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Cultivating male allies

A focus on primate females, includingHomo sapiens

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Abstract

Females make large investments in their children and compete among themselves to establish and maintain privileged relationships with male allies who demonstrate both an ability and a willingness to provide fitness-enhancing advantages. Various “strategies” and their more numerous, associated “tactics” are utilized in the competition. Alleged strategies include using sexuality, producing offspring, assisting the male in his own intrasexual contests, and harassing female competitors. The strategies in question are documented in multiple primate species, including humans living in various times and places. Some variables are discussed that influence the degree to which human females rely upon them.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Austin, Texas

    Bonnie Lori Hooks

  2. Department of Sociology, Clemson University, 29634-1513, Clemson, SC

    Penny Anthon Green

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  1. Bonnie Lori Hooks
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  2. Penny Anthon Green
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Bonnie Lori Hooks and Penny Anthon Green collaborate in research on primate female reproductive strategies, the formation of female dominance orders, and the role that females play in the intergenerational transfer of rank. Both authors are graduates in sociology from the University of Texas at Austin.

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Hooks, B.L., Green, P.A. Cultivating male allies. Human Nature 4, 81–107 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02734090

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