Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Kin and Child Survival in Rural Malawi

Are Matrilineal Kin Always Beneficial in a Matrilineal Society?

  • Published:
Human Nature Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

This paper investigates the impact of kin on child survival in a matrilineal society in Malawi. Women usually live in close proximity to their matrilineal kin in this agricultural community, allowing opportunities for helping behavior between matrilineal relatives. However, there is little evidence that matrilineal kin are beneficial to children. On the contrary, child mortality rates appear to be higher in the presence of maternal grandmothers and maternal aunts. These effects are modified by the sex of child and resource ownership: female children and children in households where women, rather than men, own land suffer higher mortality rates in the presence of maternal kin. These modifiers suggest the detrimental effects of matrilineal kin may result from competition between such kin for resources. There are some positive effects of kin on child survival: the presence of elder siblings of both sexes is correlated with higher survival rates, and there is some weak evidence that paternal grandmothers may be beneficial to a child’s survival chances. There is little evidence that any male kin, whether matrilineal or patrilineal, and including fathers, affect child mortality rates. This study highlights the importance of taking social and ecological context into account when investigating relationships between kin.

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

Access this article

Log in via an institution

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

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Alam, N., Saha, S. K., Razzaque, A., & Van Ginneken, J. K. (2001). The effect of divorce on infant mortality in a remote area of Bangladesh. Journal of Biosocial Science, 33, 271–278.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Allal, N., Sear, R., Prentice, A. M., & Mace, R. (2004). An evolutionary model of stature, age at first birth and reproductive success in Gambian women. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B: Biological Sciences, 271, 465–470.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aubel, J., Toure, I., & Diagne, M. (2004). Senegalese grandmothers promote improved maternal and child nutrition practices: The guardians of tradition are not averse to change. Social Science & Medicine, 59, 945–959.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Beise, J. (2002). A multilevel event history analysis of the effects of grandmothers on child mortality in a historical German population, Krummhörn, Ostfriesland, 1720–1874. Demographic Research, 7, 469–497.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beise, J. (2005). The helping grandmother and the helpful grandmother: The role of maternal and paternal grandmothers in child mortality in the 17th and 18th century population of French settlers in Quebec, Canada. In E. Voland, A. Chasiotis, & W. Schiefenhoevel (Eds.), Grandmotherhood: The evolutionary significance of the second half of the female life (pp. 215–238). New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bezner Kerr, R., Dakishoni, L., Shumba, L., Msachi, R., & Chirwa, M. (2008). “We grandmothers know plenty”: Breastfeeding, complementary feeding and the multifaceted role of grandmothers in Malawi. Social Science & Medicine, 66, 1095–1105.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Biran, A., Abbot, J., & Mace, R. (2004). Families and firewood: A comparative analysis of the costs and benefits of children in firewood collection and use in two rural communities in sub-Saharan Africa. Human Ecology, 32, 1–25.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Borgerhoff Mulder, M. (1998). Brothers and sisters: How sibling interactions affect optimal parental allocations. Human Nature, 9, 119–161.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Borgerhoff Mulder, M. (2007). Hamilton’s rule and kin competition: The Kipsigis case. Evolution and Human Behavior, 28, 299–312.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Briend, A., Wojtyniak, B., & Rowland, M. G. M. (1988). Breast feeding, nutritional state, and child survival in rural Bangladesh. British Medical Journal, 296, 879–882.

    Google Scholar 

  • Campbell, C., & Lee, J. Z. (1996). A death in the family. Household structure and mortality in rural Liaoning: Life-event and time-series analysis, 1792–1867. History of the Family, 1, 297–328.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Curtis, S. L., Diamond, I., & McDonald, J. W. (1993). Birth interval and family effects on postneonatal mortality in Brazil. Demography, 30, 33–43.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davison, J. (1997). Gender, lineage and ethnicity in southern Africa. Boulder, CO: Westview.

    Google Scholar 

  • Derosas, R. (2002). Fatherless families in 19th century Venice. In R. Derosas, & M. Oris (Eds.), When dad died: Individuals and families coping with distress in past societies (pp. 421–452). Bern: Peter Lang.

