This study focuses on the relationship between pathogen prevalence and mate selection. Results show that increased pathogen prevalence is significantly associated with an increased importance in the physical attractiveness of potential mates.

This article tests four hypotheses regarding scarification, which is described as 1) a rite of passage, 2) a hardening/trauma procedure, 3) a nonadaptive sexually selected character, or 4) an adaptive pathogen driven sexually selected character. Only the third hypothesis is supported in a worldwide sample, suggesting that scarification is associated with polygyny. The other three are each supported in different regional subsamples—principally the first hypothesis (supported in Africa, the Insular Pacific, and South America).

This study tests the association between pathogen risk and degree of polygyny and sexual advertisement. Results show that the greater the risk of serious pathogens, the greater the degree of polygyny. The correlation between pathogen risk and sexual signals is only marginally significant. An association between mate choice and resource control is also examined.

The goal of the paper is to demonstrate how international slave trade spread the institution of slavery throughout Africa, resulting in long-term effects of the continent’s income and political centralization. The author first estimated the travel time to slave ports from each society in the Ethnographic Atlas to determine predicting factors for the adoption of slave trade in African societies. The author reported that societies with high exposure to slave capture in the past were more likely to have the custom of slavery and the custom of polygyny. The author further suggested that slavery institutions emerged in West Africa through local, politically centralized aristocratic systems while emerging in East Africa through the preservation of wealth within the nuclear family over generations.

Researchers examine marriage patterns of 186 societies from the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample (SCCS). The eleven predictor variables are pathogen stress, arranged female marriages, population density, father roles during infancy, temperature, social stratification, wealth inequality, internal warfare, assault frequency, female agricultural contribution, and sex ratio. The two outcome variables measuring polygyny are cultural rules constraining polygyny and the percentage of married men who are polygynous. Controlling on phylogeny using a global supertree of the languages, analysis of marriage patterns reveals that assault frequency and pathogen stress are the strongest predictors of polygyny. These findings offer additional support for the theories of harem-defense polygyny and male genetic quality.

This study reveals that in hunting and gathering societies thought to be akin to those of our ancestors, female choice is constained by the control that parents exercise over their daughters. Since parental control is the typical pattern of mate choice among extant foragers, it is likely that this pattern was also prevalent throughout human evolution.

This study reveals that in hunting and gathering societies thought to be akin to those of our ancestors, female choice is constained by the control that parents exercise over their daughters. Since parental control is the typical pattern of mate choice among extant foragers, it is likely that this pattern was also prevalent throughout human evolution.

This study reveals that in hunting and gathering societies thought to be akin to those of our ancestors, female choice is constained by the control that parents exercise over their daughters. Since parental control is the typical pattern of mate choice among extant foragers, it is likely that this pattern was also prevalent throughout human evolution.

This study reveals that in hunting and gathering societies thought to be akin to those of our ancestors, female choice is constained by the control that parents exercise over their daughters. Since parental control is the typical pattern of mate choice among extant foragers, it is likely that this pattern was also prevalent throughout human evolution.

This study reveals that in hunting and gathering societies thought to be akin to those of our ancestors, female choice is constained by the control that parents exercise over their daughters. Since parental control is the typical pattern of mate choice among extant foragers, it is likely that this pattern was also prevalent throughout human evolution.