Evolutionary anthropologists have long emphasized the puzzle of short inter-birth intervals, extended childhoods, and long post-reproductive lives of humans, in particular the problem it poses for raising children. While there is agreement that mothers receive assistance from kin to offset the high costs of raising children, opinion is equivocal as to which kin help and to what extent they help. Here the authors review 45 studies from historical and contemporary natural fertility populations to assess the effects of various types of kin on child survival rates.

Evolutionary anthropologists have long emphasized the puzzle of short inter-birth intervals, extended childhoods, and long post-reproductive lives of humans, in particular the problem it poses for raising children. While there is agreement that mothers receive assistance from kin to offset the high costs of raising children, opinion is equivocal as to which kin help and to what extent they help. Here the authors review 45 studies from historical and contemporary natural fertility populations to assess the effects of various types of kin on child survival rates.

Evolutionary anthropologists have long emphasized the puzzle of short inter-birth intervals, extended childhoods, and long post-reproductive lives of humans, in particular the problem it poses for raising children. While there is agreement that mothers receive assistance from kin to offset the high costs of raising children, opinion is equivocal as to which kin help and to what extent they help. Here the authors review 45 studies from historical and contemporary natural fertility populations to assess the effects of various types of kin on child survival rates.

Evolutionary anthropologists have long emphasized the puzzle of short inter-birth intervals, extended childhoods, and long post-reproductive lives of humans, in particular the problem it poses for raising children. While there is agreement that mothers receive assistance from kin to offset the high costs of raising children, opinion is equivocal as to which kin help and to what extent they help. Here the authors review 45 studies from historical and contemporary natural fertility populations to assess the effects of various types of kin on child survival rates.

Evolutionary anthropologists have long emphasized the puzzle of short inter-birth intervals, extended childhoods, and long post-reproductive lives of humans, in particular the problem it poses for raising children. While there is agreement that mothers receive assistance from kin to offset the high costs of raising children, opinion is equivocal as to which kin help and to what extent they help. Here the authors review 45 studies from historical and contemporary natural fertility populations to assess the effects of various types of kin on child survival rates.

Evolutionary anthropologists have long emphasized the puzzle of short inter-birth intervals, extended childhoods, and long post-reproductive lives of humans, in particular the problem it poses for raising children. While there is agreement that mothers receive assistance from kin to offset the high costs of raising children, opinion is equivocal as to which kin help and to what extent they help. Here the authors review 45 studies from historical and contemporary natural fertility populations to assess the effects of various types of kin on child survival rates.

Evolutionary anthropologists have long emphasized the puzzle of short inter-birth intervals, extended childhoods, and long post-reproductive lives of humans, in particular the problem it poses for raising children. While there is agreement that mothers receive assistance from kin to offset the high costs of raising children, opinion is equivocal as to which kin help and to what extent they help. Here the authors review 45 studies from historical and contemporary natural fertility populations to assess the effects of various types of kin on child survival rates.

Authors conduct a meta-analysis of 17 studies that tested for an association between grandparental survival and grandchild survival in patrilineal populations. Results show that the survival of the maternal grandparents is significantly related to the survival of the grandchild. The survival of the parternal grandparents is not associated with grandchild survival. The authors compare their results to previous hypotheses that relate grandparental and grandoffspring survival and find that there results are most in line with the Local Resource Competition Hypothesis.

This article examines parent-in-law avoidance in non-industrial societies. The author suggests that in-law avoidance is associated with characteristics of kinship structure, such as lineality, residence and family type. A psychological interpretation is also offered. Results support hypotheses relating to kinship structure.

The authors predict that fitness outcomes will be negatively associated with spousal relatedness among foragers but positively associated among non-foragers, due to the greater social benefits of intensive kinship systems among non-foragers. Support is found for this hypothesis; however, an interaction effect is discovered with inbreeding, which appears to account for the variability in these relationships independent of subsistence activity. The authors qualify this support in order to explain why the incidence of cousin-marriage in non-foraging societies is not higher.