Reply to Opler on Apachean Subsistence, Residence, and Girls' Puberty Rites

Archaeological evidence shows that Apaches occupied the central Plains area from A.D. 1525–1725 in Wyoming, South Dakota. Nebraska, Kansas, and Colorado. Toward the end of this period they were semi-sedentary farmers living in houses generically like those of the Plains-Prairies earth lodge. Because in their southward migration they contacted Plains-Prairies farmers earlier than those in the Southwest proper, and farming was women-dominated and residence matrilocal for the Hidatsa, Mandan, Arikara, Pawnee, and Wichita, it seems highly probable that these Plains Apaches acquired matrilocal residence and a female farming division of labor at this time before contacting Tanoans in the Southwest. The more western Apacheans, who may not have had contact with Plains tribes, could have acquired matrilocal residence from western Pueblos, including the Keresans, who were probably all matrilocal before Spanish contact. It is doubtful that the wild plant gathering of Apachean women was sufficient to cause matrilocal residence, because in parts of California and the Great Basin where women gathered a greater proportion of the diet than Apachean women, residence was vary rarely matrilocal.     

Medial Frontal White and Gray Matter Contributions to General Intelligence

The medial orbitofrontal cortex (mOFC) and rostral anterior cingulate cortex (rACC) are part of a wider neural network that plays an important role in general intelligence and executive function. We used structural brain imaging to quantify magnetic resonance gray matter volume and diffusion tensor white matter integrity of the mOFC-rACC network in 26 healthy participants who also completed neuropsychological tests of intellectual abilities and executive function. Stochastic tractography, the most effective Diffusion Tensor Imaging method for examining white matter connections between adjacent gray matter regions, was employed to assess the integrity of mOFC-rACC pathways. Fractional anisotropy (FA), which reflects the integrity of white matter connections, was calculated. Results indicated that higher intelligence correlated with greater gray matter volumes for both mOFC and rACC, as well as with increased FA for left posterior mOFC-rACC connectivity. Hierarchical regression analyses revealed that DTI-derived FA of left posterior mOFC-rACC uniquely accounted for 29%–34% of the variance in IQ, in comparison to 11%–16% uniquely explained by gray matter volume of the left rACC. Together, left rACC gray matter volume and white matter connectivity between left posterior mOFC and rACC accounted for up to 50% of the variance in general intelligence. This study is to our knowledge the first to examine white matter connectivity between OFC and ACC, two gray matter regions of interests that are very close in physical proximity, and underscores the important independent contributions of variations in rACC gray matter volume and mOFC-rACC white matter connectivity to individual differences in general intelligence.     

Polygyny and fertility in Morocco: the effect of marital instability

This paper analyses the relationship between polygyny and female fertility in the province of Marrakech (Morocco) taking into account the effect of the previous marital instability (number of marriages) and the possible association between female sterility and type of marriage. In the analysed population, polygyny increases in the small towns. Polygynously married women have a higher level of education and show a higher percentage of use of contraceptive methods than the monogamously married ones. Although polygynously married women initially show lower fertility, multivariate analysis carried out on the group of women between 35 and 49 years old show that there are no significant differences in fertility between monogamously and polygynously married women when the effect of the previous marital instability is considerer. Female sterility does not determine marital instability, although it does determine a significant increase in polygynous marriages among the women without children.