How families have evolved

A short introduction to this album.

What happens when you apply Darwin to human social structures? Ruth Mace explains the value of this approach.

The comparative method can be used to investigate how culture relates to environment. The reproductive pattern of human females is a particularly interesting puzzle for evolutionary biologists.

The current decline in family size seems to contradict the Darwinian model of inclusive fitness but it can be explained as a tradeoff between the cost of bringing up children and the number of children in a family.

Does technology lead behaviour or does behaviour lead technology? Ruth Mace argues that the pill was invented to serve a Darwinian need.