How can non-human primates inform evolutionary perspectives on female-biased kinship in humans?

Abstract

The rarity of female-biased kinship organization in human societies raises questions about ancestral hominin family structures. Such questions require grounding in the form and function of kin relationships in our close phylogenetic relatives, the non-human primates. Common features of primate societies, such as low paternity certainty and lack of material wealth, are consistent with features that promote matriliny in humans. In this review, I examine the role of kinship in three primate study systems (socially monogamous species, female-bonded cercopithecines and great apes) that, each for different reasons, offer insights into the evolutionary roots of matriliny. Using these and other examples, I address potential analogues to features of female-biased kinship organization, including residence, descent and inheritance. Social relationships are biased towards matrilineal kin across primates, even where female dispersal limits access to them. In contrast to the strongly intergenerational nature of human kinship, most primate kin relationships function laterally as the basis for cooperative networks and require active reinforcement. There is little evidence that matrilineal kin relationships in primates are functionally equivalent to descent or true inheritance, but further research is needed to understand whether human cultural constructs of kinship produce fundamentally different biological outcomes from their antecedents in primates. This article is part of the theme issue ‘The evolution of female-biased kinship in humans and other mammals'.