We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 March 2024
Life history theory has revolutionized the study of the evolved life course both across and within species. Humans are no exception. Life history theory provides nuance to claims of human uniqueness in the tree of life, including among mammals, and among primates in particular. This chapter first explains how life history theory delivers optimal trait characteristics given trade-offs that are defined by costs and benefits of different “solutions” to fitness-relevant problems. It reviews the current understanding of the evolution of the human life course, and the chapter evaluates explanations of long postreproductive life spans in human populations. It then provides a framework for modeling how selection pressures in different socioecological settings could shape the flexible expression of demographic, physiological, and even psychological traits in our species. Special emphasis is placed on the role that exogenous mortality and environmental unpredictability (and their cues) play on shaping a number of behavioral and physiological traits related to survival. Claims certainly outpace definitive tests, but after a half century, since life history theory was first introduced to the human life sciences, promising new directions are expanding the breadth of topics covered beyond demography, using multiple methods and spanning diverse disciplines.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
