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Cited by 238Evolutionary Psychology and Human BehaviorPrimate Behavior and EcologyGender, Labor, and Family Dynamics

Trade-offs between female food acquisition and child care among hiwi and ache foragers

Hurtado, A. Magdalena, Hill, Kim, Hurtado, Ines, Kaplan, Hillard·1992·Human Nature
DOI 10.1007/bf02692239
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Abstract

Even though female food acquisition is an area of considerable interest in hunter-gatherer research, the ecological determinants of women's economic decisions in these populations are still poorly understood. The literature on female foraging behavior indicates that there is considerable variation within and across foraging societies in the amount of time that women spend foraging and in the amount and types of food that they acquire. It is possible that this heterogeneity reflects variation in the trade-offs between time spent in food acquisition and child care activities that women face in different groups of hunter-gatherers. In this paper we discuss the fitness trade-offs between food acquisition and child care that Hiwi and Ache women foragers might face. Multiple regression analyses show that in both populations the daily food acquisition of a woman's spouse is negatively related to female foraging effort. In addition, nursing mothers spend less time foraging and acquire less food than do nonnursing women. As the number of dependents that a woman has increases, however, women also increase foraging time and the amount of food they acquire. Some interesting exceptions to these general trends are as follows: (a) differences in foraging effort between nursing and nonnursing women are less pronounced when fruits and roots are in season than in other seasons of the year; (b) foraging return rates decrease for Ache women as their numbers of dependents increase; and (c) among Ache women, the positive effect of number of dependents on foraging behavior is less pronounced when fruits are in season than at other times of the year. Lastly, in the Hiwi sample we found that postreproductive women work considerably harder than women of reproductive age in the root season but not in other seasons of the year. We discuss how ecological variation in constraints, the number of health insults to children that Hiwi and Ache mothers can avoid, and the fitness benefits they can gain from spending time in food acquisition and child care might account for differences and similarities in the foraging behaviors of subgroups of Hiwi and Ache mothers across different seasons of the year. Valid tests of the explanations we propose will require considerable effort to measure the relationship between maternal food acquisition, child care, and adverse health outcomes in offspring.

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Crossref · 10.1007/bf02692239

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  • The age at which the hunting skills of Hiwi and Aché men are at their best is the late 30s.

    “The age at which the hunting skills of Hiwi and Aché men are at their best is the late 30s”

    From Emerging Adulthood, a Pre-adult Life-History Stage (2020) · cites this paper as [109]

  • The skill of gathering honey and palm fiber of Aché boys and Hiwi girls progressively increases to levels that are about half of their peak adult values in adolescence.

    “the skill of gathering honey and palm fiber of Aché boys and Hiwi girls progressively increases to levels that are about half of their peak adult values in adolescence”

    From Emerging Adulthood, a Pre-adult Life-History Stage (2020) · cites this paper as [109]

  • The age at which Hiwi and Aché men and women reach their peak gathering skills for honey and palm fiber occurs is even later than the late 30s.

    “the age at which Hiwi and Aché men and women reach their peak gathering skills for honey and palm fiber occurs is even later”

    From Emerging Adulthood, a Pre-adult Life-History Stage (2020) · cites this paper as [109]

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Authors
Hurtado, A. M., Hill, K., Hurtado, I., & Kaplan, H.
Affiliations
  • Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas (VE)
  • University of New Mexico (US)
ORCID
Venue
Human Nature
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Published
1992-09
Volume
3
Issue
3
Pages
185-216
ISSN
  • 1045-6767 (ISSN-L)
  • 1936-4776
DOI
10.1007/bf02692239
OpenAlex
W2001565160
Cited by
238
References
45
Citations by year
2026: 3 · 2025: 4 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 10 · 2021: 12 · 2020: 6 · 2019: 17 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 4 · 2016: 9 · 2015: 10 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 9 · 2012: 5
FWCI
21.89
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
www.springer.com/tdm (tdm)
Locations
  • Human Nature (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Primate Behavior and Ecology
  • Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Gender, Labor, and Family Dynamics
Keywords
child care, fitness trade-offs, Ache, hunter-gatherers, lactating women, number of dependents, seasonal variation, maternal health

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