Substitute Parents : : Biological and Social Perspectives on Alloparenting in Human Societies / / ed. by Ruth Mace, Gillian Bentley.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Berghahn Books Complete eBook-Package 2000-2013
• MitwirkendeR: Ansell, Nicola,; Belsky, Jay,; Bensel, Joachim,; Bentley, Gillian R.,; Blerk, Lorraine van,; Butler, Ian,; Flinn, Mark V.,; Gottlieb, Alma,; Hayes, Loren D.,; Howe, David,; Hrdy, Sarah B.,; Kramer, Karen L.,; Leone, David,; Lycett, Emma,; Mace, Ruth,; Mayall, Berry,; Paull, Gillian,; Penn, Helen,; Robinson, Margaret,; Scanlan, Lesley,; Sear, Rebecca,; Solomon, Nancy G.,; Valeggia, Claudia R.,
• HerausgeberIn: Bentley, Gillian,; Mace, Ruth,
• Place / Publishing House: New York ;, Oxford : : Berghahn Books, , [2009]; ©2009
• Year of Publication: 2009
• Language: English
• Series: Studies of the Biosocial Society ; 3
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (372 p.)

From a comparative perspective, human life histories are unique and raising offspring is unusually costly: humans have relatively short birth intervals compared to other apes, childhood is long, mothers care simultaneously for many dependent children (other apes raise one offspring at a time), infant mortality is high in natural fertility/mortality populations, and human females have a long post-reproductive lifespan. These features conspire to make child raising very burdensome. Mothers frequently defray these costs with paternal help (not usual in other ape species), although this contribution is not always enough. Grandmothers, elder siblings, paid allocarers, or society as a whole, help to defray the costs of childcare, both in our evolutionary past and now. Studying offspring care in a various human societies, and other mammalian species, a wide range of specialists such as anthropologists, psychologists, animal behaviorists, evolutionary ecologists, economists and sociologists, have contributed to this volume, offering new insights into and a better understanding of one of the key areas of human society.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Tables -- List of Figures -- PROLOGUE Allomothers across Species, across Cultures, and through Time -- 1 • The Pros and Cons of Substitute Parenting: An Overview -- PART I Alloparental Strategies -- 2 • The Biological Basis of Alloparental Behaviour in Mammals -- 3 • Family Matters Kin, Demography and Child Health in a Rural Gambian Population -- 4 • Does It Take a Family to Raise a Child? Cooperative Breeding and the Contributions of Maya Siblings, Parents and Older Adults in Raising Children -- 5 • Flexible Caretakers: Responses of Toba Families in Transition -- 6 • Who Minds the Baby? Beng Perspectives on Mothers, Neighbours and Strangers as Caretakers -- 7 • Economic Perspectives on Alloparenting -- 8 • The School as Alloparent -- 9 • The Parenting and Substitute Parenting of Young Children -- 10 • Adoption, Adopters and Adopted Children: An Evolutionary Perspective -- 11 • Surrogacy: The Experiences of Commissioning Couples and Surrogate Mothers -- PART II The Effect of Alloparenting on Children -- 12 • Alloparenting in the Context of AIDS in Southern Africa: Complex Strategies for Care -- 13 • Alloparental Care and the Ontogeny of Glucocorticoid Stress Response among Stepchildren -- 14 • Separation Stress in Early Childhood: Harmless Side Effect of Modern Caregiving Practices or Risk Factor for Development? -- 15 • Quality, Quantity and Type of Childcare Effects on Child Development in the U.S. -- 16 • ‘It feels normal that other people are split up but not your Mum and Dad’: Divorce through the Eyes of Children -- Glossary -- Contributors -- Index