Skip to main content
Log in

Darwin and the puzzle of primogeniture

An essay on biases in parental investment after death

  • Published:
Human Nature Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

A historical survey of the inheritance practices of farming families in North America and elsewhere indicates that resource allocations among children differed through time and space with regard to sex bias and equality. Tensions between provisioning all children and maintaining a productive economic entity (the farm) were resolved in various ways, depending on population pressures, the family’s relative resource level, and the number and sex of children.

Against a backdrop of generalized son preference, parents responded to ecological circumstances by investing in offspring differentially within and between the sexes. Vesting the preponderance of family resources in one heir increased the likelihood of at least one line surviving across several generations, whereas varying degrees of parental investment in emigrating sons or out-marrying daughters might yield boom or bust harvests of grandchildren according to circumstances in more remote locales. Primogeniture (eldest son as primary heir) allowed early identification of heirs and appropriate socialization, as well as more time for parents to contribute to the heir’s reproductive success. Son bias and unigeniture decreased as numbers of children per family declined, as land became less critical to economic success, and as legal changes improved the resource-holding potential of females. We suggest that changing ecological conditions affected parental decisions regarding resource allocation among children at least as much as did changing ideologies of parent-child relations.

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

Access this article

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

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Atkins, Sir Hedley 1974Down: The Home of the Darwins. London: The Royal College of Surgeons.

    Google Scholar 

  • Atkinson, T. E. 1953Handbook of the Law of Wills. St. Paul, Minnesota: West Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Auwers, L. 1978 Fathers, Sons, and Wealth in Colonial Windsor, Connecticut.Journal of Family History 3:136–149.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bateman, A. J. 1948 Intra-sexual Selection in Drosophilia.Heredity 2:349–368.

    Google Scholar 

  • Beattie, J. 1960Bunyoro: An African Kingdom. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

    Google Scholar 

  • Berkner, L. K. 1976 Inheritance, Land Tenure and Peasant Family Structure: A German Regional Comparison. InFamily and Inheritance, J. Goody, J. Thirsk, and E. P. Thompson, eds. Pp. 71–95. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Betzig, L. 1986Despotism and Differential Reproduction: A Darwinian View of History. Hawthorne, New York: Aldine.

    Google Scholar 

  • Boone, J. 1986 Parental Investment and Elite Family Structure in Preindustrial States: A Case Study of Late Medieval-Early Modern Portuguese Genealogies.American Anthropologist 88:859–878.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Borgerhoff Mulder, M. 1988 Reproductive Consequences of Sex-biased Inheritance for the Kipsigis. InComparative Socioecology of Mammals and Man, V. Standen and R. Foley, eds. Pp. 405–427. London: Blackwells.

    Google Scholar 

  • 1990 Kipsigis Women’s Preference for Wealthy Men: Evidence for Female Choice in Mammals.Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 27:255–264.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bourdieu, P. 1976 Marriage Strategies as Strategies of Social Reproduction. InFamily and Society: Selections from Annales. R. Forster and O. Ranum, eds. Pp. 117–144. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bowlby, John 1990Charles Darwin: A New Life. New York: W. W. Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Cain, M. 1977 The Economic Activities of Children in a Village in Bangladesh.Population and Development Review (September):201–227.

  • 1982 Perspectives on Family and Fertility in Developing Countries.Population Studies 36(2):159–175.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carr, L. G., and R. R. Menard 1979 Immigration and Opportunity: The Freedman in Early Colonial Maryland. InThe Chesapeake in the Seventeenth Century: Essays on Anglo-American Society, T. W. Tate and D. L. Ammerman, eds. Pp. 206–242. New York: W. W. Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clutton-Brock, T. H. 1991The Evolution of Parental Care. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Clutton-Brock, T. H., and S. D. Albon 1982 Parental Investment in Male and Female Offspring. InCurrent Problems in Sociobiology, Kings College Sociobiology Group, eds. Pp. 223–247. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Coult, A. D., and R. W. Habenstein 1965Cross Tabulations of Murdock’s World Ethnographic Sample. Columbia: University of Missouri Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Daly, M., and M. Wilson 1983Sex, Evolution and Behavior. Boston: Willard Grant Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Darwin, C. 1874The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, second edition, revised and enlarged. London: John Murray.

