Greater wealth inequality, less polygyny: rethinking the polygyny threshold model

Journal of The Royal Society Interface Vol/Iss. 15(144) Royal Society Publishing London Published In Pages: 1-15
By Ross, Cody T., Borgerhoff Mulder, Monique, Oh, Seung-Yun, Bowles, Samuel, Beheim, Bret, Bruce, John, Caudell, Mark, Clark, Gregory, Colleran, Heidi, Cortez, Carmen, Draper, Patricia, Greaves, Russell D., Gurven, Michael, Headland, Thomas, Headland, Janet, Hill, Kim, Hewlett, Barry S., Kaplan, Hillard S., Koster, Jeremy M., McElreath, Richard L., Yu, Douglas, Shepard Jr., Glenn, Kramer, Karen L., Marlowe, Frank W., Nolin, David, Quinlan, Marsha B., Quinlan, Robert J., Revilla-Minaya, Caissa, Scelza, Brooke, Schacht, Ryan, Shenk, Mary, Uehara, Ray, Voland, Eckart, Willfuhr, Kai, Winterhalder, Bruce, Ziker, John

Hypothesis

Stratified agricultural economies will be associated with diminishing marginal fitness returns provided by additional polygynous wives which prevent men from having as many wives as their wealth might otherwise predict (2)

Note

Due to the use of Bayesian statistics, p-values are not listed in the results of this paper.

Test

Test NameSupportSignificanceCoefficientTail
Multi-level regression modelSupportedUNKNOWNUNKNOWNUNKNOWN

Variables

Variable NameVariable Type OCM Term(s)
Type Of EconomyIndependent variableFood Quest, Agriculture, Production And Supply
Marginal Fitness Returns of Polygynous WivesDependent variablePolygamy