B S Low
Biographic Data
| ID | 3229 |
|---|---|
| NAME | B S Low |
| GIVEN NAMES | B S |
| FAMILY NAME | Low |
| SIGNATURE | LOW B S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Michigan |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1539-9168 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 38 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 258 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 38 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1988 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| H-INDEX | 11 |
Pathways to social inequality
Graminivory and Fallback Foods
Why Sex Matters
Why are men, like other primate males, usually the aggressors and risk takers? Why do women typically have fewer sexual partners? In Why Sex Matters, Bobbi Low ranges from ancient Rome to modern America, from the Amazon to the Arctic, and from single-celled organisms to international politics, to show that these and many other questions about human behavior largely come down to evolution and sex. More precisely, as she shows in this uniquely comp…
Why Sex Matters
Herpes simplex virus type 2 among mobile pastoralists in northwestern Namibia
Higher risk among women can be explained, in part, by local hygiene practices and a preference for "dry" sex. There was considerable variation in prevalence by region, which appears to be linked to geographic remoteness. Culturally contextualized epidemiologic studies of remote, vulnerable populations can provide essential information for limiting the introduction and spread of new infections
Life Expectancy, Fertility, and Women’s Lives
Women’s reproductive lives vary considerably around the world, yet there are patterns to this variation. We explore reproductive patterns in 177 nations using the framework of human behavioral ecology. In humans, as in other species, there is a normally strong relationship between life expectancy at birth (e 0 ) and age at first birth (AFB). However, in studies of nonhuman species, this relationship is subject to two implicit assumptions: (a) tha…
Ecological and socio-cultural impacts on mating and marriage systems
This article explores how human mating and marriage systems are affected by conditions of ecology, by cultural practices, and by the interactions of these two forces. Given the great diversity in marriage rules and rules about association and sexual conduct across societies, it would be easy to throw up one's hands and regard these patterns as somehow ‘purely cultural’. There are, however, often (sometimes non-obvious) influences of the distribut…
Intergenerational Wealth Transmission among Agriculturalists
This paper uses data from eight past and present societies practicing intensive agriculture to measure the transmission of wealth across generations in preindustrial agricultural societies. Focusing on embodied, material, and relational forms of wealth, we compare levels of wealth between parents and children to estimate how effectively wealth is transmitted from one generation to the next and how inequality in one generation impacts inequality i…
The emergence of zoning policy games in exurban jurisdictions
Influences on Women's Reproductive Lives
Modern women's reproductive lives vary considerably, in a patterned fashion. Although cultural factors are important, across societies—even across species— there exist strong patterns predicted by life history theory. For example, the shorter life expectancy e 0 is at birth, the earlier it pays in biological terms to reproduce. Few factors analyzed in women's life patterns in more than 170 nations influence the divergence. Studies on other specie…
Comparing Explanations of Polygyny
Polygyny is common in the ethnographic record. The vast majority of cultures known to anthropology allowed at least some men to have more than one wife simultaneously. This article compares various explanations of nonsororal polygyny, by far the most common type of polygyny. Multiple regression analyses of data for the societies in the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample indicate that the two main independent cross-cultural predictors of appreciable (…
Exurbia from the bottom-up
Women's lives there, here, then, now
Female allies and female power
The Biodemography of Modern Women
Nonmarital First Births and Women’s Life Histories
An evolutionary ecological perspective on demographic transitions
Life history theory postulates tradeoffs of current versus future reproduction; today women face evolutionarily novel versions of these tradeoffs. Optimal age at first birth is the result of tradeoffs in fertility and mortality; ceteris paribus , early reproduction is advantageous. Yet modern women in developed nations experience relatively late first births; they appear to be trading off socioeconomic status and the paths to raised SES, educatio…
Testing Evolutionary Hypotheses with Demographic Data
An ecological evolutionary viewpoint offers new perspectives on contemporary demographic problems in general and on population-environment issues in particular. In turn, rich and detailed human demographic data can help solve problems of interest in evolutionary theory. Such data have been analyzed in greatest detail in studies of traditional and historical societies. Evolutionary approaches using historical data go beyond small-sample anthropolo…
Human–ecosystem interactions
