Eusociality in Humans

doi:10.1017/9781108131797.005

4 - Eusociality in Humans

from Part II - Sociocultural Anthropology and Evolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 March 2020

Edited by

Will Reader and

Lance Workman: Affiliation:
University of South Wales
Will Reader: Affiliation:
Sheffield Hallam University
Jerome H. Barkow: Affiliation:
Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia

Book contents

Get access

Summary

At one end of the eusociality continuum lie members of the genus Atta, the leafcutter ants. Across the American tropics, surrounded by the forests, grasslands, and pastures they harvest, these ants live in enormous subterranean nests, where they grow fungus. Older, bigger, “major” workers come and go along trails outside, where they forage for plants used as fungus substrates or specialize as soldiers in nest defense; younger, smaller, “minor” workers stay on the nest, where they tend fungus gardens and feed brood. At the core of every Atta colony is a single queen, who lays an average of 20 eggs every minute, or around 28,800 eggs every day, or more than 10,000,000 eggs every year. Over the course of her approximately 15-year lifespan, she may produce as many as 150–200 million young. Workers occasionally lay trophic eggs that are fed to the queen; and rarely, their rudimentary ovaries produce male larvae and pupae after a queen is lost.

Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge Handbook of Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behavior , pp. 37 - 46

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108131797.005 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2020

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Amarna Letters (2001). Translated by Moran, W. L.. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar

Arnold, K., & Owens, I. (1998). Cooperative breeding in birds: A comparative test of the life history hypothesis. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 265, 739–745.Google Scholar

Bentley, G., & Mace, R. (2009). Substitute Parents: Biological and Social Perspectives on Alloparenting in Human Societies. Oxford: Berghahn.Google Scholar

Betzig, L. L. (1986). Despotism and Differential Reproduction: A Darwinian View of History. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.Google Scholar

Betzig, L. L. (1992). Roman polygyny. Ethology and Sociobiology, 13, 309–349.CrossRef Google Scholar

Betzig, L. L. (2005). Politics as sex: The Old Testament case. Evolutionary Psychology, 3, 326–346.Google Scholar

Betzig, L. L. (2009). But what is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? Politics and the Life Sciences, 28, 102–105.Google Scholar

Betzig, L. L. (2012). Means, variances and ranges in reproductive success: Comparative evidence. Human Behavior and Evolution, 33, 309–317.Google Scholar

Betzig, L. L. (2013). Darwin’s question: How can sterility evolve? In Summers, K. & Crespi, B., eds., Human Social Evolution: The Foundational Works of Richard D. Alexander. New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 365–374.Google Scholar

Betzig, L. L. (2014). Eusociality in history. Human Nature, 25, 80–99.Google Scholar

Betzig, L. L. (2016). Mating systems. In Shackelford, T. & Weekes-Shackelford, V., eds., Encycopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Berlin: Springer, pp. 1–11.Google Scholar

Bird, R. B., & Bird, D. (2002). Constraints on knowing or constraints on growing? Fishing and collecting by the children of Mer. Human Nature, 13, 239–267.Google Scholar

Book of the Dead (1967). Translated by W. Budge. New York: Dover.Google Scholar

Carneiro, R. L. (1970). A theory of the origin of the state. Science, 169, 733–738.CrossRef Google Scholar PubMed

Choe, J., & Crespi, B. (1997). Evolution of Social Behavior in Insects and Arachnids. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar

Cockburn, A. (2006). Prevalence of different modes of parental care in birds. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B, 273, 1375–1383.Google Scholar

Crespi, B. (2014). The insectan ape. Human Nature, 25, 6–27.Google Scholar

Dijkstra, M. B., & Boomsma, J. J. (2006). Are workers of Atta leafcutter ants capable of reproduction? Insectes Sociaux, 53, 136–140.CrossRef Google Scholar

Ebrey, P. (2002). Women and the Family in Chinese History. London: Routledge.Google Scholar

Emlen, S. T. (1997). Predicting family dynamics in social vertebrates. In Krebs, J. & Davies, N., eds., Behavioural Ecology, 4th ed. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific, pp. 228–253.Google Scholar

Fisher, M. (2001). The sons of Ramesses II. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.Google Scholar

Foster, K., & Ratneiks, F. (2005). A new eusocial vertebrate? Trends in Ecology and Evolution, 20, 363–364.CrossRef Google Scholar PubMed

Gannon, S. (2011). Exclusion as language and the language of exclusion: Tracing regimes of gender through linguistic representations of the “eunuch.” Journal of the History of Sexuality, 20, 1–27.Google Scholar PubMed

