Descripción del proyecto
Búsqueda de la raíz de los comportamientos sexistas
¿En qué se basa el sexismo y las desigualdades entre hombres y mujeres? Los estudios sociales y evolutivos presentan estas cuestiones mediante un modelo de conflicto entre sexos, el cual se basa en las teorías clásicas de la selección natural. Sin embargo, existen otros factores sin explorar que podrían explicar estos fenómenos en mayor profundidad. El proyecto financiado con fondos europeos EvoBias explorará el papel alternativo de la distribución geográfica de hombres y mujeres para buscar los motivos que expliquen los comportamientos sexistas nocivos y la ausencia de simetrías por sexo y edad en las poblaciones. Mediante la combinación de modelos matemáticos, estudios comparativos y la investigación de datos sociodemográficos, el proyecto desarrollará y evaluará nuevos modelos demográficos evolutivos que presenten la relación entre ratios de hombres y mujeres, la aparición de modelos familiares específicos basados en el sexo y los comportamientos culturales.
Objetivo
Cultural practices that are harmful to one sex, but favour the other, are the focus of intense interest in the public eye, the social sciences and the evolutionary human sciences. The foundational work of Hamilton, Bateman and Trivers, showed how kin selection theory provides a framework for understanding the evolutionary basis of conflicts of interest between the sexes and between parents and offspring. However, many gender-biased practices do not seem to fit this classic model of sexual conflict, in which males exploit females for their own mating advantage. Rather than focus on the inherent differences in sexual strategies of males and females, I will explore an alternative explanation, which is sex-specific demography. This framework refocuses attention away from sexual selection, towards patterns of cooperation and conflict within families. If one sex disperses at marriage, that generates sex and age-based asymmetries in relatedness in residential groups, but few theoretical models, or empirical studies, have examined how such demographic effects could explain the origins of gender-biased cultural behaviour. EvoBias will develop and test new evolutionary demographic models that will focus on the role of sex-ratios, sex-biased dispersal and some modes of marriage, in generating gender-biased harmful cultural practices. The behaviours to be studied include: female-biased workloads, witchcraft accusation, sending men to war, sending boys into monastic life, bride-capture and the ‘honour’ killing of women by their own kin. These represent both social issues and evolutionary puzzles. The diverse kinship systems in east and central Asia and sub-Saharan Africa provide opportunities to test these hypotheses. Through a combination of mathematical modelling, comparative studies using the literature and field-based sociodemographic studies, the team will seek evidence that sex-specific demography underpins these gender-biased harmful cultural traditions.
Ámbito científico
Palabras clave
Programa(s)
Régimen de financiación
ERC-ADG - Advanced GrantInstitución de acogida
WC1E 6BT London
Reino Unido