Those who can do: Wealth, status, and reproductive success on Ifaluk

Abstract

People everywhere require and therefore value resources. On Ifaluk, an atoll in the Western Carolines, salaried men, men of high status, and adults with living parents have more resources than other members of the population. The issue addressed here is whether differential success at acquiring resources leads to differential reproductive success. Analysis of Ifalukese age-specific fertility rates indicates the following: 1. 1. Men who receive or once received salaries have greater reproductive success than any other category of men. Reasons include that they begin reproducing at especially young ages, have shorter than average birth intervals, and only rarely fail to reproduce altogether. 2. 2. As a group, men with high status (chiefs, and their advisors and probable successors) have greater reproductive success than all never-salaried others. Reasons include shorter than average birth intervals and a somewhat lower than average chance of failing to reproduce altogether. 3. 3. Individuals with longer-living parents achieve higher than average lifetime reproductive success.