    Google Scholar 

  • Douglass, R. L., McGadney-Douglass, B. F., Antwi, P., & Apt, N. A. (2007). Filial factors of Kwashiorkor survival in urban Ghana: Rediscovering the roles of the extended family. African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development, 7(1), 1–16, Available online at www.afjand.net.

    Google Scholar 

  • Feachem, R. G., & Koblinsky, M. A. (1984). Interventions for the control of diarrhoeal diseases among young children: promotion of breast-feeding. Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 62, 271–291.

    Google Scholar 

  • Fu, H. S., & Goldman, N. (2000). The association between health-related behaviours and the risk of divorce in the USA. Journal of Biosocial Science, 32, 63–88.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gibson, M. A. (2008). Does investment in the sexes differ when fathers are absent? Sex-biased infant survival and child growth in rural Ethiopia. Human Nature, 19, doi:10.1007/s12110-008-9044-2.

  • Gibson, M. A., & Mace, R. (2005). Helpful grandmothers in rural Ethiopia: A study of the effect of kin on child survival and growth. Evolution and Human Behavior, 26, 469–482.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guo, G. (1993). Use of sibling data to estimate family mortality effects in Guatemala. Demography, 30, 15–32.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hadley, C. (2004). The costs and benefits of kin: Kin networks and children’s health among the Pimbwe of Tanzania. Human Nature, 15, 377–395.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hagen, E. H., Hames, R. B., Craig, N. M., Lauer, M. T., & Price, M. E. (2001). Parental investment and child health in a Yanomamo village suffering short-term food stress. Journal of Biosocial Science, 33, 503–528.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton, W. D. (1964). The genetical evolution of social behaviour, part I. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 7, 1–16.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hirschmann, D., & Vaughan, M. (1983). Food production and income generation in a matrilineal society: Rural women in Zomba, Malawi. Journal of Southern African Studies, 10, 86–99.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Holden, C. J., Sear, R., & Mace, R. (2003). Matriliny as daughter-biased investment. Evolution and Human Behavior, 24, 99–112.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hrdy, S. B. (1999). Mother Nature: A history of mothers, infants, and natural selection. New York: Pantheon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Huber, B. R., & Breedlove, W. L. (2007). Evolutionary theory, kinship, and childbirth in cross-cultural perspective. Cross-Cultural Research, 41, 196–219.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kadir, M. M., Fikree, F. F., Khan, A., & Sajan, F. (2003). Do mothers-in-law matter? Family dynamics and fertility decision-making in urban squatter settlements of Karachi, Pakistan. Journal of Biosocial Science, 35, 545–558.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kalanda, B. F., Verhoeff, F. H., & Brabin, B. J. (2005). Breast and complementary feeding practices in relation to morbidity and growth in Malawian infants. European Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 60, 401–407.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kemkes-Grottenthaler, A. (2005). Of grandmothers, grandfathers and wicked step-grandparents: Differential impact of paternal grandparents on grandoffspring survival. Historical Social Research, 30, 219–239.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lawson, D. W., & Mace, R. (2008). Sibling configuration and childhood growth in contemporary British families. International Journal of Epidemiology. doi:10.1093/ije/dyn116.

  • Leonetti, D. L., Nath, D. C., Hemam, N. S., & Neill, D. B. (2004). Do women really need marital partners for support of their reproductive success? The case of the matrilineal Khasi of NE India. Research in Economic Anthropology, 23, 151–174.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leonetti, D. L., Nath, D. C., Hemam, N. S., & Neill, D. B. (2005). Kinship organisation and the impact of grandmothers on reproductive success among the matrilineal Khasi and patrilineal Bengali of Northeast India. In E. Voland, A. Chasiotis, & W. Schiefenhoevel (Eds.), Grandmotherhood: The evolutionary significance of the second half of female life (pp. 194–214). New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Low, B. S. (1991). Reproductive life in nineteenth-century Sweden: An evolutionary perspective on demographic phenomena. Ethology and Sociobiology, 12, 411–448.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mace, R. (1996). Biased parental investment and reproductive success in Gabbra pastoralists. Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology, 38, 75–81.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mace, R., & Sear, R. (2005). Are humans cooperative breeders? In E. Voland, A. Chasiotis, & W. Schiefenhoevel (Eds.), Grandmotherhood: The evolutionary significance of the second half of female life (pp. 143–159). New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Marwick, M. G. (1952). The kinship basis of Cewa social structure. South African Journal of Science, 48, 258–262.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mtika, M. M., & Doctor, H. V. (2002). Matriliny, patriliny and wealth flows in rural Malawi. African Sociological Review, 6, 71–97.

