Fatherhood. Evolution and Human Parental Behavior

Gray, Peter B., and Kermyt G. Anderson

ISBN 10: 0674048695 / ISBN 13: 9780674048690

Published by Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 2010

About this Item

xii + 304 pp. dj. Rubber-stamped on front free endpaper.

Seller Inventory # 29748

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Fatherhood. Evolution and Human Parental Behavior
• Publisher: Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA
• Publication Date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0674048695
• ISBN 13: 9780674048690
• Binding: Hardback
• Condition: Very good
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Book Type: book
• Seller catalogs:
  • Anthropology

About this title

Synopsis

We've all heard that a father's involvement enriches the lives of children. But how much have we heard about how having a child affects a father's life? As Peter Gray and Kermyt Anderson reveal, fatherhood actually alters a man's sexuality, rewires his brain, and changes his hormonal profile. His very health may suffer―in the short run―and improve in the long. These are just a few aspects of the scientific side of fatherhood explored in this book, which deciphers the findings of myriad studies and makes them accessible to the interested general reader.

Since the mid-1990s Anderson and Gray, themselves fathers of young children, have been studying paternal behavior in places as diverse as Boston, Albuquerque, Cape Town, Kenya, and Jamaica. Their work combines the insights of evolutionary and comparative biology, cross-cultural analysis, and neural physiology to deepen and expand our understanding of fatherhood―from the intense involvement in childcare seen in male hunter-gatherers, to the prodigality of a Genghis Khan leaving millions of descendants, to the anonymous sperm donor in a fertility clinic.

Looking at every kind of fatherhood―being a father in and out of marriage, fathering from a distance, stepfathering, and parenting by gay males―this book presents a uniquely detailed picture of how being a parent fits with men's broader social and work lives, how fatherhood evolved, and how it differs across cultures and through time.

About the Authors

Peter B. Gray is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

Kermyt G. Anderson is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Oklahoma.