Infanticide And Parental Care

First published in 1994. Infanticide is an extremely complex behavioral pattern that occurs throughout the animal kingdom and it must be considered not only in isolation but also from the viewpoint of an animal's care of its young. Infanticide and Parental Care will be of interest to zoologists, evolutionary biologists and biological anthropologists. The concept of infanticide is considered in different mammals such as humans, primates, pinnipeds, lions, dwarf mongooses and prairie dogs and in non-mammals including insects and birds. Infanticide and Parental Care also views the topic in different environmental conditions such as the natural habitat of an animal and animals kept in laboratory conditions. The wide implications of infanticide mean that this book will also be useful to historians, anthropologists, sociologists and psychologists.

Stefano Parmigiani, Frederick S. vom Saal

PART 1: HISTORICAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL, SOCIOLOGICAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO THE STUDY OF INFANTICIDE AND PARENTAL CARE IN HUMANS CHAPTER 1 Fitness Trade-offs in the History and Evolution of Delegated Mothering With Special Reference to Wet-nursing, Abandonment and Infanticide CHAPTER 2 The Role of Social, Religious and Medical Practices in the Neglect, Abuse, Abandonment and Killing of Infants CHAPTER 3 The Psychology of Parenting in Evolutionary Perspective and the Case of Human Filicide CHAPTER 4 Infanticide in Western Cultures: A Historical Overview CHAPTER 5 Step-parenthood and the Evolved Psychology of Discriminative Parental Solicitude PART 2: INFANTICIDE IN NONHUMAN PRIMATES CHAPTER 6 Infanticide in Nonhuman Primates: Sexual Selection and Local Resource Competition CHAPTER 7 Infanticide Among the Langurs of Jodhpur: Testing the Sexual Selection Hypothesis With a Long term Record CHAPTER 8 Mechanisms of Primate Infant Abuse: The Maternal Anxiety Hypothesis PART 3: FIELD STUDIES OF INFANTICIDE AND PARENTAL CARE IN INSECTS, BIRDS AND MAMMALS CHAPTER 9 Oophagy and Infanticide in Colonies of Social Wasps CHAPTER 10 Proximate and Ultimate Determinants of Avian Brood Reduction CHAPTER 11 Protection and Abuse of Young in Pinnipeds CHAPTER 12 Infanticide in Lions: Consequences and Counter-strategies CHAPTER 13 Altruistic Infant Care or Infanticide: The Dwarf Mongooses' Dilemma CHAPTER 14 Nepotism and Infanticide Among Prairie Dogs PART 4: EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES OF INFANTICIDE AND PARENTAL CARE IN RODENTS CHAPTER 15 Infanticide and Protection of Young in House Mice (Mus domesticus): Female and Male Strategies CHAPTER 16 Behavioral Cycles and the Neural Timing of Infanticide and Parental Behavior in Male House Mice CHAPTER 17 Selective Allocation of Parental and Infanticidal Responses in Rodents: A Review of Mechanisms CHAPTER 18 Biparental Care and Male-Female Relations in Mammals CHAPTER 19 Protection and Abuse of Young in Mice: Influence of Mother-Young Interactions CHAPTER 20 To Provision or Kill Offspring: A Dynamic Model of Postpartum Decision Making