    Google Scholar 

  • 1881 The Last Will and Testament of Charles Robert Darwin. Will proved and registered in Principal Registry of the Probate Division of Her Majesty’s High Court of Justice.

  • Darwin, Francis, ed. 1887The Life and Letters of Charles Darwin, 3 vols. London: John Murray.

    Google Scholar 

  • Das Gupta, M. 1987 Selective Discrimination Against Female Children in Rural Punjab, India.Population and Development Review 13(1):77–100.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davidoff, L., and C. Hall 1987Family Fortunes: Men and Women of the English Middle Class, 1780–1850. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • de Tocqueville, A. 1981Democracy in America. New York: Random House.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dexter, F. B., ed. 1916 Extracts from the Itineraries and Other Miscellanies of Ezra Stiles, D.D., Ll.D., 1755–1794 with a Selection from His Correspondence. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dickemann, M. 1979a Female Infanticide and the Reproductive Strategies of Stratified Human Societies: A Preliminary Model. InEvolutionary Biology and Human Social Behavior: An Anthropological Approach, N. A. Chagnon and W. Irons, eds. Pp. 321–367. North Scituate, Massachusetts: Duxbury Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • 1979b The Ecology of Mating Systems in Hypergynous Dowry Societies.Social Science Information (18):163–195.

  • 1982 Comment on Hartung’s “Polgyny and Inheritance of Wealth.”Current Anthropology 23:1–12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ditz, T. L. 1986Property and Kinship: Inheritance in Early Connecticut, 1750–1820. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Douglas, W. A. 1988 Iberian Family History.Journal of Family History 13(1):1–12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Draper, P., and A. Buchanan 1992 If You Have a Child You Have a Life: Demographic and Cultural Perspectives on Fathering in Old Age in !Kung Society. InFather-Child Relations: Cultural and Biosocial Contexts, B. Hewlett, ed. Pp. 131–152. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Earle, C. V. 1979 Environment, Disease and Mortality in Early Virginia. InThe Chesapeake in the Seventeenth Century, T. W. Tate and D. L. Ammerman, eds. Pp. 96–125. New York: W. W. Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ellison, P. 1991 Human Ovarian Function and Reproductive Ecology: New Hypotheses.American Anthropologist 92:933–952.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ember, C. R. 1978 Myths About Hunter-gatherers.Ethnology 51:439–448.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Emlen, S. T., and L. W. Oring 1977 Ecology, Sexual Selection and the Evolution of Mating Systems.Science 97:215–223.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fleagle, J., R. F. Kay, and E. Simons 1980 Sexual Dimorphism in Early Anthropoids.Nature 287:328–330.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Friedlander, N. J. 1992 Reproductive Success, Post-reproductive Survivorship and Health in a Southern California Community. Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, in preparation.

  • Friedman, L. 1985History of American Law. New York: Simon and Schuster. (Originally published in 1973)

    Google Scholar 

  • Gagan, D. 1981Hopeful Travelers. Toronto: Toronto University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Ghiglieri, M. 1987 Sociobiology of the Great Apes and the Hominid Ancestor.Journal of Human Evolution 16:319–357.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gillespie, J. 1977 Natural Selection for Variance in Offspring Number: A New Evolutionary Principle.American Naturalist 111:1010–1114.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gjerde, J. 1989 Patterns of Migration to and Demographic Adaptation within Rural Ethnic American Communities.Annales de Demographie Historique 1988:277–297.

    Google Scholar 

  • Goody, J. 1976Production and Reproduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greven, P. J. 1970Four Generations: Population, Land and Family in Colonial Andover, Massachusetts. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Haines, R. 1990The Youngest Sons: Ultimogeniture and Family Structures among German Farmers in Eastern Westphalia, 1680–1690. Ph.D. dissertation, Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hajnal, H. J. 1965 European Marriage Patterns in Perspective. InPopulation in History, D. V. Glass and D. Eversley, eds. Chicago: Aldine.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamilton, W. D. 1964 The Genetical Evolution of Social Behaviour, Parts I and II.Journal of Theoretical Biology 7:1–52.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • 1967 Extraordinary Sex Ratios.Science 156:477–488.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hammel, E. 1974 The Zadruga as Process. InHousehold and Family in Past Time, P. Laslett and R. Wall, eds. Pp. 335–373. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hartung, J. 1976 On Natural Selection and the Inheritance of Wealth.Current Anthropology 17:607–622.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • 1981 Paternity and Inheritance of Wealth.Nature 291:652–654.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • 1982 Polygyny and Inheritance of Wealth.Current Anthropology 23:1–12.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hayami, A. 1983 The Myth of Primogeniture and Impartible Inheritance in Tokugawa, Japan.Journal of Family History (Spring):3–29.

