Fitness and fertility among kalahari !Kung

Bibliographic Data

ID8313596
AuthorsRenee Pennington (0000-0002-6613-8438, Pennsylvania State University), Henry Harpending (Pennsylvania State University)
Year1988
Volume77
Issue3
Pages303-319
Publication date1988-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Journal of Physical Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-9483 • E-ISSN: 1096-8644
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/ajpa.1330770304
PMID3228170
OpenAlexW1972535167
LanguageEN
Citations received67
References cited64

In this paper we develop a model that examines fertility and childhood mortality patterns and their relationship to environmental variables. Interactions among environmental variables can account for different fertility patterns and different mixes of these variables can produce similar patterns of fertility. Our model attempts to quantify the idea that there is a trade‐off between producing a few children likely to survive to reproductive age and producing a greater number of children with lower chances for survival. The optimum mix of these strategies depends on environmental characteristics. We use the model to make predictions about fertility and mortality patterns among two Bushmen populations of southern Africa—the Ghanzi and Ngamiland !Kung—using data collected by Harpending in 1967–1968. The results do not support explanations of the low fertilities observed among !Kung Bushmen women, in whom it is thought that fitness is maximized by limiting fertility, and show no relationship between mortality and family size in either !Kung population. Instead, the number of offspring reaching reproductive age in both populations increases as their completed family size increases. We examine the effects of sex, birth order, and paternal investment on mortality. No sex ratio differences and no differences in mortality by sex or birth order are present. Infant mortality among women who married more than once is significantly higher than among women who married once, suggesting that paternal care has a significant effect

Biology · Birth order · Birth rate · Family planning · Fertility · Geography · Limiting · Natural fertility · Offspring · Population · Pregnancy · Research methodology · Sociology · Total fertility rate · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Demographic Trends and Gender Preferences · Demography · Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology