Sociality, Hierarchy, Health: Comparative Biodemography is a collection of papers that examine cross-species comparisons of social environments with a focus on social behaviors along with social hierarchies and connections, to examine their effects on health, longevity, and life histories. This report covers a broad spectrum from humans to nonhuman animals, exploring a variety of measures of position in social hierarchies and social networks, and drawing links among these factors to health outcomes and trajectories. Sociality, Hierarchy, Health revisits both the theoretical underpinnings of biodemography and the empirical findings that have emerged over the past two decades.

Contents

• THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES
• COMMITTEE ON ADVANCES IN BIODEMOGRAPHY: CROSS-SPECIES COMPARISONS OF SOCIAL ENVIRONMENTS, SOCIAL BEHAVIORS, AND THEIR EFFECTS ON HEALTH AND LONGEVITY: A WORKSHOP
• COMMITTEE ON POPULATION
• Acknowledgment of Reviewers
• Contributors
• 1. Sociality, Hierarchy, Health: Comparative Biodemography
  Maxine Weinstein, Hillard Kaplan, and Meredith A. Lane.
  • INTRODUCTION
  • LIFE HISTORIES AND INTERGENERATIONAL TRANSFERS
  • SOCIAL HIERARCHIES
  • SOCIAL CONNECTION
  • GENES: WHAT'S BRED IN THE BONE WILL OUT IN THE FLESH
  • HUMAN AND NONHUMAN ANIMAL SUBJECTS
  • THE CONTRIBUTIONS OF COMPARATIVE BIODEMOGRAPHY
  • A FEW CLOSING THOUGHTS
  • ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  • REFERENCES
• 2. Alleles, Mortality Schedules, and the Evolutionary Theory of Senescence
  Kenneth W. Wachter.
  • EVOLUTIONARY SENESCENCE IN THE DAYS OF ZEUS AND THE SALMON
  • HETEROGENEITY: LIFELUCK, RISK, AND FRAILTY
  • STOCHASTIC VITALITY
  • EFFECTS IN GENOME-WIDE ASSOCIATION STUDIES
  • MUTATION ACCUMULATION WITH DEMOGRAPHIC COSTS
  • EVOLUTIONARY DEMOGRAPHY: TENETS AND HYPOTHESES
  • ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  • REFERENCES
• 3. Genes Revisited: The Biodemography of Social Environmental Variation Through a Functional Genomics Lens
  Jenny Tung.
  • INTRODUCTION
  • THE RATIONALE FOR ADOPTING A FUNCTIONAL GENOMIC PERSPECTIVE
  • FUNCTIONAL GENOMICS AND THE BIODEMOGRAPHY OF SOCIAL ENVIRONMENTAL VARIATION
  • PROSPECTS
  • CONCLUSIONS
  • REFERENCES
• 4. The Long Reach of History: Intergenerational and Transgenerational Pathways to Plasticity in Human Longevity
  Christopher W. Kuzawa and Dan T.A. Eisenberg.
  • INTRODUCTION
  • DEVELOPMENTAL AND INTERGENERATIONAL PLASTICITY
  • INTERGENERATIONAL PLASTICITY: HYPOTHESES FOR BIODEMOGRAPHY
  • CONCLUDING POINTS
  • ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  • REFERENCES
• 5. Genomic and Evolutionary Challenges for Biodemography
  Kenneth M. Weiss.
  • EVOLUTION AND DEVELOPMENT: NESTED GENOMIC SYMMETRIES
  • THE DISSOLVING IDENTITY OF “GENES” AND THEIR FUNCTION
  • STRANGE ENCOUNTERS OF THE N-DIMENSIONAL KIND
  • THE HUMAN GENOME DOESN'T EXIST, AND NEITHER DOES YOURS
  • SOME RELEVANT EPISTEMOLOGICAL ISSUES
  • SOME STRATEGIC THOUGHTS
  • CONCLUSIONS: CAN THE CAUSAL WEB BE UNWOVEN
  • ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  • REFERENCES
• 6. Evolutionary Perspectives on the Links Between Close Social Bonds, Health, and Fitness
  Joan B. Silk.
  • INTRODUCTION
  • SOCIAL BONDS AND FITNESS OUTCOMES: INITIAL EVIDENCE
  • DEFINING AND DOCUMENTING THE STRUCTURE OF SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS
  • PROXIMATE MECHANISMS THAT MEDIATE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CLOSE SOCIAL BONDS AND FITNESS OUTCOMES
  • CONCLUSIONS
  • REFERENCES
• 7. Pathways of Survival and Social Structure During Human Transitions from the Darwinian World
  Caleb Finch and Burton Singer.
  • SOCIAL HIERARCHIES, PAST AND PRESENT
  • FUTURE HUMAN AGING
  • ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  • REFERENCES
• 8. Social and Economic Underpinnings of Human Biodemography
  Paul L. Hooper, Michael Gurven, and Hillard Kaplan.
  • INTRODUCTION
  • KIN-BASED ALTRUISM, INTERGENERATIONAL TRANSFERS, AND LIFE HISTORY
  • COMPLEMENTARITIES, SEX ROLES, AND LIFE HISTORY
  • GAINS TO COOPERATION, RECIPROCITY, AND LIFE HISTORY
  • VARIATION AMONG FORAGERS
  • DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