  • Hollingsworth, T. H. 1957 A Demographic Study of the British Ducal Families.Population Studies 11:4–26.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Homans, G. C. 1941English Villagers of the Thirteenth Century. New York: W. W. Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Horn, James 1979 Servant Emigration to the Chesapeake in the Seventeenth Century. InThe Chesapeake in the Seventeenth Century, T. W. Tate and D. L. Ammerman, eds. Pp. 51–95. New York: Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Howell, C. 1976 Peasant Inheritance Customs in the Midlands, 1280–1700. InFamily and Inheritance, J. Goody, J. Thirsk, and E. P. Thompson, eds. Pp. 112–155. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hrdy, S. Blaffer 1981The Woman That Never Evolved. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • 1987 Sex-biased Parental Investment among Primates and Other Mammals: A Critical Examination of the Trivers-Willard Hypothesis. InChild Abuse and Neglect, R. Gelles and J. Lancaster, eds. Pp. 94–147. Hawthorne, New York: Aldine.

    Google Scholar 

  • 1990 Sex Bias in Nature and in History.Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 33:25–37.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • 1992 Fitness Tradeoffs in the History and Evolution of Delegated Mothering with Special Reference to Wet-nursing, Abandonment, and Infanticide.Ethology and Sociobiology 13:409–442.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hsu, F. L. K. 1948Under the Ancestors’ Shadow: Chinese Culture and Personality. New York: Columbia University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jones, D. L. 1981Village and Seaport: Migration and Society in Eighteenth Century Massachusetts. Hanover: University Press of New England.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jordan, David W. 1979 Political Stability and the Emergence of a Native Elite in Maryland. InThe Chesapeake in the Seventeenth Century: Essays on Anglo-American Society, T. W. Tate and D. L. Ammerman, eds. Pp. 243–273. New York: W. W. Norton.

    Google Scholar 

  • Judge, D., and S. B. Hrdy 1988 Bias and Equality in American Legacies: Some Underlying Factors. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association, Phoenix.

  • 1992 Allocation of Accumulated Resources among Close Kin: Inheritance in Sacramento, California, 1890–1984.Ethology and Sociobiology 13(5–6):495–522.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Katz, S. N. 1977 Republicanism and the Law of Inheritance in the American Revolutionary Era.Michigan Law Review 76(1):1–29.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Klapisch-Zuber, Christine 1985 The Griselda Complex. InWomen, Family, and Ritual in Renaissance Italy. Pp. 213–246. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koenig, W. D., and P. R. Stacey 1990 Acorn Woodpeckers: Group-living and Food Storage under Contrasting Ecological Conditions. InCooperative Breeding in Birds, P. Stacey and W. Koenig, eds. Pp. 415–453. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lancaster, J. B., and H. S. Kaplan 1991 Male Fertility and Parenting: Tests of Models with a Sample of Albuquerque Men. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Human Behavior and Evolution Society, 22–25 August, Hamilton, Ontario.

  • Le Roy Ladurie, E. 1976The Peasants of Languedoc, translated by John Day. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Leach, E. R. 1954Political Systems of Highland Burma. Boston: Beacon Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lerner, G. 1986The Creation of Patriarchy. Oxford: Oxford 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 

  • Low, B. S., and A. L. Clarke 1992 Resources and the Life Course: Patterns in Demographic Transition.Ethology and Sociobiology 13:463–494.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Low, B. S., A. L. Clarke, and K. Lockridge 1991Family Patterns in Nineteenth-century Sweden: Variation in Time and Space. Demographic Database Monograph No. 6. Umea, Sweden.

