ABSTRACT
Like other highly social mammals, humans evolved to nurture kin, particularly offspring. However, recent theories of social evolution suggest that humans evolved kin investment dispositions that are more complex than a general tendency to derive satisfaction from raising children (Alexander 1979, 1987; Daly and Wilson 1983, 1988a; Trivers 1985). A contemporary evolutionary perspective suggests that humans probably evolved to discriminate in their solicitude towards kin, based on factors including degree of relatedness, certainty of relatedness, access to resources and reproductive value (MacDonald 1988a, b; Smith 1987, 1988).
