Sexual Selection Under Parental Choice Across Societies and Across Time

Abstract

This chapter applies the model of parental choice in making comparisons between societies of different subsistence types. It employs these predictions in order to make inferences about how the strength of parental choice and other sexual selection forces have changed through the course of human evolution. In accordance with the predictions of the model, evidence from anthropological and historical studies indicates that parental choice is stronger and male parents are more influential in pre-industrial societies which base their subsistence on agriculture and on animal husbandry than in societies which base their subsistence on hunting and gathering. On the basis of these findings, it is argued that the agropastoral revolution, which took place approximately 10,000 years ago, has resulted into the strengthening of male parental choice and the weakening of individual choice. This pattern has been reversed, however, following the industrial revolution and the eventual transition to post-industrialism.