Search

The 19th-century missionary literary genre provides us with a window into how the missionaries viewed African cultural systems, such as polygamy. In their minds, polygamy was one of the obstacles to converting Africans to Christianity. Baptism functioned as a theatre of power and submission. To access baptism, a convert had to abandon and strip themselves of that which made them Africans and adopt Western colonial Christian norms and principles. In this article, we argue that the condemnation of polygamy by missionaries was a wielding of power within the colonial matrix of power. We further maintain that the decolonisation of Christianity cannot be achieved without a critical analysis of the impact of the missionaries in the deformation and labelling of African cultural identities as heathen and uncivilised. Contribution: The cultural transfer that was achieved through Christianisation, civilisation and colonisation has led to what Biko referred to as the flight from the black self and what Du Bois referred to as double consciousness. The article applies the intersectionality of theoretical lenses of Africana critical thought, Foucauldian notion of power, negritude and decoloniality.

Monogamous marriage, sometimes called "the bedrock of society," still carries an apparent "halo" of moral superiority as a relationship structure. In contrast, consensual non-monogamous (CNM) configurations are stigmatized. Research indicates a connection between stigma, stress, and negative health outcomes, despite CNM comparing favorably with monogamy. The present study uses interviews to explore minority stress and resilience among individuals in CNM relationships. Participants experienced structural stigma as erasure, and interpersonal stigma as erasure and educational/emotional work. They also describe complex enmeshment between their relationship minority status and other aspects of their sexual and gender identities. Strategic disclosure and concealment were important management tools. Furthermore, managing individual (internalized) stigma was described as unlearning mononormative bias and surrounding oneself with supportive peers/allies. The strongest motivator for perseverance was the steadfast conviction that the advantages of CNM outweighed the challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Territorial species are unlikely to show extensive movements between breeding seasons. This is especially true for long-lived species, which often have strong pair bonding and can occupy the same territory for years. However, also in such species, individuals may face situations that can lead to a territory shift. Here, we use a comprehensive dataset documenting 40 years of breeding behavior in tawny owl (Strix aluco) – a long-lived species with high site tenacity and mate fidelity – to examine the factors affecting the decisions whether or not to move to another breeding territory and how far, as well as the fitness consequences thereof. We found that the likelihood and distance of movement in either sexes is strongly associated with a change of partner, indicating that mate loss may cause breeding dispersal. Moreover, mate change, not movement to a new territory, had negative effects on subsequent reproductive performance: individuals that changed partner were more likely to skip reproduction in the subsequent year and, in those cases they bred, they produced smaller clutches and raised fewer offspring. Our findings indicate that tawny owls change territory almost exclusively when searching for a new partner and that mate change has profound consequences on their subsequent breeding performance. Overall, our study provides evidence that in tawny owls territoriality and monogamy are associated and strongly linked to fitness, but mate fidelity may be more important than site fidelity, likely because sexes are involved in specific tasks and their cooperation ensures breeding success and, consequently, increases fitness. Significance statement: Breeding dispersal, the movement of individuals between breeding sites, can entail high costs for animal fitness, especially for territorial species, which display strong site fidelity. We studied the factors associated with breeding dispersal and the consequences on breeding performances in tawny owl (Strix aluco), a highly territorial species. We found that tawny owls moved more frequently to another breeding territory when the mate died. Either sexes showed an equal probability to move, but the effect was stronger in females than in males after a mate change. Moreover, owls that changed partner showed delayed reproduction, smaller clutch and a higher probability to skip reproduction. Our findings show that in tawny owls territoriality and monogamy are associated and strongly linked to fitness, but mate fidelity may be more important than site fidelity, likely because sexes share the costs of holding the territory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Across many species, endocannabinoids play an important role in regulating social play, reward, and anxiety. These processes are mediated through at least two distinct cannabinoid receptors (CB), CB1 and CB2. CB1 expression is found in appreciable densities across regions of the brain that integrate memory with socio-spatial information; many of these regions have been directly linked to the neurobiology of pair bonding in monogamous species. Using receptor autoradiography, we provide the first distributional map of CB1 within the brains of closely related monogamous prairie voles and promiscuous meadow voles, and compare receptor densities across sexes and species in limbic regions. We observe CB1-specific signal using [3H] CP-55,940 and [3H] SR141716A, though the latter exhibited a lower signal to noise ratio. We confirmed the presence of CB2 in prairie vole spleen tissue using [3H] CP-55,940. However, we found no evidence of CB2 in the brain using either [3H] CP-55,940 or [3H] A-836,339. The overall distribution of putative CB1 in the brain was similar across vole species and followed the pattern of CB1 expression observed in other species-high intensity binding within the telencephalon, moderate binding within the diencephalon, and mild binding within the mesencephalon and metencephalon (aside from the cerebellar cortex). However, we found profound differences in CB1 densities across species, with prairie voles having higher CB1 binding in regions implicated in social attachment and spatial memory (e.g., periaqueductal gray, hippocampus). These findings suggest that CB1 densities, but not distribution, correlate with the social systems of vole species.