Ecological economics and sustainable governance of the oceans
Scale misperceptions and the spatial dynamics of a social–ecological system
An evolutionary perspective on Thai sexual attitudes and behavior
Qualitative data on Thai views of male and female sexuality and sexual behavior are examined in light of hypotheses that have emerged from an evolutionary perspective. The data were derived through focus group discussions and individual in‐depth interviews. In particular, we examined how Thai married adults consider men's and women's sexual natures to differ, what men and women seek in a long‐term mate, and views of spouse's extramarital sexual a…
Ache life history
The role of future unpredictability in human risk-taking
Women and sustainable development, a reflection
Intergenerational Wealth Transmission among Agriculturalists
This paper uses data from eight past and present societies practicing intensive agriculture to measure the transmission of wealth across generations in preindustrial agricultural societies. Focusing on embodied, material, and relational forms of wealth, we compare levels of wealth between parents and children to estimate how effectively wealth is transmitted from one generation to the next and how inequality in one generation impacts inequality i…
Occupational Status, Landownership, and Reproductive Behavior in 19th-century Sweden
The role of future unpredictability in human risk-taking
Toward an Ecological Demography
An innovative way of looking at demographic patterns is based on paradigms from the fields of behavioral and evolutionary ecology. Just as the analytic techniques of demography have been important to biological investigations the theoretical advances of the last 25 years in biology may offer important perspectives on central problems in demography and provide paths to fruitful ecologically informed solutions. The authors summarize the pertinent t…
Influences on Women's Reproductive Lives
Modern women's reproductive lives vary considerably, in a patterned fashion. Although cultural factors are important, across societies—even across species— there exist strong patterns predicted by life history theory. For example, the shorter life expectancy e 0 is at birth, the earlier it pays in biological terms to reproduce. Few factors analyzed in women's life patterns in more than 170 nations influence the divergence. Studies on other specie…
Testing Evolutionary Hypotheses with Demographic Data
An ecological evolutionary viewpoint offers new perspectives on contemporary demographic problems in general and on population-environment issues in particular. In turn, rich and detailed human demographic data can help solve problems of interest in evolutionary theory. Such data have been analyzed in greatest detail in studies of traditional and historical societies. Evolutionary approaches using historical data go beyond small-sample anthropolo…
Population, resources, and environment
Family Patterns in Nineteenth-Century Sweden
This study investigates the impact of resources on family patterns. Resources vary within and between regions; individual access to resources may also vary. Data from the Swedish Demographic Database, Umeå, Sweden, allowed comparisons of reproductive life in four Swedish parishes during the 1800s. Data were analyzed at both aggregate and lineage levels. Occupational status and land ownership are shown to have affected men's reproductive lives, th…
Exurbia from the bottom-up
Sex, Coalitions, and Politics in Preindustrial Societies
Broadly defined, political activity normally involves some form of coalition, usually centering upon resource acquisition, and is not restricted to humans. Male and female mammals appear to have evolved to seek and use resources differently—males to get mates (mating effort) and females to raise healthy, successful offspring (parental effort). Because the return curves for these two types of effort differ in shape, several predictions follow abou…
Behavioral ecology of conservation in traditional societies
An evolutionary perspective on Thai sexual attitudes and behavior
Qualitative data on Thai views of male and female sexuality and sexual behavior are examined in light of hypotheses that have emerged from an evolutionary perspective. The data were derived through focus group discussions and individual in‐depth interviews. In particular, we examined how Thai married adults consider men's and women's sexual natures to differ, what men and women seek in a long‐term mate, and views of spouse's extramarital sexual a…
Pathways to social inequality
The emergence of zoning policy games in exurban jurisdictions
Men in the demographic transition
Graminivory and Fallback Foods
Life Expectancy, Fertility, and Women’s Lives
Women’s reproductive lives vary considerably around the world, yet there are patterns to this variation. We explore reproductive patterns in 177 nations using the framework of human behavioral ecology. In humans, as in other species, there is a normally strong relationship between life expectancy at birth (e 0 ) and age at first birth (AFB). However, in studies of nonhuman species, this relationship is subject to two implicit assumptions: (a) tha…
Men, women, and sustainability
Human Sex Differences in Behavioral Ecological Perspective
