Journal article

Publication year: 2017

Pages: 125-135

Journal: Evolution and Human Behavior

Volume number: 38

Issue number: 1

ISSN: 1090-5138

eISSN: 1879-0607

Open access status: Hybrid

DOI Link: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2016.08.001

Publisher: Elsevier

Abstract: 
Among the population of the Krummhorn region (Ostfriesland, Germany) in the 18th and 19th centuries, the death of the father in the family led on average to the accelerated marriage of his children. Three evolutionary explanations are offered for this "paternal absence" effect in the literature: namely, (i) the assumption of an adaptive "psychosocial acceleration" of the children with prepubertal experience of uncertainty; (ii) an opportunistic adjustment of life and reproduction decisions as an adaptive reaction to the personal cost-benefit balances that are changed by the father's death; and (iii) given the genetic parent-offspring conflict, an increase in the reproductive autonomy of offspring after the loss of the dominant father figure. Our models, which are based on the analyses of the vital statistics data derived from church registers and tax rolls and compiled into a family reconstitution study, attribute the greatest explanatory power for the patterns found in the Krummhorn to the opportunistic adjustment approach (ii). (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Harvard Citation style: Voland, E. and Willfuehr, K. (2017) Why does paternal death accelerate the transition to first marriage in the C18-C19 Krummhorn population?, Evolution and Human Behavior, 38(1), pp. 125-135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2016.08.001

APA Citation style: Voland, E., & Willfuehr, K. (2017). Why does paternal death accelerate the transition to first marriage in the C18-C19 Krummhorn population?. Evolution and Human Behavior. 38(1), 125-135. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2016.08.001