ABSTRACT
This chapter examines some of the principles that guide reproductive decision-making. It explores how evolutionary ecology can frame analyses of some of the diverse reproductive decisions, by focusing on these and other concepts derived from animal studies. Animal studies make it clear that variability in mating systems is the outcome of adaptive adjustments of males and females to the specifics of their social and ecological environments, as well as to variations in individual capabilities. The costs and benefits to the two sexes of providing parental care are important determinants of mating systems. Correlations between levels of polygyny and hunting success, chiefly rank, headmanship, and personal violence can also be assessed in relation to nonhuman models for polygyny. Another important dimension of parental care is its depreciability. For males paternity certainty directly impinges on the benefits of parental care: Why provide parental care to offspring that may not be yours?
