Fathering Behaviors: The Dynamics of the Man-Child BondLike the lines of a secret map made dimly apparent by the chemical potion brushed on a piece of paper from a child's detective kit, the outlines of what may be a substantial behavioral biology of human life seem to be coming clear. From genetic science at its most molecular to demography with its assessment of the vital experience of massive populations, there is a growing understanding of the various ways in which the human species reveals underlying commonalities of experi ence through the life cycle and over the web of interactions that constitutes the basic matter of social life. At the same time, research has been successful in two super ficially and contradictory directions: first, in showing the enormous variation in human arrangements and consciousness across and with in cultures; and second, in showing the similarity between cultures as far as basic processes of physiology, neurophysiology, and even so ciallife are concerned. But the contradiction only exists in the absence of an understanding of the fact that in a species living under as many ecological, historical, and economic niches as Homo sapiens, cultural variation is what one would naturally expect. |
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18 cultures adult males adult-child dyads American father figure analysis behavior patterns boys and girls caretaker cartoons catarrhine Census central nervous system chil child triads child-care children associating coded compared comparisons competing divorce dren emotional ethnic example gender adult groups Gender of adult Gender of Child genetic genotypic human inclusive fitness increased individuals infants Ivory Coast Karaja large numbers levels of interaction man-child bond man-child dyads marriage mean number men-only groups MNP intervals monogamy mother Naroll number of children number of women nurturing occur overrepresented paternalistic behavior Percentage of children Pinnip Plowman-Protector Complex Plural Group Score population potential predictable primary child-caretaker Primate prosimians proxemic relationship remarried Rohner role sample Senufo sign test social scientists social structure society Sri Lanka strategy subsistence technique symbolic systematically Table Taiwan theory tion Total traditional U.S. Bureau United variables visual woman woman-child women groups women-only Women's Plural