Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t7czq Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T10:58:34.746Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Pathogens promote matrilocal family ties and the copying of foreign religions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 January 2012

Lei Chang ,
Hui Jing Lu  and
Bao Pei Wu
Lei Chang
Affiliation:
Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China. [email protected]@[email protected]://www.fed.cuhk.edu.hk/eps/people/changl.html
Hui Jing Lu
Affiliation:
Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China. [email protected]@[email protected]://www.fed.cuhk.edu.hk/eps/people/changl.html
Bao Pei Wu
Affiliation:
Department of Educational Psychology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, N.T., Hong Kong, Special Administrative Region, People's Republic of China. [email protected]@[email protected]://www.fed.cuhk.edu.hk/eps/people/changl.html
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Within the same pathogen-stress framework as proposed by Fincher & Thornhill (F&T), we argue further that pathogen stress promotes matrilocal rather than patrilocal family ties which, in turn, slow down the process of modernity; and that pathogen stress promotes social learning or copying, including the adoption of foreign religions.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 35 , Issue 2 , April 2012 , pp. 82 - 83
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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

Boyd, R. & Richerson, P. J. (2005) The origin and evolution of cultures. Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Central Intelligence Agency (2010) The World Factbook. Retrieved April 8, from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/xx.html.Google Scholar
Chang, L., Mak, M. C. K., Li, T., Wu, B. P., Chen, B. B. & Lu, H. J. (2011) Cultural adaptations to environmental variability: An evolutionary account of East–West differences. Educational Psychology Review 23:99–129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jordan, F. M., Gray, R. D., Greenhill, S. J. & Mace, R. (2009) Matrilocal residence is ancestral in Austronesian societies. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 276:1957–64.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Katz, M. & Konner, M. (1981) The role of the father: An anthropological perspective. In: The role of the father in child development, ed. Lamb, M., 2nd edition, pp. 155–81. John Wiley.Google Scholar
Low, B. S. (1988) Pathogen stress and polygyny in humans. In: Human reproductive behavior: A Darwinian perspective, ed. Betzig, L., Borgerhoff Mulder, M. & Turke, P., pp. 115–27. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Low, B. S. (1990) Marriage systems and pathogen stress in human societies. American Zoologist 30:325–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marlowe, F. W. (2000) Paternal investment and the human mating system. Behavioural Processes 51:45–61.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Marlowe, F. W. (2003) The mating system of foragers in the standard cross-cultural sample. Cross-Cultural Research 37:282–306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murdock, G. P. (1967) Ethnographic atlas. University of Pittsburgh Press.Google Scholar
Murdock, G. P. & White, D. R. (1969) Standard cross-cultural sample. Ethnology 8:329–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Murray, D. R., Trudeau, R. & Schaller, M. (2011) On the origins of cultural differences in conformity: Four tests of the pathogen prevalence hypothesis. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 37:318–29.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Newson, L., Postmes, T., Lea, S. E. G. & Webley, P. (2005) Why are modern families small? Toward an evolutionary and cultural explanation for the demographic transition. Personality and Social Psychology Review 9:360–75.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Newson, L. & Richerson, P. J. (2009) Why do people become modern? A Darwinian mechanism. Population and Development Review 35:117–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wu, B.-P. & Chang, L. (under review) The social impact of pathogen threat: How disease salience influences conformity.Google Scholar