Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Determinants of time allocation across the lifespan

A theoretical model and an application to the Machiguenga and Piro of Peru

  • Published:
Human Nature Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper lays the groundwork for a theory of time allocation across the life course, based on the idea that strength and skill vary as a function of age, and that return rates for different activities vary as a function of the combination of strength and skills involved in performing those tasks. We apply the model to traditional human subsistence patterns. The model predicts that young children engage most heavily in low-strength/low-skill activities, middle-aged adults in high-strength/high-skill activities, and older adults in low-strength/high-skill activities. Tests among Machiguenga and Piro forager-horticulturalists of southeastern Peru show that males and females focus on low-strength/low-skill tasks early in life (domestic tasks and several forms of fishing), switch to higher-strength/higher-skill activities in their twenties and thirties (hunting, fishing, and gardening for males; fishing and gardening for females), and shift focus to high-skill activities late in life (manufacture/repair, food processing).

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

Access this article

Log in via an institution

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.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Alvard, M. S. 1993 Testing the Ecologically Noble Savage Hypothesis. Ph.D. dissertation, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.

    Google Scholar 

  • Baksh, M. 1984 Cultural Ecology and Change of the Machiguenga Indians of the Peruvian Amazon. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles.

    Google Scholar 

  • Becker, G. S. 1991 A Treatise on the Family, enlarged ed. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bird, D. W., and R. Bliege Bird 2002 Children on the Reef. Human Nature 13:269–297.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bird, R. 1999 Cooperation and Conflict: The Behavioral Ecology of the Sexual Division of Labor. Evolutionary Anthropology 8(2):65–75.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bliege Bird, R. and D. W. Bird 2002 Constraints of Knowing or Constraints of Growing? Human Nature 13:239–267.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blurton Jones, N. G., and F. W. Marlowe 2002 Selection for Delayed Maturity: Does It Take 20 Years to Learn to Hunt and Gather? Human Nature 13:199–238.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Blurton Jones, N. G., K. Hawkes, and P. Draper 1994 Differences between Hadza and !Kung Children’s Work: Original Affluence or Practical Reason? In Key Issues in Hunter-Gatherer Research, E. S. Burch, ed. Pp. 189–215. Oxford: Berg.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bock, J. 1995 The Determinants of Variation in Children’s Activities in a Southern African Community. Ph.D. dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.

    Google Scholar 

  • 2002a Learning, Life History, and Productivity: Children’s Lives in the Okavango Delta of Botswana. Human Nature 13:161–198.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • 2002b Evolutionary Demography and Intrahousehold Time Allocation: Schooling and Children’s Labor among the Okavango Delta Peoples of Botswana. American Journal of Human Biology 14:206–221.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • 2004a Farming, Foraging, and Children’s Play in the Okavango Delta, Botswana. In The Nature of Play: Great Apes and Humans, A. Pellegrini and P.K. Smith, eds. Pp. 254–281. New York: Guilford.

    Google Scholar 

  • 2004b What Makes a Competent Adult Forager? In Hunter-Gatherer Childhoods, B. Hewlett and M. Lamb, eds. Pp. 109–128. Piscataway, New Jersey: Aldine/Transaction.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bock, J., and S. Johnson 2004 Play and Subsistence Ecology among the Okavango Delta Peoples of Botswana. Human Nature 15:63–81.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bock, J., and D. W. Sellen 2002 Childhood and the Evolution of the Human Life Course: An Introduction. Human Nature 13:153–161.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cain, M. T. 1977 The Economic Activities of Children in a Village in Bangladesh. Population and Development Review 3:201–227.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • 1981 Extended Kin, Patriarchy, and Fertility. Liege, Belgium: International Union for the Scientific Study of Population, Committee on Comparative Analysis of Fertility.

    Google Scholar 

  • Caldwell, J. C. 1982 Theory of Fertility Decline. London and New York: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Caro, T. M. 1988 Adaptive Significance of Play: Are We Getting Closer? Trends in Ecology and Evolution 3:50–53.

    Article  Google Scholar 

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

    Google Scholar 

  • Draper, P. 1975 !Kung Women: Contrasts in Sexual Egalitarianism in Foraging and Sedentary Contexts. In Toward an Anthropology of Women, edited by R. Reiter, pp. 77–109. New York: Monthly Review Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fagen, R. 1981 Animal Play Behavior. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gow, P. 2001 An Amazonian Myth and Its History. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hames, R. 1979 A Comparison of the Efficiencies of the Shotgun and Bow in Neotropical Forest Hunting. Human Ecology 7:219–252.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • 1989 Time, Efficiency, and Fitness in the Amazonian Protein Quest. Journal of Economic Anthropology 11:43–45.

