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Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Racing the Red Queen -- 3. The Ecology of Sex Differences -- 4. Sex, Status, and Reproduction among the Apes -- 5. Sex, Resources, Appearance, and Mate Choice -- 6. Sex, Resources, and Human Lifetimes -- 7. Sex and Resource Ecology in Traditional Cultures -- 8. Sex, Resources, and Fertility In Transition -- 9. Nice Guys Can Win-In Social Species, Anyway -- 10. Conflicts, Culture, and Natural Selection -- 11. Sex and Complex Coalitions -- 12. Politics and Reproductive Competition -- 13. Sex, Resources, and Early Warfare -- 14. Societal Complexity and the Ecology of War -- 15. Wealth, Fertility, and the Environment in Future Tense -- Notes -- Glossary -- References -- Author Index

Abstract
Behavioral ecology, based in the theory of natural selection, predicts that certain behaviors are likely to differ consistently between the sexes in humans as well as other species: aggression, resource striving, information content of sexual signalling. These differences, though of course open to modification by cultural practice, arise because male and female humans, like males and females of other mammal species, typically optimize their reproductive lifetimes through different behaviors: males specializing in mating effort (which has a high fixed cost, and is not offspring-specific), and females in parental effort (which has more linear reproductive returns, and is offspring-specific). The resulting patterns are reviewed.

Broadly defined, political activity normally involves some form of coalition, usually centering upon resource acquisition, and is not restricted to humans. Male and female mammals appear to have evolved to seek and use resources differently—males to get mates (mating effort) and females to raise healthy, successful offspring (parental effort). Because the return curves for these two types of effort differ in shape, several predictions follow about sex differences in political activity. These predictions are tested using the 93 odd-numbered societies of the Standard Cross-Cultural Sample. Results offer insights into current patterns of male and female political activity in Western societies.

PUP_Braude_FM; PUP_Braude_Intro; PUP_Braude_Ch01; PUP_Braude_Ch02; PUP_Braude_Ch03; PUP_Braude_Ch04; PUP_Braude_Ch05; PUP_Braude_Ch06; PUP_Braude_Ch07; PUP_Braude_Ch08; PUP_Braude_Ch09; PUP_Braude_Ch10; PUP_Braude_Ch11; PUP_Braude_Ch12; PUP_Braude_Ch13; PUP_Braude_Ch14; PUP_Braude_Ch15; PUP_Braude_Ch16; PUP_Braude_Ch17; PUP_Braude_Ch18; PUP_Braude_Ch19; PUP_Braude_Ch20; PUP_Braude_Ch21; PUP_Braude_Ch22; PUP_Braude_Glo; PUP_Braude_Contri; PUP_Braude_Index.

An ecological evolutionary viewpoint offers new perspectives on contemporary demographic problems in general and on population–environment issues in particular. In turn, rich and detailed human demographic data can help solve problems of interest in evolutionary theory. Such data have been analyzed in greatest detail in studies of traditional and historical societies. Evolutionary approaches using historical data go beyond small‐sample anthropological studies to the application of the evolutionary approach to large datasets, and illuminate important similarities between small‐scale traditional societies and large modern populations living in evolutionarily novel environments. This article provides a concise update of the breadth of questions and hypotheses of likely interest to demographers and others that evolutionary theorists address using a variety of traditional and historical datasets. It suggests opportunities for additional collaborative work between evolutionary theorists and historical demographers and highlights topics relevant to modern demography.