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  • Review of Economic Studies

On the Origins of Restricting Women's Promiscuity

By: Anke Becker
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    Abstract

    This paper studies the origins and function of customs and norms that intend to keep women from being promiscuous. Using large-scale survey data from more than 100 countries, I test the anthropological theory that a particular form of preindustrial subsistence—pastoralism—favored the adoption of such customs and norms. Pastoralism was characterized by heightened paternity uncertainty due to frequent and often extended periods of male absence from the settlement, implying difficulties in monitoring women's behavior and larger incentives to imposing restrictions on women’s promiscuity. The paper shows that women from historically more pastoral societies (i) are subject to stronger antiabortion attitudes; (ii) are more likely to have undergone infibulation, the most invasive form of female genital cutting; (iii) are more restricted in their freedom of mobility; and (iv) adhere to more restrictive norms about women’s promiscuity. At the historical society level, pastoralism predicts patrilocality, the custom of living close to the husband's family after marriage, allowing them to monitor the bride. Instrumental variable estimations that make use of the ecological determinants of pastoralism support a causal interpretation of the results. I also provide evidence that the mechanism behind these patterns is male absence, rather than male dominance, per se, or historical economic development.

    Keywords

    Infibulation; Female Sexuality; Paternity Uncertainty; Concern About Women's Chastity; Pastoralism; Economic Anthropology; History; Gender; Social Issues; Culture

    Citation

    Becker, Anke. "On the Origins of Restricting Women's Promiscuity." Review of Economic Studies (forthcoming).

    About The Author

    Anke Becker

    Entrepreneurial Management
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    More from the Author
    • ELCA's Series A By: Anke Becker, Ray Kluender and William R. Kerr
    • Tabulated Nonsense? Testing the Validity of the Ethnographic Atlas By: Duman Bahrami-Rad, Anke Becker and Joseph Henrich
    • Ancient Origins of the Global Variation in Economic Preferences By: Anke Becker, Benjamin Enke and Armin Falk
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