Any father will tell you how profoundly his life changed after the birth of his child.
He will tell you of the awe of holding his child for the first time, the exhaustion of the infancy years, the stresses of providing for family, the pride in his child’s accomplishments.
But what about other changes he experiences that are not so evident? And, more generally, what does it mean to be a father?
Biological anthropologist Peter Gray and his coauthor search for answers in Fatherhood: Evolution and Human Paternal Behavior, a study of the nature of fatherhood from many perspectives – the biological, evolutionary, anthropological, and sociological.
More specifically, UNLV’s Gray and fellow anthropology professor Kermyt Anderson explore the physiology, behaviors, and social structures of human fatherhood as it has evolved across time and different cultures.
The publisher, Harvard University Press, captures the book’s core premise with a succinct line: “Fatherhood actually alters a man’s sexuality, rewires his brain, and changes his hormonal profile.” Gray finds this notion fascinating and casts the role of father in a larger evolutionary context.
“One striking feature of human fatherhood is that men in all cultures are expected to be involved with their children to varying degrees,” Gray says. “This is not a unique occurrence in the animal world, but it does set us apart. Among all species of mammals, only in about 5 percent of these species do males provide parental care.”
Since our closest primate relatives, the great apes, have no paternal investment in their offspring, why are humans different? Is paternal involvement one of humanity’s defining characteristics?
The book attempts to answer such questions with knowledge about humans from their most primitive days, comparing human fatherhood behavior patterns to those of other animal species and surveying detailed anthropological studies of cultures and tribes. The book also examines the effects of fatherhood on health and societies.
The authors also include chapters on cross-cultural diversity, marriage patterns, fertility, paternity, paternal involvement (or the lack thereof), stepfatherhood, and the physical changes men undergo when they become fathers.
Both of the authors drew on fairly recent experiences with the transition to fatherhood to find inspiration for the book.
“Working on this book was a joy,” Gray says, noting that they compiled the book in a little over a year. “As the fathers of young children and with similar backgrounds in evolutionary anthropology, Kermyt and I share a passion for studying fatherhood. We also have similar writing styles, so the book came together rather seamlessly.”
Their sense of purpose was also heightened because they felt they were filling a significant gap in their field.
“The vast amount of scholarship on parenting focuses on maternal behavior,” says Gray. “The role of fathers is much less explored.”
The result is a rich and patient assemblage of scholarship that draws no easy conclusions about fatherhood but shows its diversity. Fatherhood has been well reviewed and received, generating discussion in the Boston Globe, Psychology Today, the Chronicle of Higher Education, MSNBC’s Cosmic Log, and a host of scholarly journals and local publications. The book, first published in 2010, recently came out in paperback.
Gray continues his study of this area, still fascinated by the biological, social, and evolutionary aspects of fatherhood. He is currently part of a team surveying a large sample of Jamaican fathers about their paternal attitudes.
