Abstract
The gender-specific labor demands of arid pastoralism often lead to spousal separation. Men typically respond in one of two ways: engage in mate guarding tactics, or loosen restrictions on female sexuality. Among Himba pastoralists in northwest Namibia, the latter strategy is dominant. Rooted in a history of matriliny, Himba have strong norms promoting female sexual autonomy. We propose that these conditions, combined with a stochastic resource base, have led to women utilizing a combination of formal and informal partnerships to meet their needs and the needs of their children. Aspects of Himba socioecology also increase the costs of mate guarding for men and lower the costs of extra-pair paternity, further bolstering a concurrency strategy. Using a mix of quantitative and qualitative data, we show how spousal separation, female autonomy, and concurrency are linked, and suggest that in this harsh environment having a mix of formal and informal romantic partners may be less costly and more beneficial than a system of monogamous marriage.
Highlights
The sexual division of labor has long been viewed as a core element of human social organization (Durkheim 1933; Becker 1985; Murdock and Provost 1973)
We focus on the costs and benefits of three interrelated behaviors: mate guarding, female autonomy, and concurrent partnerships in a case study of Himba pastoralists, living in rural, northwest Namibia
Propinquity with boyfriends was more steady across the seasons, whereas spousal separation was most prominent in the start of the dry season, with co-residence during that period occurring less than half the time
Summary
The sexual division of labor has long been viewed as a core element of human social organization (Durkheim 1933; Becker 1985; Murdock and Provost 1973). Husbands and wives form complementary partnerships, taking on different tasks linked to production and reproduction, driven by the common goal of efficiently raising joint offspring (Gurven et al 2009) At times, this kind of labor specialization requires that spouses spend significant periods of time apart, for example on multi-day foraging trips, while moving livestock between camps, or when engaging with long-distance trade networks. In order to balance these competing demands for production and reproduction, social norms are often put in place that restrict women’s autonomy and monitor their behavior These restrictions are widely viewed as efforts to prevent paternity loss while spouses are apart. There are instances where instead of restricting women’s autonomy, sexual freedom is tolerated, or even encouraged This alleviates the costs of mate guarding for men and their families, but increases the chance that they will invest in children who are not biologically their own. This second situation is less common, but may be adaptive in some circumstances
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