Gender Differences in Social Networks Based on Prevailing Kinship Norms in the Mosuo of China

Mattison, Siobhán M.; MacLaren, Neil G.; Liu, Ruizhe; Reynolds, Adam Z.; Baca, Gabrielle D.; Mattison, Peter M.; Zhang, Meng; Sum, Chun-Yi; Shenk, Mary K.; Blumenfield, Tami; Rueden, Christopher von; Wander, Katherine

doi:10.3390/socsci10070253

Cited by 19 publications

(40 citation statements)

References 94 publications

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“…Overall, mothers in this study had access to diverse social networks and received childcare help from a wide number of related and unrelated individuals, echoing previous findings in the Agta [21,49], and elsewhere [50][51][52][53][54]. It is of particular note, in line with the relative absence of grandmothers in the population at large [29], that post-reproductive individuals were least represented in mothers' childcare networks.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

Sedentarisation and maternal childcare networks: role of risk, gender and demography

Page¹,

Migliano²,

Smith³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Worldwide mothers receive help with childcare from a diverse range of individuals (allomothers). Nonetheless, little exploration has occurred into why we see such diversity, such as different strategies used to buffer risk. Wide maternal childcare networks may be a consequence of situations of little material wealth and food storage - as is common in mobile hunter-gatherers - where households rely on the pooling of risk in informal insurance networks. In contrast, when households settle and accumulate wealth and food, they are able to retain the risk by absorbing losses within the household. Thus, the size and composition of mothers’ childcare networks may depend on whether households pool or retain risk, as captured by mobile and settled households in the Agta, a diverse Philippine foraging population. From in-depth observational data on 78 children, we find that childcare from grandmothers and sisters was higher in settled camps, while childcare from male kin was lower. Our findings offer little support for risk buffering, and additional analyses demonstrated that girls’ workloads were increased in settled camps, unlike boys, while grandmothers had fewer dependent children, increasing their availability as allomothers. These results point to gender-specific changes associated with shifting demographics as camps become larger and more settled.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 80%

Sedentarisation and maternal childcare networks: role of risk, gender and demography

Page¹,

Migliano²,

Smith³

et al. 2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…By contrast, in a study with Hadza hunter-gatherers in Tanzania, men and women did not differ in their number of preferred campmates or in the number of individuals with whom they would share gifts [77]. An absence of gender differences in social networks has also been found in other studies [78][79][80]. These findings are consistent with two studies in this issue that found no substantial gender differences in cooperative networks [81,82].…”

Section: (A) No Compelling Evidence For Universal Gender Differences ...supporting

confidence: 85%

New perspectives on the evolution of women's cooperation

Fox

Scelza

Silk

et al. 2022

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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A holistic, evolutionary framework about human cooperation must incorporate information about women's cooperative behaviour. Yet, most empirical research on human cooperation has centered on men's behaviour or been derived from experimental studies conducted in western, industrialized populations. These bodies of data are unlikely to accurately represent human behavioural diversity. To address this gap and provide a more balanced view of human cooperation, this issue presents substantial new data and multi-disciplinary perspectives to document the complexity of women's cooperative behaviour. Research in this issue 1) challenges narratives about universal gender differences in cooperation, 2) reconsiders patrilocality and access to kin as constraints on women's cooperation, 3) reviews evidence for a connection between social support and women's health and 4) examines the phylogenetic roots of female cooperation. Here, we discuss the steps taken in this issue toward a more complete and evidence-based understanding of the role that cooperation plays in women's and girls' lives and in building human sociality. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Cooperation among women: evolutionary and cross-cultural perspectives’.

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“…Rather, female networks appear to be flexible and adapt to local social environments. For example, indigenous Mosuo (agriculturalists in southwest China) descent rules vary such that some communities are matrilineal and others patrilineal [233]. In a test of how gender-fixed networks structure is, the study found that differences between matrilineal and patrilineal communities were greater than between men's and women's networks.…”

Section: (G) Female Social Networkmentioning

confidence: 93%

Female cooperation: evolutionary, cross-cultural and ethnographic evidence

Kramer

2022

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Women and girls cooperate with each other across many domains and at many scales. However, much of this information is buried in the ethnographic record and has been overlooked in theoretic constructions of the evolution of human sociality and cooperation. The assumed primacy of male bonding, hunting, patrilocality and philopatry has dominated the discussion of cooperation without balanced consideration. A closer look at the ethnographic record reveals that in addition to cooperative childcare and food production, women and girls collectively form coalitions, have their own cooperative political, ceremonial, economic and social institutions, and develop female-based exchange and support networks. The numerous ethnographic examples of female cooperation urge reconsideration of gender stereotypes and the limits of female cooperation. This review brings together theoretic, cross-cultural and cross-lifespan research on female cooperation to present a more even and empirically supported view of female sociality. Following the lead from trends in evolutionary biology and sexual selection theory, the hope going forward is that the focus shifts from rote characterizations of sex differences to highlighting sources of variation and conditions that enhance or constrain female cooperative engagement. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Cooperation among women: evolutionary and cross-cultural perspectives’.

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Gender Differences in Social Networks Based on Prevailing Kinship Norms in the Mosuo of China

Cited by 19 publications

References 94 publications

Sedentarisation and maternal childcare networks: role of risk, gender and demography

Sedentarisation and maternal childcare networks: role of risk, gender and demography

New perspectives on the evolution of women's cooperation

Female cooperation: evolutionary, cross-cultural and ethnographic evidence

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