  • REFERENCES
• 9. Work to Live and Live to Work: Productivity, Transfers, and Psychological Well-Being in Adulthood and Old Age
  Jonathan Stieglitz, Adrian V. Jaeggi, Aaron D. Blackwell, Benjamin C. Trumble, Michael Gurven, and Hillard Kaplan.
  • INTRODUCTION
  • PART I. AN EXPLANATORY FRAMEWORK FOR PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING IN ADULTHOOD AND OLD AGE
  • PART II. SEXUAL COOPERATION, CONFLICT, AND PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL-BEING
  • PART III. EXISTING MODELS OF DEPRESSION AND FUTURE RESEARCH DIRECTIONS
  • CONCLUSION
  • REFERENCES
• 10. Intergenerational Transfers, Social Arrangements, Life Histories, and the Elderly
  Ronald Lee.
  • INTRODUCTION
  • SENSITIVITY AND SELECTION
  • MICROSIMULATION OF THE TRANSFER MODEL WITH EXPLICIT FOOD-SHARING GROUPS AND RULES
  • WHICH SOCIAL ARRANGEMENTS HAVE THE HIGHEST FITNESS
  • OPTIMAL LIFE HISTORIES WITH INTERGENERATIONAL TRANSFERS
  • THE EVOLUTION OF TRANSFERS AND LONGEVITY
  • THE EVOLUTION OF MENOPAUSE AND INTER-ADULT TRANSFERS
  • INTERGENERATIONAL TRANSFERS AND SEXUAL DIMORPHISM
  • TIME PREFERENCE, TRANSFERS, AND THE MARGINAL VALUE OF ENERGY
  • INTERGENERATIONAL TRANSFERS AND COOPERATION
  • COOPERATION AND INTERGENERATIONAL TRANSFERS AS REALLOCATION SYSTEMS
  • DIRECT AND INDIRECT GENETIC EFFECTS AND INTERGENERATIONAL TRANSFERS
  • HYPOTHESES
  • EMPIRICAL ANALYSIS
  • ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  • REFERENCES
• 11. Stress and Metabolic Disease
  Karen K. Ryan.
  • PHYSIOLOGICAL RESPONSES TO STRESS
  • CHRONIC STRESS AND METABOLIC DISEASE
  • EARLY LIFE STRESS AND METABOLIC DISEASE
  • STRESS, INFLAMMATION, AND METABOLIC DISEASE
  • GUT MICROBIOTA, STRESS, AND METABOLIC DISEASE
  • SUMMARY AND FUTURE DIRECTIONS
  • REFERENCES
• 12. Hierarchy and Connectedness as Determinants of Health and Longevity in Social Insects
  Brian Johnson and James R. Carey.
  • INTRODUCTION
  • SOCIAL INSECTS: CONCEPTS, EVOLUTION AND BIODEMOGRAPHY
  • SOCIAL INSECTS: MOLECULAR MODELS OF AGING
  • RESEARCH OPPORTUNITIES
  • REFERENCES
• 13. Biodemography of Ectothermic Tetrapods Provides Insights into the Evolution and Plasticity of Mortality Patterns
  David A. W. Miller, Fredric J. Janzen, Gary M. Fellers, Patrick M. Kleeman, and Anne M. Bronikowski.
  • INTRODUCTION
  • METHODS
  • RESULTS
  • DISCUSSION
  • ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  • REFERENCES
• 14. A Comparative Perspective on Reproductive Aging, Reproductive Cessation, Post-Reproductive Life, and Social Behavior
  Peter T. Ellison and Mary Ann Ottinger.
  • INTRODUCTION
  • MECHANISMS OF VERTEBRATE REPRODUCTIVE AGING
  • HOW UNUSUAL IS POST-REPRODUCTIVE LIFE
  • HUMAN SOCIALITY AND THE EVOLUTION OF POST-REPRODUCTIVE LIFE
  • CONCLUSION
  • REFERENCES
• 15. The Male-Female Health-Survival Paradox: A Comparative Perspective on Sex Differences in Aging and Mortality
  Susan C. Alberts, Elizabeth A. Archie, Laurence R. Gesquiere, Jeanne Altmann, James W. Vaupel, and Kaare Christensen.
  • INTRODUCTION
  • OBJECTIVES
  • RESULTS: HUMAN STUDIES
  • RESULTS: BABOON STUDIES
  • CONCLUSIONS
  • ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
  • REFERENCES
• 16. Of Baboons and Men: Social Circumstances, Biology, and the Social Gradient in Health
  Michael G. Marmot and Robert Sapolsky.
  • VARIED HEALTH GRADIENTS
  • VARIED HEALTH GRADIENTS IN VARIED PRIMATE SOCIETIES
  • CONCLUSIONS
  • REFERENCES

This study was supported by the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health through Contract No. 10001706, Order No. HHSN26300045. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the organizations or agencies that provided support for the project.

Suggested citation:

National Research Council. (2014). Sociality, Hierarchy, Health: Comparative Biodemography: A Collection of Papers. M. Weinstein and M.A. Lane, Editors, Committee on Population, Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

NOTICE: The project that is the subject of this report was approved by the Governing Board of the National Research Council, whose members are drawn from the councils of the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, and the Institute of Medicine.