Mate-Guarding Compliance and Patrilineal Investment in a Heterogeneous Religious Context
| Autoři | |
|---|---|
| Rok publikování | 2026 |
| Druh | Další prezentace na konferencích |
| Fakulta / Pracoviště MU | |
| Citace | |
| Popis | Human children rely heavily on support from individuals beyond their primary caregivers, making access to a stable network of allomothers essential for mothers. Because paternal and patrilineal investment are strongly influenced by perceived paternity certainty, practices that regulate or restrict women’s sexuality may function to secure support from fathers and their kin. We examine how culturally specific mate-guarding practices relate to paternal and patrilineal investment in Mauritius, a country that is highly religious yet globally connected. In Study 1 (N = 359), we employed free-list methods to identify locally meaningful concepts associated with chastity, serving as an operationalisation of compliance with mate-guarding norms. In Study 2 (N = 252), we used the most salient strategies as quantitative indicators of mate-guarding compliance and analysed their association with received patrilineal assistance with childcare as reported by mothers. Mothers’ compliance with mate-guarding norms is associated with increased paternal investment and, to a lesser extent, support from fathers’ relatives. However, further analyses indicate that only certain strategies reliably predict patrilineal support. We interpret these behaviours as potential strategic signals of pro-familial values and sexual fidelity that may improve mothers’ child-rearing strategies by strengthening access to paternal and patrilineal resources. |
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