Chapter 2. Postulates Two Through Six

Extract

Given that food is shared within the family and a sexual division of labor with respect to hunting-gathering activities exists, then territorial groups will tend to be patrilocally based

It has been shown that at least two types of territoriality may be distinguished—sexual and economic. These are associated with societies of animals which, intraspecifically, represent the smallest kind of grouping having maximal autonomy. In species which are largely food-limited, it is the food supply with which autonomy is largely concerned.

In species in which the family pair defends an economic territory, both the male and female may engage in this, though the male more frequently than the female. In the social ants, males exist only as breeders, and specialized females defend the territory. In all cases, the territory must be defended by the individuals who range the widest and, in accordance with Postulate One, have contacts with individuals of similar groups.

In Homo sapiens, the males defend the territory. There are two major reasons for this, both related to a division of labor along sex lines. The first is that the male, in this division of labor, is the widest ranging of the two sexes. The second is the primate heritage of sexual dimorphism which adapts the male as a combatant more than the female.