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Intergenerational transfers and the cost of allomothering in traditional societies

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 April 2010

Karen L. Kramer
Karen L. Kramer
Affiliation:
Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138. kkramer@fas.harvard.edu
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Abstract

The question of why helpers help is debated in the cooperative breeding literature. Recent reevaluations of inclusive fitness theory have important implications for traditional populations in which the provisioning of young occurs in the context of intergenerational transfers. These transfers link older and younger generations in an economic relationship that both minimizes the demand for help and the cost of helping.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 33 , Issue 1 , February 2010 , pp. 30 - 31
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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