The Adult Male-Child Bond: An Example of Convergent Evolution

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Abstract
A quantitative and qualitative analysis of adult male-child patterns of association in Virginia (the United States), Mexico, and Spain indicates an independent bond between men and children. Gender of adult, gender of child, and developmental status of child are important variables in the patterns of adult-child associations in public places with equal access by gender. Cultural and phylogenetic sources of influence on the adult male-child dyad are investigated. The supposition is made that the long-term reliance on hunting and gathering by Homo affected the relationship between men and children, and that Homo, as a social carnivore who shared meat, would be under evolutionary pressures to generate and to maintain an independent adult male-child bond.

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