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Attachment and Parent-Offspring Conflict

Origins in Ancestral Contexts of Breastfeeding and Multiple Caregiving

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 January 2024

Sybil L. Hart
Affiliation:
Texas Tech University

Summary

This Element builds on the mainstream theory of attachment and contemporary understanding of the environment of evolutionary adaptedness to address the origin and nature of infant-maternal bond formation. Sections 2 and 3 propose that attachment behaviors for protesting against separation and usurpation were compelled by infants' needs for close and undivided access to a source of breast milk, usually mothers, for three years to counter threats of undernutrition and disease that were the leading causes of infant mortality. Since these attachment behaviors would not have been presented unless they were compelled by maternal resistance, their arising is also attributed to parent-offspring conflict. Section 4 theorizes that the affectional nature of infant-maternal attachment originated within contexts of breastfeeding. Uniform and universal features of exclusive versus complementary breastfeeding, that could entail diverse experiences among multiple caregivers, may have shaped adaptations so that love relationships with mothers differ from those with nonmaternal caregivers.
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Attachment and Parent-Offspring Conflict
  • Sybil L. Hart, Texas Tech University
  • Online ISBN: 9781009371957
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Attachment and Parent-Offspring Conflict
  • Sybil L. Hart, Texas Tech University
  • Online ISBN: 9781009371957
Available formats
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To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Attachment and Parent-Offspring Conflict
  • Sybil L. Hart, Texas Tech University
  • Online ISBN: 9781009371957
Available formats
×