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Edited by Stephen Beckerman, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, and accepted by the Editorial Board September 20, 2010 (received for review March 1, 2010)
Abstract
Partible paternity, the conception belief that more than one man can contribute to the formation of a fetus, is common in lowland South America and characterized by nonexclusive mating relationships and various institutionalized forms of recognition and investment by multiple cofathers. Previous work has emphasized the fitness benefits for women where partible paternity beliefs facilitate paternal investment from multiple men and may reduce the risk of infanticide. In this comparative study of 128 lowland South American societies, the prevalence of partible paternity beliefs may be as much as two times as common as biologically correct beliefs in singular paternity. Partible paternity beliefs are nearly ubiquitous in four large language families—Carib, Pano, Tupi, and Macro-Je. Phylogenetic reconstruction suggests that partible paternity evolved deep in Amazonian prehistory at the root of a tentative Je-Carib-Tupi clade. Partible paternity often occurs with uxorilocal postmarital residence (males transfer), although there are exceptions. Partible paternity may have benefits for both sexes, especially in societies where essentially all offspring are said to have multiple fathers. Despite a decrease in paternity certainty, at least some men probably benefit (or mitigate costs) by increasing their number of extramarital partners, using sexual access to their wives to formalize male alliances, and/or sharing paternity with close kin.
Footnotes
- 1To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: walkerro{at}missouri.edu.
Author contributions: R.S.W. and K.R.H. designed research; R.S.W., M.V.F., and K.R.H. performed research; R.S.W. and M.V.F. analyzed data; and R.S.W., M.V.F., and K.R.H. wrote the paper.
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
This article is a PNAS Direct Submission. S.B. is a guest editor invited by the Editorial Board.
This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1002598107/-/DCSupplemental.
Evolutionary history of partible paternity in lowland South America
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