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Paternity and inheritance of wealth

Paternity and inheritance of wealth One of the oldest conjectures in anthropology is that men transfer wealth to their sister's son when the biological paternity of their ‘own’ children is in doubt1–12. Because maternity is certain, a man is necessarily related to his sister's son and his brother (see Fig. 1). It is argued here that relatedness to male heirs can be assured by passing wealth to sister's sons or down a line of brothers, whether the prevailing kinship system reckons those brothers matrilineally or patrilineally. It is also argued that when several transfers of wealth are considered, a man's likelihood of being cuckolded need not be unrealistically high13 for his successive matrilineal heirs to be more related to him than his successive patrilineal heirs (see Fig. 2). Cross-cultural data on sister's son/brother inheritance14 and frequency of extramarital sex for females15 support the hypothesis that men tend to transmit wealth to their sister's son and/or brother when the probability that their putative children are their genetic children is relatively low. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Nature Springer Journals

Paternity and inheritance of wealth

Hartung, John
Nature , Volume 291 (5817) – Jun 25, 1981
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References (25)

Publisher
Springer Journals
Copyright
Copyright © 1981 by Nature Publishing Group
Subject
Science, Humanities and Social Sciences, multidisciplinary; Science, Humanities and Social Sciences, multidisciplinary; Science, multidisciplinary
ISSN
0028-0836
eISSN
1476-4687
DOI
10.1038/291652a0
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

One of the oldest conjectures in anthropology is that men transfer wealth to their sister's son when the biological paternity of their ‘own’ children is in doubt1–12. Because maternity is certain, a man is necessarily related to his sister's son and his brother (see Fig. 1). It is argued here that relatedness to male heirs can be assured by passing wealth to sister's sons or down a line of brothers, whether the prevailing kinship system reckons those brothers matrilineally or patrilineally. It is also argued that when several transfers of wealth are considered, a man's likelihood of being cuckolded need not be unrealistically high13 for his successive matrilineal heirs to be more related to him than his successive patrilineal heirs (see Fig. 2). Cross-cultural data on sister's son/brother inheritance14 and frequency of extramarital sex for females15 support the hypothesis that men tend to transmit wealth to their sister's son and/or brother when the probability that their putative children are their genetic children is relatively low.

Journal

Nature – Springer Journals

Published: Jun 25, 1981

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