Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA.
Proc Biol Sci. 2011 Jul 22;278(1715):2223-32. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2010.2145. Epub 2010 Dec 8.
In many human societies, high male social status associates with higher fertility, but the means by which status increases lifetime fitness have not been systematically investigated. We analyse the pathways by which male status begets reproductive success in a small-scale, Amerindian society. Men who are more likely to win a dyadic physical confrontation, i.e. dominant men, have higher intra-marital fertility for their age, and men with more community-wide influence, i.e. prestigious men, exhibit both higher intra-marital fertility and lower offspring mortality. Both forms of status elicit support from allies and deference from competitors, but high status men are not provisioned more than their peers. Prestigious but not dominant men marry wives who first give birth at earlier ages, which multivariate analysis suggests is the strongest pathway between status and fitness in this population. Furthermore, men are motivated to pursue status because of fitness gains both within and outside of marital unions: dominant and prestigious men have more in-pair surviving offspring as well as more extra-marital affairs.
在许多人类社会中，男性的社会地位越高，生育率就越高，但提高地位以增加终生适应力的途径尚未得到系统研究。我们分析了在一个小规模的美洲印第安人社会中，男性地位如何带来生殖成功的途径。在二元身体对抗中更有可能获胜的男性，即支配型男性，在其年龄段内的婚内生育率更高，而在更广泛的社区中具有影响力的男性，即有声望的男性，表现出更高的婚内生育率和更低的后代死亡率。这两种形式的地位都能得到盟友的支持和竞争对手的尊重，但高地位的男性并不会比同龄人得到更多的供养。有声望但不支配的男性娶的妻子，其首次生育年龄更早，多元分析表明，这是该人群中地位和健康之间的最强途径。此外，男性之所以追求地位，是因为在婚姻关系内外都能获得健康收益：支配型和有声望的男性在婚内有更多的存活后代，也有更多的婚外情。
