The concept of "reproductive strategy" drawn from the field of behavioral ecology is applied to the study of childhood experience and interpersonal development in order to develop an evolutionary theory of socialization. The theory is presented in terms of 2 divergent development pathways considered to promote reproductive success in the contexts in which they have arisen. One is characterized, in childhood, by a stressful rearing environment and the development of insecure attachments to parents and subsequent behavior problems; in adolescence by early pubertal development and precocious sexuality; and, in adulthood, by unstable pair bonds and limited investment in child rearing, whereas the other is characterized by the opposite. The relation between this theory and prevailing theories of socialization, specifically, attachment, social-learning, and discrete-emotions theory, is considered and research consistent with our evolutionary theory is reviewed. Finally, directions for future research are discussed.

The concept of "reproductive strategy" drawn from the field of behavioral ecology is applied to the study of childhood experience and interpersonal development in order to develop an evolutionary theory of socialization. The theory is presented in terms of 2 divergent development pathways considered to promote reproductive success in the contexts in which they have arisen. One is characterized, in childhood, by a stressful rearing environment and the development of insecure attachments to parents and subsequent behavior problems; in adolescence by early pubertal development and precocious sexuality; and, in adulthood, by unstable pair bonds and limited investment in child rearing, whereas the other is characterized by the opposite. The relation between this theory and prevailing theories of socialization, specifically, attachment, social-learning, and discrete-emotions theory, is considered and research consistent with our evolutionary theory is reviewed. Finally, directions for future research are discussed.

No abstract

OverviewA current view in the human sciences emphasizes an understanding of the individual as a representative of a past history of selection for survivorship and reproduction. All of us are descendants of individuals who lived long enough to produce reproductive offspring. Our current generation represents the variable mating success of our ascendants. Some of our grandparents and great grandparents had many offspring, others had only one or two. At each generation there are new opportunities to expand and to contract the genetic contribution of particular individuals to future generations. Since evolution favors those (1) who survive and (2) who are most successful at reproduction, we expect Darwinian theory to be most immediately helpful for comprehending our survivorship, mating, and parenting, while it may be less immediately applicable to domains like religion that are less intimately tied to fitness. In the case of humans, for whom learning plays a central role in differentiating reproductive success from failure, the social circumstances and social lessons we experience play a substantial role in influencing our reproductive behavior, the number of offspring we have, and the manner in which we rear those offspring. Learning also contributes to the social niche we occupy during the lifespan. Attention therefore is increasingly focused by sociobiologists on the evolution of human learning. While learning is "intangible" in a practical sense, it becomes analytically and conceptually more corporeal when we consider the fact that what individuals learn contributes deterministically to reproduction and differences among individuals in reproduction. In this chapter we wish to consider the relationships among human reproductive behavior, learning experience, and the social institutions of the society in which the individual matures. Our approach differs from more usual social science analysis in that we do not assume temporal and functional interdependence among these variables. We are as interested in why there are functional interdependencies as in the fact and the shape of those that do exist. Humans show a great deal of variability in their reproductive behavior, including types of sexual activity, types of ties between males and females, and ways of arranging for the rearing of offspring. We will consider three principal topics: (1) Father absence versus father presence, contrasting children who are reared in a family system in which there is a closely involved and economically contributing father in contrast to a family system in which women rear their children in cooperation with other women (usually kin) and without consistent help from a man who is father to children. (2) Peer rearing versus parent rearing, concerning who does the primary work of rearing children-whether biological parents themselves and in a proximate sense provide for the care of their own children or whether parental surrogates do the major child tending work under some form of distal parental supervision. (3) Pair-bonding between pa...

How does change in one part of a social system affect other parts? This is the central question that must be answered in order to understand the process through which culture changes. This paper is about a small piece of the problem. It investigates how changes in subsistence economy affect child behavior and the relations between parents and children among !Kung Bushmen of Western Botswana. We will show that the adoption of a sedentary life style and a new technology of food production is associated with changes in the social interactions between parents and children and between children and their peers. The social and physical settings of everyday life also change with economic practices. We will describe these differences and discuss their implications. Among the IKung, foraging and settled groups differ markedly in child behavior and in social interactions between parents and children. Compared with bush-living children, sedentary children do more work, range farther from home, show more sex differentiated behaviors, and interact more with peers. These changes are especially interesting since they appear to result from changes in economy and adult work roles, not from a conscious change in child socialization by adults. These findings shed light on the ways in which social and economic changes affect individual behavior and lead to new normative patterns. ENVIRONMENT AND SOCIALIZATION There is a growing literature that describes how social and physical settings influence the social behavior of children. This literature focuses on the ecological contexts in which children are reared and the ways in which features of the environment influence children. Parents have a major influence on children's lives, yet both parents and children are embedded in socioeconomic structures that themselves shape the nature of parent-child relationships (Whiting and Whiting 1975; Wohlwill and van Vliet 1985; Whiting 1980).