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In countries such as India, Indonesia, Mexico, and China, the popu- lation growth rate is very high. The governments in these countries are concerned about their ability to feed and care for an ever-increasing pop- ulation. China has given the most attention to family planning. In 1970, China began an official “one child–one family” policy. In each commu- nity in China, government agencies work with couples to reach this goal. The rate of population growth has declined in China, but other social problems are developing. For example, how will a country take care of its older population if there are fewer younger people working to support them? Other countries. | BEHAVIORAL AND BRAIN SCIENCES 1993 16 267-322 Printed in the United States of America Cultural and reproductive success in industrial societies Testing the relationship at the proximate and ultimate levels Daniel Pérusse Department of Anthropology Université de Montréal Montréal Québec Canada H3C 3J7 Electronic mail perussed d ere.umontreal.ca Abstract In most social species position in the male social hierarchy and reproductive success are positively correlated in humans however this relationship is less clear with studies of traditional societies yielding mixed results. In the most economically advanced human populations the adaptiveness of status vanishes altogether social status and fertility are uncorrelated. These findings have been interpreted to suggest that evolutionary principles may not be appropriate for the explanation of human behavior especially in modem environments. The present study tests the adaptiveness of social status with actual mating and reproductive data in a representative sample of males from an industrial society. Reproductive success even when assessed by a more reliable measure of actual male fertility than the one commonly used fails to correlate with social status. In striking contrast however status is found to be highly correlated with potential fertility as estimated from copulation frequency. Status thus accounts for as much as 62 of the variance in this proximate component of fitness. This pattern is remarkably similar to what is found in many traditional societies and would result in a substantial positive relationship between cultural and reproductive success in industrial populations were it not for the novel conditions imposed by contraception and monogamy. Various underlying mechanisms are suggested for these findings illustrating the value of current behavioral and reproductive data in the study of adaptation. It is concluded that evolutionary explanations of human behavior remain entirely relevant in modem societies. .