    Google Scholar 

  • 1992 Time Allocation. In Evolutionary Ecology and Human Behavior, E. A. Smith and B. Winterhalder, eds. Pp. 203–236. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hawkes, K. 2003 Grandmothers and the Evolution of Human Longevity. American Journal of Human Biology 15:380–400.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hawkes, K., and R. Bliege Bird 2002 Showing Off, Handicap Signaling and the Evolution of Men’s Work. Evolutionary Anthropology 11:58–67.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hawkes, K., K. Hill, J. O’Connell, and E. L. Charnov 1985 How Much Is Enough? Hunters and Limited Needs. Ethology and Sociobiology 6:3–15.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hawkes, K., J. F. O’Connell, et al. 1998 Grandmothering, Menopause, and the Evolution of Human Life Histories. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science 95:1336–1339.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hill, K., and A. Hurtado 1996 Ache Life History: The Ecology and Demography of a Foraging People. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huet, S., A. Bouvier, M. Gruet, and E. Jolivet 1996 Statistical Tools for Non-linear Regression. New York: Springer-Verlag.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hurtado, A. M., and K. Hill 1990 Experimental Studies of Tool Efficiency among Machiguenga Women and Implications for Root-digging Foragers. Journal of Anthropological Research 35:207–217.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hurtado, A. M., et al. 1985 Female Subsistence Strategies among Ache Hunter-Gatherers of Eastern Paraguay. Human Ecology 13:29–47.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hurtado, A. M., K. Hill, H. Kaplan, and I. Hurtado 1992 Tradeoffs between Female Food Acquisition and Childcare among Hiwi and Ache Foragers. Human Nature 3:185–216.

    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. Pereira and L. Fairbanks, eds. Pp. 57–76. New York: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, A. 1975 Time Allocation in a Machiguenga Community. Ethnology 14:301–310.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • 2003 Families of the Forest: The Matsigenka Indians of the Peruvian Amazon. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Johnson, S. E., and J. Bock 2004 Trade-offs in Skill Acquisition and Time Allocation among Juvenile Chacma Baboons. Human Nature 15:45–62.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan, H. 1994 Evolutionary and Wealth Flows Theories of Fertility: Empirical Tests and New Models. Population and Development Review 20:753–791.

    Article  Google Scholar 

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

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • 1997 The Evolution of the Human Life Course. In Between Zeus and Salmon: the Biodemography of Aging, K. Wachter and C. Finch, eds. Pp. 175–211. Washington, D.C.: National Academy of Sciences.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan, H., and A. Robson 2002 the Co-evolution of Intelligence and Longevity and the Emergence of Humans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 99:10221–10226.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan, H., J. Lancaster, et al. 2003 Embodied Capital and the Evolutionary Economics of the Human Lifespan. Population and Development Review 29 (Supplement):152–182.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaplan, H., K. Hill, J. Lancaster, and A. M. Hurtado 2000 A Theory of Human Life History Evolution: Diet, Intelligence, and Longevity. Evolutionary Anthropology 9:156–185.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kelly, R. L. 1983 Hunter-Gatherer Mobility Strategies. Journal of Anthropological Research 29:277–306.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kopischke, K. 2001 Talkng to Children, Caring for Children: A Comparative Analysis of Modern and Traditional Communication Environments. M.A. thesis, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.

    Google Scholar 

  • Kramer, K. 2002 Variation in Duration of Juvenile Dependence: Helping Behavior among Maya Children. Human Nature 13:299–325.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kramer, K., and J. Boone 2002 Why Intensive Agriculturalists Have Higher Fertility: A Household Labor Budget Approach to Subsistence Intensification and Fertility Rates. Current Anthropology 43:511–517.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kumar, S. K., and D. Hotchkiss 1988 Consequences of Deforestation for Women’s Time Allocation, Agricultural Production, and Nutrition in Hill Areas of Nepal. International Food Policy Research Institute, Research Report 69. Washington, D.C.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee, R. 1996 A Cross-Cultural Perspective on Intergenerational Transfers and the Economic Life Cycle. In Seminar on Intergenerational Economic Relations and Demographic Change: Papers 16:1–25. Liege, Belgium: International Union for the Scientific Study of Population [IUSSP], Committee on Economic Demography.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lee, R., and K. Kramer 2002 Children’s Economic Roles in the Maya Family Life Cycle: Cain, Caldwell and Chayanov Revisited. Population and Development Review 28:475–499.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lee, Ronald D., Karen L. Kramer, and Hillard Kaplan 2002 Children and the Elderly in the Economic Life Cycle of the Household: A Comparative Study of Three Groups of Horticulturalists and Hunter-Gatherers. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the Population Association of America, Atlanta.