The sexual revolution of the 20th century was based on a redefinition of the body, which led to a new postmodern sexual ideal in which the body and sexuality were freed from the limitations of biology. This phenomenon was inserted within the logic of capitalism, which proposes itself as a “theory of everything,” that is to say, comprehensive of all human reality. Sexuality thus became an object of consumption, bowing to the logic of the capitalist system in which everything can be bought and sold. This new sexual market is based on sexual freedom, giving rise to a fierce competition between users that reaffirms narcissistic, individualistic patterns. In this sense, through the theory of sexual capital, the monogamous structure that existed prior to the sexual revolution and the new polyamorous structure of postmodernity are compared, with the conclusion that the sexual revolution has generated new forms of unforeseen sexual violence.

Chimpanzees and bonobos are often considered the best animal models for understanding human evolutionary psychology. However, since wolves and humans evolved to cooperatively hunt animals much larger than themselves, they may provide more useful animal models. Current research on human mating and monogamy remains ambiguous, but wolf research indicates wolf monogamy facilitates imparting the skills necessary for cooperatively hunting large prey. This suggests human monogamy possibly evolved as a similar adaption for hunting large animals. The wolf-human predatory niche places no limit on the drive for large prey size except skill and cooperation. Humans have evolved hunting behaviors to the point of targeting prey as large as elephants and whales, with potential ramifications for impacting ecology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The monogamous mating system, where a male and a female constitute the reproductive unit and share the parental care, predominates among bird reproductive strategies. However, there are also other mating systems with diverse parental care roles which may have implications for population breeding success and be relevant for their management and conservation. We evaluated the family group structure of the Yellow Cardinal (Gubernatrix cristat a) in La Pampa province of central Argentina. During the 2020–2021 breeding season we carried out 280 bird surveys to search for the presence of Yellow Cardinals. We registered 87 individuals (11 solitary individuals, 12 pairs, two males together, and 13 family groups). Most family groups corresponded to the typical monogamous structure, but two family groups (8%) were composed of two adult males, an adult female and at least a juvenile. We also explored 1646 Yellow Cardinal records at citizen science platforms and none of them included a family group with more than two adults. Even so, it would be feasible to release seized groups of two males together, to promote breeding success. Further studies are necessary to evaluate the causes of the presence of extra males and their incidence on the breeding performance of this globally endangered species. This may help to understand its natural history and for planning management and conservation actions. Graphical Abstract [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evolution of monogamy has been a central question in biological anthropology. An important avenue of research has been comparisons across "socially monogamous" mammals, but such comparisons are inappropriate for understanding human behavior because humans are not "pair living" and are only sometimes "monogamous." It is the "pair bond" between reproductive partners that is characteristic of humans and has been considered unique to our lineage. I argue that pair bonds have been overlooked in one of our closest living relatives, chimpanzees. These pair bonds are not between mates but between male "friends" who exhibit enduring and emotional social bonds. The presence of such bonds in male–male chimpanzees raises the possibility that pair bonds emerged earlier in our evolutionary history. I suggest pair bonds first arose as "friendships" and only later, in the human lineage, were present between mates. The mechanisms for these bonds were co‐opted for male‐female bonds in humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sexual selection favours the evolution and maintenance of polygamy, which is the dominant reproductive strategy in insects. Monogamy can evolve in very short‐lived species due to time constraints. Here we study adult activity and mating behaviour of a population of the damselfly Ischnura hastata, a species rarely seen mating, and which has been suggested to be monandric, in wetlands of Isabela Island, Galápagos.By means of mark‐recapture methods, we estimated that the daily survival rate was low, ranging from 0.385 to 0.876, yielding average life expectancies of mature individuals of only 1.2–3.2 days. Adults showed very low activity before 7:00, indicating that mating does not occur early. The number of male–female interactions and mating attempts was extremely low, with only 44 copulations recorded on over 230 h of