ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2012
The evolution of matrilineal kinship organization.
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2012. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed.
- The Multiple Perspectives Approach to Understanding Sexual-Economic Exchange.Archives of sexual behavior · 2025Review
- Article
- When parental care hurts: extended parental care and the evolution of overparenting.Evolution, medicine, and public health · 2025Review
- Evidence for dynastic succession among early Celtic elites in Central Europe.Nature human behaviour · 2024Article
- The slave trade and the origins of matrilineal kinship.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Communal breeding by women is associated with lower investment from husbands.Evolutionary human sciences · 2022Article
- The evolution of female-biased kinship in humans and other mammals.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2019Article
- From matrimonial practices to genetic diversity in Southeast Asian populations: the signature of the matrilineal puzzle.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2019Article
- The disequilibrium of double descent: changing inheritance norms among Himba pastoralists.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2019Article
- A worldwide view of matriliny: using cross-cultural analyses to shed light on human kinship systems.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2019Article
- The expendable male hypothesis.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2019Article
- When does matriliny fail? The frequencies and causes of transitions to and from matriliny estimated from a de novo coding of a cross-cultural sample.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2019Article
- Lineal kinship organization in cross-specific perspective.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2019Article
- One piece of the matrilineal puzzle: the socioecology of maternal uncle investment.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2019Article
- Inclusive fitness for in-laws.Biology letters · 2018Article
- Communal breeding promotes a matrilineal social system where husband and wife live apart.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2013Article
- Genetic relatedness to sisters' children has been underestimated.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2013Article
- The Evolutionary Roots of Familial Altruism: Paternity Uncertainty Shapes Patterns of Kindness.Evolutionary psychology : an international journal of evolutionary approaches to psychology and behaviorArticle
- Not leaving home: grandmothers and male dispersal in a duolocal human society.Behavioral ecology : official journal of the International Society for Behavioral EcologyArticle
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Abstract
Matrilineal kinship organization is a human social system that emphasizes interactions between matrilineal kin, i.e. individuals related only through females. The 'matrilineal puzzle' refers to the potential for tension characteristic of this social system, owing to the conflict between the interests and responsibilities of men in their roles as brother/uncle versus husband/father. From an evolutionary perspective, matrilineal kinship organization is puzzling when it diverts investment of resources from the individuals who provide the potentially highest reproductive returns. I use a game-theoretic framework to investigate a particular form of matrilineal inheritance--the transfer of property from a maternal uncle to a sororal nephew. The analysis reveals two mechanisms that may make this strategy a stable evolutionary outcome. First, a polygynous male has multiple wives, and hence multiple brothers-in-law; with matrilineal inheritance, each additional brother-in-law may transfer resources to the male's wife's offspring, thus potentially contributing to the male's inclusive fitness. Second, the husband of a polyandrous female is effectively 'sharing' paternity with other men; depending on the number of husbands, he may be better off investing in his sister's offspring. I conclude by discussing how these results address the challenges posed by the occurrence of matrilineal kinship organization.
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