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    Infanticide Versus Adoption: An Intergenerational Conflict

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    Pierotti_AN_138(5)1140.pdf (6.344Mb)
    Issue Date
    1991-11-01
    Author
    Pierotti, Raymond
    Publisher
    University of Chicago Press
    Type
    Article
    Article Version
    Scholarly/refereed, publisher version
    Published Version
    http://www.jstor.org/stable/2462512
    Metadata
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    Abstract
    Considerable attention has been paid to the phenomenon of infanticide in recent years. Five functional categories of infanticide have been defined. Here I concentrate on those that either have been described as the outcome of possible competition for limited resources or have by default been classified as the result of social pathology. Many of the species that show infanticide of this nature also show adoption of unrelated young at fairly high frequencies. I suggest that the possibility of caring for nonfilial offspring creates an intergenerational conflict, or arms race, whereby offspring separated from their parents or receiving parental care of substandard quality (insufficient for their survival) should be selected to solicit care from adults other than their parents and the potential adoptive parents are selected to avoid giving such care. Evidence suggests that most examples of supposedly pathological infanticide, or resource-based infanticide, are the result of potential foster parents killing unrelated offspring when these offspring can clearly be identified as nonrelatives. Support for this idea comes from observations that (1) such infanticide is most common in group-living or colonial species, where chances of encountering wandering offspring are high; (2) infanticidal individuals come almost exclusively from the sex that bears the primary costs of adoption; (3) such infanticide occurs only under conditions where victims can clearly be identified as nonfilial; and (4) in species with little or no cost to adoption, adoption is common, but infanticide is nonexistent.
    Description
    This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://www.jstor.org.
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/1808/17544
    Collections
    • Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies Scholarly Works [738]
    • Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies Scholarly Publications [546]
    • Ecology & Evolutionary Biology Scholarly Works [1516]
    Citation
    Pierotti, Raymond. (1991). "Infanticide Versus Adoption: An Intergenerational Conflict." American Naturalist, 138(5)1140-1158. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2462512.

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    Contact KU ScholarWorks
    785-864-8983
    KU Libraries
    1425 Jayhawk Blvd
    Lawrence, KS 66045
    785-864-8983

    KU Libraries
    1425 Jayhawk Blvd
    Lawrence, KS 66045
    Image Credits
     

     

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