STARORODIČOVSTVO Z EVOLUČNEJ PERSPEKTÍVY

• Authors: Uhrin Michal

Title variants

EN

Grandparenthood from the evolutionary perspective

• Languages of publication: SK

Abstracts

EN

Humans belong to the few species in which females and males live for a relatively long time after the end of their reproductive period. In this paper, I present theoretical concepts explaining the relatively long post-reproductive life span of humans and the menopause: the grandmother hypothesis and the diet, intelligence and longevity model (also known as the embodied capital model). The grandmother hypothesis, offering an evolutionary explanation of the menopause, shows that throughout most of the human history, childrearing has been a cooperative endeavour. In all societies across the world, mothers, fathers, grandparents, and other family members cooperate in networks consisting of kin and non-kin in order to assist with childrearing. The paper also argues how ethnographic research can contribute to the testing of evolutionary theories of grandparenthood in contemporary societies.

Keywords

EN

EVOLUTIONARY ANTHROPOLOGY; GRANDPARENTHOOD; MENOPAUSE; LONGEVITY; ETHNOGRAPHY

• Publisher: Institute of Ethnology, Slovak Academy of Sciences
• Journal: Slovenský národopis (Slovak Ethnology)
• Year: 2020
• Volume: 68
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 68 - 83

Contributors

author

Uhrin Michal

• Filozofická fakulta UK v Bratislave, Gondova 2, 811 02 Bratislava, Slovak Republic

Identifiers

DOI

https://doi.org/10.2478/se-2020-0004