ArticleHuman nature (Hawthorne, N.Y.)2008
Human Lactation, Pair-bonds, and Alloparents : A Cross-Cultural Analysis.
Article in Human nature (Hawthorne, N.Y.), 2008. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 20 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
20 citing papers in PubMed.
- Vole hunting: novel predatory and carnivorous behavior by California ground squirrels.Journal of ethology · 2025Article
- Female cooperation: evolutionary, cross-cultural and ethnographic evidence.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Review
- The evolved nest, oxytocin functioning, and prosocial development.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Review
- Hired helpers at the nest: The association between life-cycle servants and net fertility in North Orkney, 1851-1911.American journal of physical anthropology · 2020Article
- Breastfeeding Duration and the Social Learning of Infant Feeding Knowledge in Two Maya Communities.Human nature (Hawthorne, N.Y.) · 2020Article
- Typologies of postnatal support and breastfeeding at two months in the UK.Social science & medicine (1982) · 2020Article
- Crucial Contributions : A Biocultural Study of Grandmothering During the Perinatal Period.Human nature (Hawthorne, N.Y.) · 2019Article
- Article
- Oxytocin- and arginine vasopressin-containing fibers in the cortex of humans, chimpanzees, and rhesus macaques.American journal of primatology · 2018Article
- Shodagor Family Strategies : Balancing Work and Family on the Water.Human nature (Hawthorne, N.Y.) · 2017Article
- The neurobiological causes and effects of alloparenting.Developmental neurobiology · 2017Review
- Mothers and Fathers Perform More Mate Retention Behaviors than Individuals without Children.Human nature (Hawthorne, N.Y.) · 2016Article
- Practical Support from Fathers and Grandmothers Is Associated with Lower Levels of Breastfeeding in the UK Millennium Cohort Study.PloS one · 2015Article
- What can cross-cultural correlations teach us about human nature?Human nature (Hawthorne, N.Y.) · 2014Article
- The insectan apes.Human nature (Hawthorne, N.Y.) · 2014Article
- The evolutionary ecology of early weaning in Kilimanjaro, Tanzania.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2013Article
- Article
- The foundation of kinship: households.Human nature (Hawthorne, N.Y.) · 2011Article
- Parental precaution: neurobiological means and adaptive ends.Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews · 2011Review
- Maternal effects in cooperative breeders: from hymenopterans to humans.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2009Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The evolutionary origin of human pair-bonds is uncertain. One hypothesis, supported by data from forgers, suggests that pair-bonds function to provision mothers and dependent offspring during lactation. Similarly, public health data from large-scale industrial societies indicate that single mothers tend to wean their children earlier than do women living with a mate. Here we examine relations between pair-bond stability, alloparenting, and cross-cultural trends in breastfeeding using data from 58 "traditional" societies in the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample (SCCS). Analyses show that stable conjugal relationships were associated with significantly later weaning among the societies in the SCCS. The relationship between pair-bond stability and age at weaning was not mediated by women's ability to provision themselves or women's kin support. Availability of alloparental care was also inversely related to age at weaning, and the association was not significantly reduced after controlling for frequency of divorce. This study indicates that among a woman's kin relationships, a pair-bond with a child's father is especially supportive of breastfeeding. These cross-cultural findings are further evidence that human pair-bonds may have evolved to support lactation.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.