Behavioral ecology, based in the theory of natural selection, predicts that certain behaviors are likely to differ consistently between the sexes in humans as well as other species: aggression, resource striving, information content of sexual signalling. These differences, though of course open to modification by cultural practice, arise because male and female humans, like males and females of other mammal species, typically optimize their repro…
Rethinking Polygyny
Measures of Polygyny in Humans
Occupational status and reproductive behavior in nineteenth-century Sweden
This paper examined the effects of status as reflected by occupation on marriage fertility and survival of children in Locknevi parish Sweden. In the 1st generation (men married 1824-40) greater differences in the range of occupations existed than in subsequent generations. Mens reproductive patterns varied in concert with their occupational status. Little occupational mobility was apparent for men. This would suggest other things being equal tha…
Occupational Status, Landownership, and Reproductive Behavior in 19th-century Sweden
Family Patterns in Nineteenth-Century Sweden
This study investigates the impact of resources on family patterns. Resources vary within and between regions; individual access to resources may also vary. Data from the Swedish Demographic Database, Umeå, Sweden, allowed comparisons of reproductive life in four Swedish parishes during the 1800s. Data were analyzed at both aggregate and lineage levels. Occupational status and land ownership are shown to have affected men's reproductive lives, th…
Sex, Coalitions, and Politics in Preindustrial Societies
Broadly defined, political activity normally involves some form of coalition, usually centering upon resource acquisition, and is not restricted to humans. Male and female mammals appear to have evolved to seek and use resources differently—males to get mates (mating effort) and females to raise healthy, successful offspring (parental effort). Because the return curves for these two types of effort differ in shape, several predictions follow abou…
Social/Cultural Anthropology
Toward an Ecological Demography
An innovative way of looking at demographic patterns is based on paradigms from the fields of behavioral and evolutionary ecology. Just as the analytic techniques of demography have been important to biological investigations the theoretical advances of the last 25 years in biology may offer important perspectives on central problems in demography and provide paths to fruitful ecologically informed solutions. The authors summarize the pertinent t…
Population, resources, and environment
Human Sex Differences in Behavioral Ecological Perspective
Behavioral ecology, based in the theory of natural selection, predicts that certain behaviors are likely to differ consistently between the sexes in humans as well as other species: aggression, resource striving, information content of sexual signalling. These differences, though of course open to modification by cultural practice, arise because male and female humans, like males and females of other mammal species, typically optimize their repro…
Men in the demographic transition
Women and sustainable development, a reflection
Men, women, and sustainability
Behavioral ecology of conservation in traditional societies
An evolutionary perspective on Thai sexual attitudes and behavior
Qualitative data on Thai views of male and female sexuality and sexual behavior are examined in light of hypotheses that have emerged from an evolutionary perspective. The data were derived through focus group discussions and individual in‐depth interviews. In particular, we examined how Thai married adults consider men's and women's sexual natures to differ, what men and women seek in a long‐term mate, and views of spouse's extramarital sexual a…
Ache life history
The role of future unpredictability in human risk-taking
Human–ecosystem interactions
Ecological economics and sustainable governance of the oceans
Scale misperceptions and the spatial dynamics of a social–ecological system
Testing Evolutionary Hypotheses with Demographic Data
An ecological evolutionary viewpoint offers new perspectives on contemporary demographic problems in general and on population-environment issues in particular. In turn, rich and detailed human demographic data can help solve problems of interest in evolutionary theory. Such data have been analyzed in greatest detail in studies of traditional and historical societies. Evolutionary approaches using historical data go beyond small-sample anthropolo…
An evolutionary ecological perspective on demographic transitions
Life history theory postulates tradeoffs of current versus future reproduction; today women face evolutionarily novel versions of these tradeoffs. Optimal age at first birth is the result of tradeoffs in fertility and mortality; ceteris paribus , early reproduction is advantageous. Yet modern women in developed nations experience relatively late first births; they appear to be trading off socioeconomic status and the paths to raised SES, educatio…
The Biodemography of Modern Women
Nonmarital First Births and Women’s Life Histories
Female allies and female power
Sociology (26 works) · Biology (25 works) · Demography (21 works) · Geography (20 works) · Ecology (18 works) · Population (18 works) · Economics (15 works) · Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior (15 works) · Political science (13 works) · Computer Science (11 works)