  • Manson, J. H., and R. W. Wrangham 1991 Intergroup Aggression in Chimpanzees and Humans.Current Anthropology 32:369–390.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McNeill, W. H. 1976Plagues and People. New York: Anchor Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Menchik, P. 1980 Primogeniture, Equal Sharing and the United States Distribution of Wealth.Quarterly Journal of Economics (March):299–316.

  • Mock, D., H. Drummond, C. Stinson 1990 Avian Siblicide.American Scientist 78:438–449.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mueller, U. 1991 Social and Reproductive Success: Theoretical Considerations and a Case Study of the West Point Class of 1950. Paper presented at the Third Annual Meeting of the Behavior and Evolution Society, McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario.

    Google Scholar 

  • Murdock, G. 1967Ethnographic Atlas. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • 1981Atlas of World Cultures. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Narrett, D. E. 1981Patterns of Inheritance in Colonial New York City, 1664–1775: A Study in the History of the Family. Ph.D. dissertation, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.

    Google Scholar 

  • Newell, W. H. 1980 The Wealth of Testators and Its Distributions: Butler County, Ohio, 1803–1865. InModeling the Distribution and Intergenerational Transmission of Wealth, J. D. Smith, ed. Pp. 95–138. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • 1986 Inheritance on the Maturing Frontier: Butler County, Ohio, 1803–1865. InLong-term Factors in American Growth, S. Engerman and R. Gallman, eds. Pp. 261–303. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Oberg, K. 1967 The Kingdom of Ankole in Uganda. InAfrican Political Systems, M. Fortes and E. E. Evans-Pritchard, eds. Pp. 121–164. London: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parish, Amy 1992 Domestic Affairs: The Balance between Tension Reduction and Bonding in Bonobo Females. Paper presented at the XIV Congress of the International Primatological Society, 16–21 August, Strasbourg, France.

  • Parry, J. 1979Caste and Kinship in Kangra. London: Routledge, Kegan, Paul.

    Google Scholar 

  • Part, T. 1991 Philopatry Pays: A Comparison between Collared Flycatcher Sisters.American Naturalist 138(3):790–796.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Partridge, L., and P. H. Harvey 1988 The Ecological Context of Life History.Evolution 241:1449–1455.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pomeroy, S. 1984Women in Hellenistic Egypt: From Alexander to Cleopatra. New York: Schocken Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Promislow, D. E. L., and P. H. Harvey 1990 Living Fast and Dying Young: A Comparative Analysis of Life-history Variation among Mammals.Journal of Zoological Society of London 220:417–437.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Quinn, Naomi 1977 Anthropological Studies on Women’s Status.Annual Review of Anthropology 6:181–225.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ralls, K. 1976 Mammals in Which Females Are Larger Than Males.Quarterly Review of Biology 51:245–276.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Richerson, P. J., and R. Boyd 1992 Cultural Inheritance and Evolutionary Ecology. InEvolutionary Ecology and Human Behavior, E. A. Smith and B. Winterhalder, eds. Pp. 61–92. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rogers, A. R. 1990 Evolutionary Economics of Human Reproduction.Ethology and Sociobiology 11:479–495.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • 1991 The Evolution of Time Preference. Unpublished ms. Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City.

  • Ryan, M. 1981Cradle of the Middle Class: The Family in Oneida County, New York, 1790–1865. London: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Salamon, S. 1980 Ethnic Differences in Farm Family Land Transfers.Rural Sociology 45:290–308.

    Google Scholar 

  • Schele, L., and D. Freidel 1990A Forest of Kings: The Untold Story of the Ancient Maya. New York: Quill William Morrow.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sieff, D. 1990 Explaining Biased Sex Ratios in Human Populations.Current Anthropology 21:25–48.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shaanker, R. U., K. N. Ganeshaiah, and K. S. Bawa 1988 Parent-offspring Conflict, Sibling Rivalry, and Brood Size Patterns in Plants.Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 19:177–205.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shammas, C., M. Salmon, and M. Dahlin 1987Inheritance in America: From Colonial Times to the Present. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Skinner, G. W. 1987 Infanticide and Reproductive Strategies in Two Nobi Plain Villages, 1717–1869. Paper prepared for “Workshop on Population Change and Socioeconomic Development in the Nobi Region,” March 15–18, Stanford University, California.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smith, M., B. J. Kish, and C. Crawford 1987 Inheritance of Wealth as Human Kin Investment.Ethology and Sociobiology 8:171–182.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Smith, T. C. 1977Nakahara: Family Farming and Population in a Japanese Village. Stanford: Stanford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Smuts, B. B. 1992 Male Aggression against Women: An Evolutionary Perspective.Human Nature 3:1–44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stacey, P. B., and W. D. Koenig, eds. 1990Cooperative Breeding in Birds: Long-term Studies of Ecology and Behavior. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Symons, D. 1979The Evolution of Human Sexuality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thirsk, J. 1969 Younger Sons in the Seventeenth Century.History 54:358–377.