Goldin, P. (2002). The Culture of Sex in Ancient China. Honolulu, HI: University of Hawaii Press.Google Scholar

Grayson, A. K. (1995). Eunuchs in power. In Dietrich, M. & Oretz, O., eds., Festschrift für Wolfram Freiherrn. Neukirchen: Alter Orient und Altes Testament, pp. 85–98.Google Scholar

Hammer, M. F., Mendez, F. L., Cox, M. P., Woerner, A. E., & Wall, J. D. (2008). Sex-biased evolutionary forces shape genomic patterns of human diversity. PLoS Genetics, 4, e1000202.Google Scholar

Hawkes, K., & Coxworth, J. (2013). Grandmothers and the evolution of human longevity: A review of findings and future directions. Evolutionary Anthropology, 22, 294–302.Google Scholar

Hawkes, K., O’Connell, J. F., & Blurton Jones, N. G. (1989). Hardworking Hadza grandmothers. In Standen, V. & Foley, R., eds., Comparative Socioecology: The Behavioural Ecology of Humans and Other Mammals. London: Blackwell, pp. 341–366.Google Scholar

Haydock, J., & Koenig, W. D. (2002). Reproductive skew in the polygyandrous acorn woodpecker. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 99, 7178–7183.Google Scholar

Hewlett, B. S., & Lamb, M. (2005). Hunter–Gatherer Childhoods: Evolutionary, Developmental and Cultural Perspectives. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.Google Scholar

Hill, K., & Hurtado, A. M. (2009). Cooperative breeding in South American hunter–gatherers. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 276, 3863–3870.Google Scholar

Hölldobler, B., & Wilson, E. O. (2009). The Superorganism. New York: Norton.Google Scholar

Hölldobler, B., & Wilson, E. O. (2011). The Leafcutter Ants. New York: Norton.Google Scholar

Hopkins, K. (1963). Eunuchs in politics in the later Roman Empire. Proceedings of the Cambridge Philological Society, 9, 62–80.Google Scholar

Hrdy, S. B. (1999). Mother Nature: A History of Mothers, Infants and Natural Selection. New York: Pantheon Books.Google Scholar

Hrdy, S. B. (2009). Mothers and Others: The Evolutionary Origins of Mutual Understanding. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar

Imperial Administrative Records: Palace and Temple Administration (1992). Edited by Fales, F. M & Postgate, M.. Helsinki: University of Helsinki Press.Google Scholar

Kadish, G. (1967). Eunuchs in ancient Egypt? In Studies in Honor of John A. Wilson. Chicago, IL: Oriental Institute, pp. 55–72.Google Scholar

Kaplan, H., Hill, K., Lancaster, J. B., & Hurado, A. M. (2000). A theory of human life history. Evolutionary Anthropology, 9, 156–185.Google Scholar

Karmin, M., Saaq, L., Vicente, M., et al. (2015). A recent bottleneck of Y chromosome diversity coincides with a global change in culture. Genome Research, 25, 459–466.Google Scholar

Keeley, L. (1988). Hunter–gatherer economic complexity and population pressure: A cross-cultural analysis. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 7, 373–411.Google Scholar

Kelly, R. (2013). The Foraging Spectrum, 2nd ed. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

Koenig, W. D., & Mumme, R. (1987). Population Ecology of the Cooperatively Breeding Acorn Woodpecker. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar

Koenig, W. D., & Dickinson, J. (2004). Evolution of Cooperative Breeding in Birds. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

Koenig, W. D., & Dickinson, J. (2016). Cooperative Breeding in Vertebrates. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

Koenig, W. D., Dickinson, J., & Emlen, S. T. (2016). Synthesis: Cooperative breeding in the twenty-first century. In Koenig, W. D. & Dickinson, J. L., eds., Cooperative Breeding in Vertebrates. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 353–374.Google Scholar

Kramer, K. L. (2005). Children’s help and the pace of reproduction: Cooperative breeding in humans. Evolutionary Anthropology, 14, 224–237.Google Scholar

Kramer, K. L., & Greaves, R. D. (2011). Juvenile subsistence effort, activity levels, and growth patterns: Middle childhood among Pumé foragers. Human Nature, 22, 303–326.Google Scholar

Kulke, H., & Rothermund, D. (2004). A History of India, 4th ed. London: Routledge.Google Scholar

Lippold, S., Xu, H., Ko, A., et al. (2014). Human paternal and maternal demographic histories: Insights from high-resolution Y chromosome and mtDNA sequences. Investigative Genetics, 5, 13–30.Google Scholar

