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Why are women smaller than men? When anthropology meets evolutionary biology
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- Musée de l'Homme Unité Eco-anthropologie, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle de Paris
- Systematics & Evolution, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle de Paris
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- Manuscript
- Date:
- Received 25 April 2008 12:31 UTC; Posted 25 April 2008
- Subjects:
- Evolutionary Biology and Ecology
- Abstract:
There are large variations of size among humans but in all populations, men are larger on average than women. For most biologists this fact can be easily explained by the same processes that explain the size dimorphism in large mammals in general and in apes in particular. Due to fights between males for the possession of females, sexual selection has favoured bigger males. Indeed, this factor certainly explains why males are selected for being large but lets aside the question of selection on the female side. Actually, it has been shown that larger females are also favoured by natural selection. This is particularly relevant for women because their probability of dying when giving birth is then reduced. In this paper, the common view that size dimorphism in humans results from the fact that the advantage of being big is stronger for men than for women is challenged by another hypothesis, namely that the difference results from a difference of cost rather than from a difference of benefits. The cost of being big would be higher in women simply because, under gender hierarchical regimes found in all cultures, men are allocated the best food. The interaction between evolutionary forces and cultural practices could then lead to this disadaptive situation.
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This is a very difficult question, why males are larger than females on average across animal societies. Does larger means better. I commend the approach of authors to take into account both cost and benefits.
What about sexual dimorphism in plants? Evolution of sex in plants and animals took a different route why? How sexes evolved in first place? Does evolution of nervous system leave any room for advantage of larger body size? Is there any difference in nervous systems of males and females, How will human or ape societies evolve with emergence of equal nervous systems? - (Login to share with a colleague)
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- This document is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
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Touraille, Priscille and Gouyon, Pierre-Henri. Why are women smaller than men? When anthropology meets evolutionary biology. Available from Nature Precedings <http://hdl.handle.net/10101/npre.2008.1832.1> (2008)
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Noah Gray on 19 May 2008 19:08 UTC
This is a very difficult question to address since most anthropologists concur that no matriarchal society exists or has ever existed in history. Therefore, without a proper comparison over a period of time that is evolutionarily relevant, one must turn to our closest genetic animal relatives, bonobos, who just happen to be one of the few animal societies based on matriarchy (although females and males can be equally dominant as well.)
Examining the sexual dimorphism in bonobos, on average, males are both heavier (39 vs. 30 kg) and taller (780 vs. 730 mm). In addition, male canine teeth are far longer than those of females. Thus, even if one debates the true matriarchal nature of the bonobo society, at the very least, this matrifocal organization should even the differences to food access (quantity/quality) by males and females, allowing biological or evolutionary factors to take over. Removing a potential “cultural” (societal may be more appropriate in this case) bias across evolutionary timeframes still produced sexually dimorphism amongst bonobos.
Just a thought experiment in an attempt to find the closest possible situation that could test your theory.