ABSTRACT
This conclusion presents some closing thoughts on the key concepts discussed in the preceding chapters of this book. The book aims to re-evaluate the male provisioning explanation of pair bonds and to suggest an alternative model focused on intergenerational bonds between females. It suggests that some polygynous Dogon males may achieve reproductive success at the expense of their wives. The book also suggests that sometimes programs to reduce fertility will lead to an unbalanced sex ratio, perhaps by increasing female childhood mortality rates. It argues that models generated from kin selection and reciprocal altruism theory are not adequate to explain how systems that buffer individuals against pathology risk evolve or are maintained in foraging groups. The book shows that application of evolutionary theory to human behavior, especially in the human behavioral ecology tradition, is not about genetic determinism. It concludes that fertility and wealth are negatively related in industrial societies.
