Death, Hope, and Sex: Life-History Theory and the Development of Reproductive Strategies [and Comments and Reply

Abstract

Many social scientists reject evolutionary views of human behavior because of their supposed genetic determinism. To establish that not all evolutionary models are inherently deterministic the author first reviews the perennial adaptationist-mechanist controversy in evolutionary biology. He then outlines life-history theory a burgeoning field of biology devoted to the study of reproduction growth and development and ecology in an evolutionary context. He undertakes next to show how life-history theory can provide a satisfactory resolution to the adaptationist-mechanist debate. Combining Promislow and Harveys arguments about the role of mortality rates in the evolution of life-history traits with Belsky Steinberg and Drapers attachment-theory model of the development of alternative reproductive strategies in humans the author proposes that the allocation of reproductive (mating and parenting) effort in adults may be partially contingent on their early experience with the causes and correlates of local high death rates. The author concludes with a discussion of some implications of this proposal for the emerging field of evolutionary psychology. (authors)