Evolutionary theory and the human family.

Emlen's (1995) paper "An evolutionary theory of the family" reviewed existing ideas about the nature of family systems and the reasons why they have evolved in certain animal species. His theorizing led him to propose 15 predictions about how family systems function, based on favorable evidence from various species, mostly birds. While he suggested that these predictions can be applied to the human case, he himself did not attempt to do so. We …