observations.Copulations were brief, with a mean duration of 11 min (but only two were observed from the start). Males showed clear preference to attempt to grasp in tandem females of intermediate age (in 94.3% of cases), rather than young (31.3%) or mature females (24.0%). Males were very persistent once a tandem was achieved, retaining females for up to 139 min, but most females resisted and did not copulate.We conclude that females of I. hastata show a very short time window to mate, exactly when they change colour from juvenile to mature, and live only enough to mate once. Short lifespan has selected for female monandry in I. hastata, creating an intense sexual conflict over mating rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In symbiotic crustaceans, social monogamy is favored in species that inhabit scarce, relatively small, and morphologically simple hosts in tropical environments where predation risk away from hosts is high. We tested this hypothesis in the shrimp Chernocaris placunae which inhabits the mantle cavity of the saddle oyster Placuna ephippium in the Indo-West Pacific. At two study sites in Nha Trang, Vietnam, C. placunae inhabits the mantle cavity of host individuals as heterosexual pairs more often than is expected by chance alone. At Tre Island, a tight correlation between the host and shrimp body size in both males and females was observed and pairing in shrimps was size-assortative; the carapace length was positively correlated between males and females forming pairs. Altogether, the information above suggests that C. placunae is socially and sexually monogamous in Tre Island. In turn, at Mun Island, no correlation between the host and shrimp body size was observed and shrimp pairing was not size-assortative, suggesting that C. placunae is socially but not necessarily sexually monogamous (and probably promiscuous) in this second study site. Host body size and abundance was lower at Tre Island compared to Mun Island suggesting that refuge (=host) trait drives, at least to some extent, the observed differences in the mating system of C. placunae. Tre Island is also a heavily polluted site suggesting that pollution might also be driving the mating system of the studied species. We have described shifts in the mating system of a marine invertebrate. Whether similar changes in the mating system of other marine organisms are occurring due to contemporary changes in seascapes is a relevant topic that deserves further attention. Manipulative experiments are needed to understand how shifts in community components driven by global change affects the social behavior of marine organisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to outline an economic approach to marriage. The first part contains an introduction to the economics of a family. The second part analyses the marriage market. The third part discusses the division of household chores in a household. The fourth part examines marriage as a cooperative or non-cooperative game. The fifth part deals with the dilemma between monogamy and polygamy on marriage markets. The sixth part confronts the economics of marriage with the findings of sociobiology.

Abstract Background In general, reproductive performance exhibits nonlinear changes with age. Specifically, reproductive performance increases early in life, reaches a peak, and then declines later in life. Reproductive ageing patterns can also differ among individuals if they are influenced by individual-specific strategies of resource allocation between early-life reproduction and maintenance. In addition, the social environment, such as the number of available mates, can influence individual-specific resource allocation strategies and consequently alter the extent of individual differences in reproductive ageing patterns. That is, females that interact with more partners are expected to vary their copulation frequency, adopt a more flexible reproductive strategy and exhibit greater individual differences in reproductive ageing patterns. Methods In this study, we evaluated the effect of mating with multiple males on both group- and individual-level reproductive ageing patterns in females of the bean bug Riptortus pedestris by ensuring that females experienced monogamous (one female with one male) or polyandrous conditions (one female with two males). Results We found that group-level reproductive ageing patterns did not differ between monogamy-treatment and polyandry-treatment females. However, polyandry-treatment females exhibited among-individual variation in reproductive ageing patterns, while monogamy-treatment females did not. Conclusion Our findings provide the first empirical evidence regarding the influence of the social environment on individual variation in reproductive ageing patterns. We further suggest that the number of potential mates influences group- and individual-level reproductive ageing patterns, depending on which sex controls mating. We encourage future studies to consider interactions between species-specific mating systems and the social environment when evaluating group- and individual-level reproductive ageing patterns.

