Evolution & Human Behavior
Volume 29, Issue 4 , Pages 256-267, July 2008

Mate preferences among the Shuar of Ecuador: trait rankings and peer evaluations☆

  • Elizabeth G. Pillsworth

      Affiliations

    • Corresponding Author InformationDepartment of Anthropology, 341 Haines Hall, Box 951553, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1553, USA. Tel.: +1 310 977 1578.

Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Received 27 September 2007; accepted 17 January 2008. published online 04 April 2008.

Abstract 

A large body of research has examined sex differences in mate preferences, but very little of such work has been conducted in small-scale societies. Study 1 explored women's and men's mate preferences within a modern hunter-horticulturalist population in Amazonian Ecuador. In contrast to patterns documented in much of the existing literature, women and men from three Shuar villages were nearly identical in their stated preferences for physical attractiveness and resource-related traits, and physical attractiveness was ranked at the bottom among 19 traits. Study 2 examined the relationship between unmarried Shuar participants' assessments of the personal characteristics of known peers and their assessments of those peers as desirable long-term partners. When assessed using this method, physical attractiveness appeared to weigh much more heavily into Shuar evaluations of partner desirability, and a sex difference emerged in the preference for resource-related traits. Overall, there were substantial differences between individuals' stated preferences and their preferences as revealed in peer ratings. Across both measurement techniques, however, Shuar women and men were very similar in their preferences for physical attractiveness. These results raise questions about the universality of sex differences in mate preferences documented in the existing literature.

Keywords: Mate choice, Sex differences, Shuar, Hunter-horticulturalists

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☆ Funding for this research was provided by the National Science Foundation (Award No. 0451287), with additional support from the UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles) Department of Anthropology and the UCLA Latin American Studies Program.

PII: S1090-5138(08)00008-1

doi:10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2008.01.005

Evolution & Human Behavior
Volume 29, Issue 4 , Pages 256-267, July 2008

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