Aloofness and intimacy of husbands and wives: a cross-cultural study

Ethos • Vol/Iss. 3 • Published In • