Yet again, I’m contemplating embarking forth on a research project. Who knows how far this one will go, as my last… several… have died after I got overwhelmed by the preliminary reading. I do think this project has some distinct advantages, however: A) I now have access to the UT database at home on my computer, B) I can do this project without getting approval ahead of time (like with a zoo study), C) I won’t need too much math, I hope, and D) The study might be one that is fully within my resources to carry out.
What I was thinking of is a genealogical study to test the ‘Grandmother Hypothesis.’ For those not familiar, the grandmother hypothesis holds that the long human female post-reproductive lifespan evolved because grandmothers would aid their offspring in raising their children and thus increase their own reproductive success. Was this process active in recent societies? Well, to answer that, my plan is to examine genealogical records from Sevier and surrounding counties where I live. Fortunately, Appalachian people have a taste for this sort of thing, so genealogies aren’t excessively hard to come by. There are a lot of families with very long histories here as well that can be tracked back centuries in a single county. As for the specific methodology of analysis… I’ve found one other study of this type down in a Japanese city, and I’m planning to see how much I can apply from it. Any suggestions would be most welcome.
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April 25th, 2008 at 4:59 pm
That sounds really cool. Let us know how it goes.
Oh, and don’t be daunted by background readings… What I like to do is read multiple papers at a time, along side textbooks,reviews and the internet. So, instead of reading papers, you study them, look up terms when you need to, etc. It winds up going slower, but you wind up gleaning a lot more information. By doing that sort of leg work in the beginning, it’s so much easier when you have to read more papers later on, and when your doing your own writing. Good luck!
April 25th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
‘What I was thinking of is a genealogical study to test the ‘Grandmother Hypothesis.’ For those not familiar, the grandmother hypothesis holds that the long human female post-reproductive lifespan evolved because grandmothers would aid their offspring in raising their children and thus increase their own reproductive success. Was this process active in recent societies?”
It does sound fun. However, you may struggle somewhat to isolate the grandmother effect. Today’s culture and society tends to be much more dispersed than it was when this effect was prominent. No longer are we in smaller villages with the family close (wthin a days walk), but now we are in various cities and countries, often completely seperated from the grandmother.
Also, I couldn’t tell from your post how you are going to calculate your baseline. To obtain evidence that those children reared with the help of the grandmother had a greater chance at passing on their genes than those that did not, you would have to find a way to determine how many children did NOT pass on their genes since they did NOT have the assistance of their grandmother during their developmental years… No small challenge.
It’s quite possible you’ve already thought this through, and just did not mention it above. Either way, I’m be excited to read more, and wish you all of the best in your pursuit. Enjoy!
April 25th, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Well, my plan was really just to establish a correlation. Something to the effect of “how much reproductice success did mothers have per year their mother lived” or something like that. I’m really hoping the Japanese study will give me a better grasp on a methodology.
April 26th, 2008 at 12:10 am
Understood. However, a more pertinent measure may be the number of hours of contact the the child had with the grandmother, since we all (being alive and here to speak about it) are the outcome of successful reproduction.