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The Mother-Infant Nexus in Anthropology pp 173–190Cite as

Moving Beyond the Obstetrical Dilemma Hypothesis: Birth, Weaning and Infant Care in the Plio-Pleistocene

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Part of the book series: Bioarchaeology and Social Theory ((BST))

Abstract

This chapter reviews current evidence of infant development and pelvic morphology from the hominin fossil record over our evolutionary history and considers the implications for understanding obstetrical dilemmas from ecological and evolutionary perspectives, and for infant care and survivorship over time and across species. We begin by defining infants and addressing the challenges of doing so within a palaeospecies. We also consider the limitations to our study of hominin infants due to taphonomic factors. We present an overview of the fossil record of hominin pelves and evolutionary changes relating to bipedalism and obstetrics. We then trace the fossil record of hominin infants and the evidence for the evolution of infant developmental trajectories. Finally, we draw these lines of evidence together to consider the current state of our understanding about the evolution of childbirth, mother–infant survivorship and infant care over time and if the obstetrical dilemma hypothesis is no longer supported.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Sexing of the infant is based on fully formed permanent tooth crowns in its mandible relative to known sexual dimorphism in Au. afarensis dentition.

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  1. University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada

    April Nowell & Helen Kurki

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  1. April Nowell
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  2. Helen Kurki
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Correspondence to April Nowell .

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  1. Department of Archaeology, Durham University, Durham, UK

    Rebecca Gowland

  2. Department of Anatomy, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

    Siân Halcrow

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Nowell, A., Kurki, H. (2020). Moving Beyond the Obstetrical Dilemma Hypothesis: Birth, Weaning and Infant Care in the Plio-Pleistocene. In: Gowland, R., Halcrow, S. (eds) The Mother-Infant Nexus in Anthropology. Bioarchaeology and Social Theory. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27393-4_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-27393-4_10

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