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Home > Activities >Evolutionary Perspectives in Demography
Seminar on the Ecology
of the Male Life Course
Organized by the IUSSP Scientific Panel on Evolutionary Perspectives in
Demography
Castle of Rauischholzhausen, Germany, 10-12 October 2006
Deadline for submission of papers: 15 June 2006
Call For Papers
Background to the Ecology of the Male Life Course
Standard analyses of demography and population dynamics tend to focus
on female reproduction, and the female life course. There are, however,
many reasons to take male reproduction, and the male life course into
account when analysing and modelling population dynamics in our time:
On account of
the tendency for husbands to be older than their wives,
a worldwide decreasing fertility rate, and
a rapid increase of the life span of both sexes, with a substantial
excess male mortality.
Several features of modern and developing populations emerge:
º Marriage squeeze and increased sex ratio bias among unmarried persons: many societies have a surplus of young and middle aged males on the marriage market, and a substantial surplus of single women in old age;
º Increasing extramarital fertility and the increase in family units that include step-parents as well as sibships of half siblings;
ºMigration: International and domestic migration often is sex-specific, producing biased sex ratios in the target population and the population of origin;
ºViolence: the level of international, local and domestic violence often is associated with the proportion of young men in the affected populations, especially if these men are without resources and female partners (“youth bulge”);
ºMorbidity and Mortality: Males live shorter lives than females, suffer more illnesses and enjoy less social support as a consequence of remaining single
Thus, demographers need to evaluate the contemporary challenges facing
men that, hypothetically, result from characteristic sex differences in
nuptiality, reproduction, morbidity and mortality.
Men typically mature later, grow taller and heavier, and are more muscular;
they have longer fertile lifespans, but shorter overall lifespans. Furthermore,
in almost all aspects men’s performance is generally more variable
than women (e.g. in reproductive success, in resource holding potential,
in number of mates, and cognitive abilities). The basis for these differences
is rooted in the dramatic sex difference in energy investment in one live
birth and the resulting skewing of the operational sex ratio, which compels
male life strategies to be much more risk taking. In primates, there is
broad variation in the extent of paternal investment. Long and varying
post-lactational dependence in humans results in additional variation
in parental investment strategies. Humans belong to the minority of primates
where the father is often a direct caregiver for his children, and is
the only primate species with direct investment in – even adult
– grandchildren.
Life history theory offers evolutionary explanations for sex differences
in mortality, nuptiality and fertility. Specific optimality models have
been developed to examine the repeated transitions between reproductive
stages, including pair formation, birth, and parental care as well as
the trade-offs between different investments (for example between early
and late reproduction, or between marital and non-marital reproduction).
A key consideration is that in many species (including humans), phenotypic
plasticity allows optimal allocations to respond to local environmental
and social constraints.
The Goal of the Seminar
This seminar aims to integrate perspectives from life history with the growing body of knowledge regarding hormonal, immunological, developmental, psychological and behavioural aspects of male life history trajectories. It will be organized around three crucial life stages (pre-reproductive, reproductive, and post-reproductive), with papers that address the overall theoretical perspective, overview current knowledge and introduce new research findings. With theoretical and empirical contributions presented in morning sessions, we plan to devote afternoon sessions to discussions of how ultimate evolutionary and more proximate mechanistic explanations can be creatively combined to advance our understanding of the ecology of male life history variation. In short, our goal is to provide a forum in which ultimate and proximate analyses of male life histories can be discussed by scholars from different disciplinary specializations, with the aim of providing new perspectives on contemporary demographic features outlined above.
Date and Location of the Seminar
A 3-day seminar 10-12 October 2006 at the Castle of Rauischholzhausen,
between Giessen and Marburg. The Castle is a Congress Centre of the University
of Giessen (see: www.uni-giessen.de/uni/einrichtungen/Rauischholzhausen).
Host Institutions and name of Local Organizer
Marburg University, Prof. Ulrich Mueller
Format of the seminar
Max. 35 (including speakers, moderators and discussants)
The seminar will be structured around three critical life stages for men,
representing different transitions and tradeoffs:
Day 1: Pre-reproductive Life: Growth, Mortality and Sexual Maturation
Day 2: Reproductive Life: Male-Male Competition for Resources, Mate Choice;
Reproduction and Mortality
Day 3: Post-reproductive Life: Fatherhood, Grandfatherhood and Mortality
We are inviting contributions that blend theoretical models with empirical
data. Empirical support may be at various levels, e.g.:
1. Molecular and Cellular Level (e.g. Hormones, Immunological Status and
disease susceptibility over the lifespan, etc).
2. Physiological and Developmental level (e.g. Reproductive and Sexual
Functions, Sperm vs. Organismic Competition, etc).
3. Psychobiological level (e.g. Emotional, Sensory and Cognitive Differences)
4. Behavioural and Sociological level (e.g. Male-Male Competition, Mate
selection, Parenting, Grand-parenting, Family Structure and Family Behaviour)
The goal of the seminar is to evaluate the current knowledge on each of
the life stages, and to discuss new research directions. The seminar proceedings
will be published as an official IUSSP publication by Springer (http://www.springer.com),
the world’s second-largest scientific publisher.
Submission procedure
A limited number of researchers with a well established reputation in
the field from around the globe are invited to participate in this seminar.
People interested in contributing to the seminar should submit either
completed papers, which must be unpublished, or abstracts by 15 June 2006,
on the IUSSP website :
Please be aware that the programme committee may suggest some modifications – depending on what other presentations have been offered. Final invited participants will depend on the overall coverage of topics in the area.
Applicants will be notified whether their contribution has been accepted
by 30 June 2006. In the case of acceptance on the basis of an abstract,
the completed paper must be submitted by 31 August 2006.
Thanks to generous support from the IUSSP and the German National Science
Foundation, the organizers will pay for expenses at
The meeting location for all participants, but funding for travel is limited. Applicants are encouraged to seek their own travel funding, but if they require travel assistance, they should indicate that need by ticking the appropriate box on the on-line submission form when submitting paper or abstract.
For further information, please contact Ulrich Mueller at mueller2@mailer.uni-marburg.de
Steering committee of the IUSSP Scientific Panel on Evolutionary Perspectives
in Demography:
Co-chairs:
– Monique Borgerhoff Mulder, (Department of Anthropology, University
of California at Davis – USA)
– Debra Judge (School of Anatomy and Human Biology, University of
Western Australia – Australia)
Members:
– Hillard Kaplan (Department of Anthropology, University of New
Mexico - Albuquerque, NM – USA)
– Ulrich O. Mueller (Medical School, Marburg University –
Germany)