Mann, J., Connor, R., Tyack, P., & Whitehead, H. (2000). Cetacean Societies. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar

Meehan, C. L., Quinlan, R., & Malcom, C. (2013). Cooperative breeding and maternal energy expenditure among Aka foragers. American Journal of Human Biology, 25, 42–57.Google Scholar

Ogden, D. (1996). Greek Bastardy. London: Oxford University Press.CrossRef Google Scholar

Poznik, G. D., Xue, Y., Mendez, F. L., et al. (2016). Punctuated bursts in human male demography inferred from 1,244 worldwide Y-chromosome sequences. Nature Genetics, 48, 593–601.Google Scholar

Pyramid Texts (1995). Translated by J. P. Allen. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar

Rawson, B. (1986). Children in the Roman familia. In Rawson, B., ed., The Family in Ancient Rome. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, pp. 170–200.Google Scholar

Rawson, B. (2011). A Companion to Families in the Greek and Roman Worlds. London: Blackwell.Google Scholar

Retief, F., Cilliers, F., & Riekert, S. (2005). Eunuchs in the Bible. Acta Theologica, Supplement, 7, 247–258.Google Scholar

Scheidel, W. (2009). A peculiar institution? Greco-Roman monogamy in global context. History of the Family, 14, 280–291.CrossRef Google Scholar

Scheidel, W., & Morris, I. (2009). The Dynamics of Ancient Empires. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar

Sear, R., & Mace, R. (2008). Who keeps children alive? A review of the effects of kin on child survival. Evolution and Human Behavior, 29, 1–18.Google Scholar

Sennacherib (1924). Annals, translated by D. D. Luckenbill. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar

Sherman, P. W., Lacey, E., Reeve, K., & Keller, L. (1995). The eusociality continuum. Behavioral Ecology, 6, 102–108.Google Scholar

Solomon, N., & French, J. (1997). Cooperative Breeding in Mammals. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

Stacey, P., & Koenig, W. (1990). Cooperative Breeding in Birds. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar

Strassmann, B., & Kurapati, N. (2010). Are humans cooperative breeders? Most studies of natural fertility populations do not support the grandmother hypothesis. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33, 35–39.Google Scholar

Tiglath-Pileser, III (1995). Middle Assyrian Palace Decree, translated by M. T. Roth. Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press.Google Scholar

Tougher, S. (2008). The Eunuch in Byzantine History and Society. London: Routledge.Google Scholar

Tougher, S. (2017). Roman Castrati: Eunuchs in the Roman Empire. London: Bloomsbury Academic.Google Scholar

Tsai, S. H. (1996). Eunuchs of the Ming Dynasty. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.Google Scholar

Tsai, S. H. (2002). Eunuch power in imperial China. In Tougher, S., ed., Eunuchs in Antiquity and Beyond. Cardiff: Classical Press of Wales, pp. 221–233.Google Scholar

Turke, P. W. (1988). Helpers at the nest: Childcare networks on Ifaluk. In Betzig, L., Borgerhoff Mulder, M., & Turke, P., eds., Human Reproductive Behavior. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 173–188.Google Scholar

van Gulik, J. H. (1961). Sexual Life in Ancient China. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar

Voland, E., Chasiotis, A., & Schiefenhövel, W. (2005). Grandmotherhood: The Evolutionary Significance of the Second Half of Female Life. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar

Weeks, K. (2006). KV5: A Preliminary Report on the Excavation of the Tomb of the Sons of Rameses II in the Valley of the Kings. New York: American University in Cairo Press.Google Scholar

Weissner, P. (2002). Hunting, healing, and Hxaro exchange: A long term perspective on !Kung (Ju/’hoansi) large-game hunting. Evolution and Human Behavior, 23, 1–30.Google Scholar

Williams, G. C. (1966). Adaptation and Natural Selection: A Critique of Some Current Evolutionary Thought. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar

Wilson, E. O. (1975). Sociobiology: The New Synthesis. Cambridge, MA: Belknap.Google Scholar

Wolff, J., & Sherman, P. (2007). Rodent Societies. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar

Yan, S., Wang, C. C., Zheng, H. X., et al. (2014). Y chromosomes of 40% Chinese descend from three Neolithic super-grandfathers. PLoS ONE, 9, e105691.CrossRef Google Scholar PubMed

Zerjal, T., Xue, Y., Bertorelle, G., et al. (2003). The genetic legacy of the Mongols. American Journal of Human Genetics, 72, 717–721.Google Scholar

Book contents

4 - Eusociality in Humans

Summary

Access options

References

Save book to Kindle

Save book to Dropbox

Save book to Google Drive