Breeding ecology plays a crucial role in avian fitness and evolution, yet basic life history is understudied for many species. Species with large distributions over a breadth of latitudes may have different strategies regarding reproduction in the northern or southern extents of their range, but those differences could be overlooked due to a sparsity of published information. Rock Wrens (Salpinctes obsoletus) are migratory in the northern part of their range, territorial, and monogamous songbirds with populations thought to be in decline. We collected natural history information on 21 mated pairs from a migratory population in northern Colorado to describe nesting ecology and reproductive success. We evaluated nesting life-history traits and parental care throughout the breeding season at 12 monitored nests. Results indicated thai 42.9% of nests fledged at least 1 chick, with means ([+ or -]SD) of 5.63 [+ or -] 1 eggs per clutch. 3.44 [+ or -] 0.53 hatchlings per nest, and 2.67 [+ or -] 0.5 fledglings per nest. Mean duration of egg incubation was 15.10 [+ or -] 0.32 d with 29.11 [+ or -] 1.27 total days of eggs and chicks in the nest. Camera trapping revealed male Rock Wrens did the majority of prey delivery to chicks in the first 5 d post-hatching and fed chicks a range of prey species. The population reproductive success was mostly affected by nest predation, where predators included bullsnakes (Pituophis cutenifer) and prairie rattlesnakes (Crotalus viridis). Outcomes provide the first estimates of sex-specific parental feeding behavior for this species, and document new nest predation threats. Breeding biology metrics of the studied migratory population were similar to those of sedentary populations, suggesting that knowledge gained from local studies will have relevance across the range of this widely distributed species. Received 24 July 2021. Accepted 7 March 2022. Key words: breeding ecology, feeding rate, nesting ecology, parental care, parental effort, prey delivery. L'ecologie de la reproduction joue un role crucial dans l'aptitude a survivre et revolution des oiseaux. mais I'histoire de la vie de base est sous-etudiee pour de nombreuses especes. Les especes ayant une large repartition stir tine large gamme de latitudes pettvent avoir des strategies differentes en ce qui concerne la reproduction dans les limitcs nord et sud de letir aire de repartition, mais ccs differences potirraient ctre negligees en raison dc la rarete des informations publiees. Uespece Salpinctes obsoletus est un oiseau chanteur migratetir ati nord de letir repartition, territorial, et monogame dont les populations seraient en declin. Nous avons eoilecte des informations stir I'histoire naturelle de 21 couples accouples d'tinc population du nord du Colorado pour decrire I'ecologie de la ntditication et lc succes de reproduction. Nous avons evalue les traits d'histoire de vie dc nidification et les soins parentaux tout au long de la saison de reproduction potir 12 nids surveilles. Les resultats ont indiquc que 42,9% des nids avaient au moins un poussin, avec des moyennes ([+ or -]SD) dc 5.63 [+ or -] I eeufs par couvee, 3,44 [+ or -] 0.53 nouveau-nes par nid et 2,67 [+ or -] 0,5 jeunes par nid. Les nids duraient en moyenne 15,10 [+ or -] 0,32 jours d'incubation des eeufs et 29,11 [+ or -] 1,27 jours au total d'eeufs et de poussins dans le nid. Le piegeage photographique a revelc que les troglodytes males livraient la majorite des proies aux poussins au cours des 5 premiers jours suivant I'cclosion et nourrissaient les poussins d'unc gamme d'especes de proies. Le succes reproductif de la population a etc principalement affecte par la predation des nids, ou les predateurs coniprenaient des Pituophis cutenifer et des Crotalus viridis. Les resultats fournissent les premieres estimations du compoi'temcnt alimentaire des parents scion le sexe pour cette espece et documentent les nouvelles menaces des predation des nids. Les nictriques de la biologie de la reproduction de la population migratrice etudiee etaient similaires a celles des populations sedentaires, ce qui suggere que les connaissances acquises grace aux etudes locales seront pertinentes dans I'cnsemble de faire de repartition de cette espece largement repartie. Mots cles: ecologie de la nidification. ccologie de la reproduction, effort parental, livraison des proies, soins parentaux. taux d'alimcmation., Breeding biology and reproductive ecology play crucial roles in the study of avian life history and evolutionary ecology (Badyaev and Ghalambor 2001). Yet, basic life history research is still missing [...]