    Google Scholar 

  • 1976 The European Debate on Questions of Inheritance, 1500–1700. InFamily and Inheritance, J. Goody, J. Thirsk, and E. P. Thompson, eds. Pp. 177–191. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trivers, R. L. 1972 Parental Investment and Sexual Selection. InSexual Selection and the Descent of Man, B. Campbell, ed. Chicago: Aldine.

    Google Scholar 

  • Trivers, R. L., and D. E. Willard 1973 Natural Selection of Parental Ability to Vary the Sex Ratio of Offspring.Science 179:90–92.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Trumbach, R. 1978The Rise of the Egalitarian Family: Aristocratic Kinship and Domestic Relations in Eighteenth Century England. New York: Academic Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Voland, E. 1984 Human Sex Ratio Manipulation: Historical Data from a German Parish.Journal of Human Evolution 13:99–107.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • 1988 Differential Infant and Child Mortality in Evolutionary Perspective: Data from Late 17th to 19th Century Ostfriesland (Germany). InHuman Reproductive Behaviour: A Darwinian Perspective, Laura Betzig, M. Borgerhoff Mulder, and Paul Turke, eds. Pp. 253–261. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • 1990 Differential Reproductive Success within the Krummhorn Population (Germany, 18th and 19th Centuries).Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 26:65–72.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Voland, E., and C. Engel 1990 Female Choice in Humans: A Conditional Mate Selection Strategy of the Krummhorn Women (Germany, 1720–1874).Ethology 84:144–154.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Voland, E., E. Siegelkow, and C. Engel 1991 Cost/Benefit Oriented Parental Investment by High Status Families in the Krummhorn Case.Ethology and Sociobiology 12(2):105–118.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walters, J. R. 1990 Red-cockaded Woodpecker: A Primitive Cooperative Breeder. InCooperative Breeding in Birds, P. Stacey and W. Koenig, eds. Pp. 67–101. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wedgwood, J. 1928 The Influence of Inheritance on the Distribution of Wealth.Economic Journal (March):38–55.

  • 1929The Economics of Inheritance. London: George Routledge and Sons.

    Google Scholar 

  • Weinrich, J. 1977 Human Sociobiology: Pairbonding and Resource Predictability (Effects of Race and Class).Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 2:91–118.

    Google Scholar 

  • Woolfenden, G. E., and J. W. Fitzpatrick 1978 The Inheritance of Territory in Group-breeding Birds.BioScience 28:104–108.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wrangham, R. W. 1987 The Significance of African Apes for Reconstructing Human Social Evolution. InThe Evolution of Human Behavior: Primate Models, W. P. Kinzey, ed. Pp. 51–71. Albany: State University of New York Press.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Additional information

Our initial research on this topic was funded by the Rockefeller Foundation Gender Roles Program. An early version of the paper was presented at the Santa Fe Institute at a conference on Biology and Economics, 14–26 April 1992, organized by Martin Shubik.

Sarah Blaffer Hrdy and Debra S. Judge have been using archival data to study allocation of resources at death by residents of Sacramento and Yolo counties in California from 1890 through 1984 and of Suffolk County, Massachusetts, during the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. Hrdy is Professor of Anthropology at the University of California, Davis, and the author ofThe Langurs of Abu: Female and Male Strategies of Reproduction andThe Woman That Never Evolved. Judge is a graduate student at UC Davis and has published articles on primate, avian, and human behavioral ecology. They share interests in evolutionary biology, behavioral ecology, and the biology and culture of gender relations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Hrdy, S.B., Judge, D.S. Darwin and the puzzle of primogeniture. Human Nature 4, 1–45 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02734088

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02734088

Key words

Navigation