Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Childhood and the evolution of the human life course

An introduction

  • Published:
Human Nature Aims and scope Submit manuscript

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Subscribe and save

Springer+ Basic
$34.99 /Month
  • Get 10 units per month
  • Download Article/Chapter or eBook
  • 1 Unit = 1 Article or 1 Chapter
  • Cancel anytime
Subscribe now

Buy Now

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

References

  • Blurton Jones, N. G. 1993 The Lives of Hunter-Gather Children: Effects of Parental Behavior and Parental Reproductive Strategy. In Juvenile Primates, M. E. Pereira and L. A. Fairbanks, eds. Pp. 309–326. New York: Oxford.

    Google Scholar 

  • Blurton Jones, N. G., K. Hawkes, and J. F. O’Connell 1989 Modelling & Measuring Costs of Children in Two Foraging Societies. In Comparative Socioecology, R. Foley, ed. Pp. 367–390. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific.

    Google Scholar 

  • 1997 Why Do Hadza Children Forage? In Genetic, Ethological and Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Development, N. L. Segal, G. E. Weisfeld, and C. C. Weisfeld, eds. Pp. 279–314. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.

    Google Scholar 

  • 1999 Some Current Ideas about the Evolution of Human Life History. In Comparative Primate Socioecology, P. C. Lee, ed. Pp. 140–166. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bogin, B. 1999 Patterns of Human Growth, Vol. 23. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bogin, B., and B. H. Smith 1996 Evolution of the Human Life Cycle. American Journal of Human Biology 8:703–716.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Charnov, E. L. 1993 Life History Invariants. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Charnov, E. L., and D. Berrigan 1993 Why Do Female Primates Have Such Long Lifespans and So Few Babies? Evolutionary Anthropology 1:191–194.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hawkes, K., J. F. O’Connell, and N. G. Blurton Jones 1997 Hadza Women’s Time Allocation, Offspring Provisioning, and the Evolution of Long Post-Menopausal Lifespans. Current Anthropology 38:551–577.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hawkes, K., J. F. O’Connell, N. G. Blurton Jones, H. Alvarez, and E. L. Charnov 1998 Grandmothering, Menopause, and the Evolution of Human Life Histories. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA 95:1336–1339.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Janson, C. H., and C. P. van Schaik 1993 Ecological Risk Aversion in Juvenile Primates: Slow and Steady Wins the Race. In Juvenile Primates: Life History, Development, and Behavior, M. E. Pereira and L. A. Fairbanks, eds. Pp. 57–74. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan, H. S. 1996 A Theory of Fertility and Parental Investment in Traditional and Modern Human Societies. Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 39:91–135.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan, H. S., and J. Bock 2001 Fertility Theory: The Embodied Capital Theory of Human Life History Evolution. In The International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, N. J. Smelser and P. B. Baltes, eds. Pp. 5561–5568. Oxford: Elsevier Science.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan, H. S., J. B. Lancaster, J. A. Bock, and S. E. Johnson 1995 Does Observed Fertility Maximize Fitness among New Mexican Men? Human Nature 6:325–360.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan, H. S., J. B. Lancaster, K. Hill, and A. M. Hurtado 2000 A Theory of Human Life History Evolution: Diet, Intelligence, and Longevity. Evolutionary Anthropology 9:156–183.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Konner, M. J. 1991 Childhood: A Multicultural View. Boston: Little, Brown.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leigh, S. R. 2001 The Evolution of Human Growth. Evolutionary Anthropology 10:223–236.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Panter-Brick, C., ed. 1998 Biosocial Perspectives on Children. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to John Bock.

Additional information

John Bock is assistant professor of anthropology at California State University, Fullerton, and is Associate Editor of Human Nature. He received a Ph.D. in Anthropology (Human Evolutionary Ecology) from the University of New Mexico. Bock has been conducting research among the Okavango Delta Peoples of Botswana since 1992, examining child development and family demography in relation to socioecology and the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Other research is focused on health disparities among minorities and indigenous peoples in Botswana and the United States related to differential access to health care.

Dan Sellen is an assistant professor at Emory University with joint appointments in the anthropology and international health departments, is an honorary lecturer at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and directs the Program for the Study of Constraints on Child Care at Emory University. He studied zoology and biological anthropology at Oxford University (M.A., 1987), anthropology at the University of Michigan (M.A., 1989), theoretical ecology and international nutrition at UC Davis (Ph.D., 1995), and completed postdoctoral training in evolutionary demography at University College London. He is interested in the application of evolutionary anthropological theory to international public health and nutrition, and has conducted research on the determinants and consequences of feeding practices among young children in rural (Tanzania, Guatemala) and refugee (Britain, United States) populations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Bock, J., Sellen, D.W. Childhood and the evolution of the human life course. Hum Nat 13, 153–159 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-002-1006-5

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-002-1006-5

Keywords

Navigation