    Google Scholar 

  • Muhuri, P. K., & Preston, S. H. (1991). Effects of family composition on mortality differentials by sex among children in Matlab, Bangladesh. Population Development Review, 17, 415–434.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Murdock, G. P. (1967). Ethnographic atlas. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • National Statistical Office of Malawi, (1998) 1998 population and housing census. Retrieved from http://www.nso.malawi.net/.

  • Pennington, R., & Harpending, H. (1993). The structure of an African pastoralist community: Demography, history and ecology of the Ngamiland Herero. Oxford: Clarendon.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peters, P. E. (1997). Against the odds: matriliny, land and gender in the Shire Highlands of Malawi. Critique of Anthropology, 17, 189–210.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Phiri, K. M. (1983). Some changes in the matrilineal family system among the Chewa of Malawi since the nineteenth century. Journal of African History, 24, 257–274.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reher, D. S., & González-Quiñones, F. (2003). Do parents really matter? Child health and development in Spain during the demographic transition. Population Studies, 57, 63–75.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rende Taylor, L. (2005). Patterns of child fosterage in rural northern Thailand. Journal of Biosocial Science, 37, 333–350.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sear, R., & Mace, R. (2008). Who keeps children alive? A review of the effects of kin on child survival. Evolution and Human Behavior, 29, 1–18.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sear, R., Mace, R., & McGregor, I. A. (2000). Maternal grandmothers improve the nutritional status and survival of children in rural Gambia. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B: Biological Sciences, 267, 461–467.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sear, R., Mace, R., & McGregor, I. A. (2003). The effects of kin on female fertility in rural Gambia. Evolution and Human Behavior, 24, 25–42.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sear, R., Steele, F., McGregor, I. A., & Mace, R. (2002). The effects of kin on child mortality in rural Gambia. Demography, 39, 43–63.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sharma, M., & Kanani, S. (2006). Grandmothers’ influence on child care. Indian Journal of Pediatrics, 73, 295–298.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Skinner, G. W. (1997). Family systems and demographic processes. In D. I. Kertzer, & T. Fricke (Eds.), Anthropological demography: Toward a new synthesis (pp. 53–95). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Skinner, G. W. (2004). Grandparental effects of reproductive strategizing: Nôbi villagers in early modern Japan. Demographic Research, 11, 111–147.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sorenson Jamison, C., Cornell, L. L., Jamison, P. L., & Nakazato, H. (2002). Are all grandmothers equal? A review and a preliminary test of the “grandmother hypothesis” in Tokugawa, Japan. American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 119, 67–76.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Takane, T. (2007). Customary land tenure, inheritance rules, and smallholder farmers in Malawi. Discussion Paper 104. Chiba, Japan: Institute of Developing Economies.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tew, M. (1950). Peoples of the Lake Nyasa region. London: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tymicki, K. (2004). The kin influence on female reproductive behavior: The evidence from the reconstitution of Bejsce parish registers, 18th–20th centuries, Poland. American Journal of Human Biology, 16, 508–522.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wahab, A., Winkvist, A., Stenlund, H., & Wilopo, S. A. (2001). Infant mortality among Indonesian boys and girls: Effect of sibling status. Annals of Tropical Paediatrics, 21, 66–71.

    Google Scholar 

  • West, S. A., Pen, I., & Griffin, A. S. (2002). Cooperation and competition between relatives. Science, 296, 72–75.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Winking, J. (2006). Are men really that bad as fathers? The role of men’s investments. Social Biology, 53, 100–115.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

With thanks to the team of fieldworkers in Malawi who collected the data; to the Simon Population Trust, Parkes Foundation, and Boise Foundation for funding fieldwork; and to Mhairi Gibson and four anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on the manuscript.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Policy, London School of Economics, Houghton St, London, WC2A 2AE, UK

    Rebecca Sear

Authors
  1. Rebecca Sear
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rebecca Sear.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Sear, R. Kin and Child Survival in Rural Malawi. Hum Nat 19, 277–293 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-008-9042-4

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-008-9042-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation