Descrizione del progetto
Arrivare alla radice dei comportamenti di genere
Quali sono le radici delle disuguaglianze e dei pregiudizi di genere? Gli studi sociali ed evolutivi presentano questi problemi utilizzando un modello di conflitto tra i sessi, basato su teorie classiche della selezione naturale. Esistono tuttavia ancora altri fattori inesplorati che possono spiegare tali fenomeni in modo più approfondito. Il progetto EvoBias, finanziato dall’UE, esplorerà il ruolo alternativo della demografia specifica per sesso, cercando i motivi alla base di comportamenti dannosi discriminatori in mancanza di simmetrie di sesso ed età nelle popolazioni. Combinando modelli matematici, studi comparativi e ricerca di dati sociodemografici, il progetto svilupperà e testerà nuovi modelli demografici evolutivi che presentano la relazione tra i rapporti tra i sessi e la comparsa di specifici modelli familiari e comportamenti culturali discriminatori.
Obiettivo
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.
Campo scientifico
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
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Meccanismo di finanziamento
ERC-ADG - Advanced GrantIstituzione ospitante
WC1E 6BT London
Regno Unito