Family Hour

This chapter is all about families and how altruistic and selfish behavior manifests itself within family groups. A great portion deals with discussing the idea of birth control. It also makes a distinction between child caring and child bearing, to successfully raise offspring animals and people must do both. Every creature tries to find the optimal number of children, which can’t be too few as eventually there, are few in future generations, while too many increases mortality and also leaves less in future generations. It also deals with how siblings try to overthrow their parents’ efforts to keep all of them alive by getting the maximum benefit possible. It also says that smaller families in tougher times are not because the individuals are acting towards helping the groups, but instead are doing so to make sure their children survive. Family planning occurs because families must adapt to the environment to keep their own genes alive, not because they want to preserve the species. This also explains the occurrence of menopause, because the female body realizes that she should dedicate herself to safeguarding the genes she inherited to her grandchildren rather than creating more.