Parent - Offspring Weaning Conflicts among the Bofi Farmers and Foragers of Central Africa

Parent-offspring conflict theory suggests that the reproductive interests of parents and children may conflict when parents want to have another child and an existing child wants continued parental attention and resources. This conflict leads toddlers to throw temper tantrums and use other psychological weapons to maintain parental investment. Few studies employing this theory have considered both the cultural and the biological contexts of weaning. Using systematic qualitative and quantitative data collected among the Bofi farmers and foragers of Central Africa, we examined the influence of cultural schemas and practices, nursing patterns, child’s age, maternal pregnancy, and maternal work patterns on children’s responses to the cessation of nursing. As predicted by the theory, Bofi farmer children exhibited high levels of fussing and crying when abruptly weaned while Bofi forager children showed no marked signs of distress. Differences in child care practices associated with the cessation of nursing contributed to this variation, and these practices are linked to broader differences in cultural schemas and social relations. These findings are used to discuss intersections between culture and biology and to show that parent-offspring conflict theory can accommodate a diversity of contexts.