The marvel of the Human Dad is a great article I stumbled upon the other day. It’s about the studies done by Anna Machin, a Oxford anthropologist, on the role and anthropologic reasoning that homo sapien fathers contribute to the family. This is a stark contrast between nearly all other mammal species (specifically all other 95%) where the non investing fathers commonly leave or dont provide for the newborn.

Her reasoning tails on the fact that humans typically have a very short gestation period, which requires a lot of nurturing, and even an entire period of growth that no other mammal experiences (adolescents). This importantly requires the mother to spend more time with the newborn. As our brains became more energy expensive some 500,000 years ago, the currency of evolution, we required more energy rich foods (e.g. meats) to support that. The father served, and was evolutionarily rewarded with the spreading of his genes (as children who died early were not able to), as the main breadwinner and then teacher as the child grew into a young adult. While a mom-child relationship is genetically predisposed to simulate a protective and compassionate bond, the fathers acts more as an outward facing and rearing bond to protect and prepare the child for what lies ahead, and to teach them how to succeed.

Give it a read! I’m starting to enjoy these evolutionary arguments and narratives more and more.