Men’s status and reproductive success in 33 nonindustrial societies: Effects of subsistence, marriage system, and reproductive strategy
Level 1 - systematic review of randomized trials
Phylogenetic multilevel meta-analysis of observational studies; graded by design analogy, not clinical CEBM.
OpenAlex W2507848855 · doi:10.1073/pnas.1606800113
What was done
Authors performed a phylogenetic multilevel meta-analysis of 288 statistical associations from 46 studies across 33 nonindustrial societies. They evaluated relationships between male status markers (physical formidability, hunting ability, material wealth, political influence) and reproductive success metrics (mating success, wife quality, fertility, offspring mortality, and surviving offspring count) across different subsistence modes (foraging, horticulture, pastoralism, agriculture) and marriage systems.
What was found
Male status had a significant overall positive correlation with reproductive success (r = 0.19), which was substantially lower than the nonhuman primate benchmark (r = 0.80). Effects did not differ significantly by subsistence type or specific status measure. Status was associated with reduced offspring mortality only in polygynous societies (r = -0.08) and with wife quality only in monogamous societies (r = 0.15).
Why it matters
These findings challenge the hypothesis that ancestral foragers were strictly egalitarian, showing that the reproductive advantage of status was present across foraging and nonforaging societies alike rather than emerging primarily with agricultural domestication.
Limits
The abstract does not report overall individual sample size or confidence intervals. The primary data rely on cross-sectional and ethnographic observational measurements, limiting direct causal inference.
Cited by
- supports Fertility and reproductive success are positively correlated with income and social status in humans and non-human mammals.