerich, Birgit Leyendecker, Banu Citlak, Amy Miller, and Robin Harwood Part III SYNTHESIS: The Evolutionary Significance of Grandmothers Chapter 15 Cooperative Breeders with an Ace in the Hole Sarah Blaffer Hrdy Contributors Name Index Subject Index
Reviews
"""An important contribution to the literature, not just on grandmothers, but on human evolution generally. This edited volume provides a forum in which a rapidly developing view of human evolution can coalesce."" -- Lee Cronk * author of From Mukogodo to Maasai: Ethnicity and Cultural Change in Kenya *"
An important contribution to the literature, not just on grandmothers, but on human evolution generally. This edited volume provides a forum in which a rapidly developing view of human evolution can coalesce. --Lee Cronk author of From Mukogodo to Maasai: Ethnicity and Cultural Change in Kenya
""An important contribution to the literature, not just on grandmothers, but on human evolution generally. This edited volume provides a forum in which a rapidly developing view of human evolution can coalesce."" -- Lee Cronk * author of From Mukogodo to Maasai: Ethnicity and Cultural Change in Kenya *
Author Information
Eckart Voland is a professor of biophilosophy at the Institute of Philosophy and Foundations of Science at the University of Giessen in Germany. Athanasios Chasiotis is an associate professor at the School of Social and Behavioral Sciences at Tilburg University, the Netherlands. Wulf SchiefenhÖvel is the head of the human ethology group, Max-Planck-Institute, Andechs/Seewiesen in Germany and a professor of medical psychology and ethnomedicine at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich.
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