  • Munroe, R. H., A. Koel, R. L. Munroe, R. Bolton, C. Michelson, and C. Bolton 1983 Time Allocation in Four Societies. Ethnology 22:355–370.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nag, M., R. C. Peet, and B. White 1977 Economic Value of Children in Two Peasant Societies. International Union for the Scientific Study of Population 1977:123–139.

    Google Scholar 

  • Nerlove, M. 1965 Estimation and Identification of Cobb-Douglas Production Functions. Skokie, Illinois: Rand-McNally.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ratkowsky, D. A. 1990 Handbook of Nonlinear Regression Models. New York: Marcel Dekker.

    Google Scholar 

  • Robson, A., and H. Kaplan 2003 The Evolution of Human Life Expectancy and Intelligence in Hunter-Gatherer Economies. American Economic Review 93:150–169.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Roff, D. A. 1992 The Evolution of Life Histories. London: Chapman and Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Salisbury, R. 1962 From Stone to Steel. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, E. A. 1987 On Fitness Maximization, Limited Needs, and Hunter-Gatherer Time-Allocation. Ethology and Sociobiology 8:73–85.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stearns, S. 1992 The Evolution of Life Histories. Oxford University Press.

  • Tiefenthaler, J. 1997 Fertility and Family Time Allocation in the Philippines. Population and Development Review 23:377–397.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tooby, J., and I. DeVore 1987 The Reconstruction of Hominid Behavioral Evolution through Strategic Modeling. In The Evolution of Human Behavior: Primate Models, edited by W. G. Kinzey, pp. 183–237. Albany: SUNY Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Turke, P. W. 1991 Theory and Evidence on Wealth Flows and Old-Age Security: A Reply to Fricke. Population and Development Review 17:687–702, 756, 758.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • van den Berghe, P. L. 1979 Human Family Systems: An Evolutionary View. New York: Elsevier.

    Google Scholar 

  • Walker, R., K. Hill, and G. McMillan 2002 Age-Dependency in Skill, Strength and Hunting Ability among the Ache of Eastern Paraguay. Journal of Human Evolution 42:639–657.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Winterhalder, B. 1983 Opportunity-Cost Foraging Models for Stationary and Mobile Predators. American Naturalist 122:73–84.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of New Mexico, USA

    Hillard Kaplan

  2. Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, 93106, Santa Barbara, CA

    Michael Gurven

Authors
  1. Michael Gurven
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Hillard Kaplan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michael Gurven.

Additional information

Michael Gurven is an assistant professor of anthropology at the University of California-Santa Barbara. He received his Ph.D. from the University of New Mexico in 2000. He has conducted fieldwork in Paraguay and Bolivia with Ache and Tsimane forager-horticulturalists. His research interests include intragroup cooperation and problems of collective action, and the application of life history theory to explaining human longevity, cognitive development, delayed maturation, and sociality. Since 2002, Gurven and Kaplan have co-directed the Tsimane Health and Life History Initiative, a five-year project to develop theory and test implications of different models of human life history evolution.

Hillard Kaplan is a professor of anthropology at University of New Mexico. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Utah in 1983. He has conducted fieldwork in Paraguay, Brazil, Botswana, and Bolivia. His research interests include evolutionary perspectives on life course development and senescence, and brain evolution. He has launched theoretical and empirical investigations into each of these areas, uniting evolutionary and economic approaches. He has applied human capital theory toward explaining human life history evolution, and the proximate physiological and psychological mechanisms governing fertility and parental investment in both traditional, high-fertility, subsistence economies and modern, low-fertility, industrial societies.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Gurven, M., Kaplan, H. Determinants of time allocation across the lifespan. Hum Nat 17, 1–49 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-006-1019-6

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-006-1019-6

Key words

Search

Navigation