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How Mothers Maintain Natal Family Ties in a Patrilocal Society

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Abstract

Humans have been called “cooperative breeders” because mothers rely heavily on alloparental assistance, and the grandmother life stage has been interpreted as an adaptation for alloparenting. Many studies indicate that women invest preferentially in their daughters’ children, but little research has been conducted where patrilocal residence is normative. Bangladesh is such a place, but women nevertheless receive substantial alloparental investment from the matrilateral family, and child outcomes improve when maternal grandmothers are alloparents. To garner this support, women must maintain contact with their natal families. Here, the visiting behavior of 151 interviewed mothers was analyzed. Despite the challenges of patrilocality and purdah, almost all respondents visited their own mothers, and mothers-in-law were visited far less. This contrast persists in analyses controlling for proximity, respondent age, postmarital residence, family income, and marital status. These results affirm the importance women place on matrilateral ties, even under a countervailing ideology.

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Acknowledgments

I thank Peter Kim Streatfield and Tasleem Ali of the ICDDR,B for access to census data and for otherwise facilitating my research, and Ummehani Akter and Md. Sadiquzzaman for their work as Research Assistants. Financial support was provided by a Research Experience for Graduates award (NSF #1338748) from the National Science Foundation (sponsor Mary K. Shenk). Thanks to Martin Daly, Karthik Panchanathan, Mary Shenk, Craig Palmer, David Geary, and Kathrine Starkweather for discussion, comments, and support.

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  1. Anthropology Department, University of Missouri, 1205 University Avenue, Suite 1110, University Place, Columbia, MO, 65211, USA

    Gretchen Perry

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Perry, G. Going Home. Hum Nat 28, 219–230 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-016-9282-7

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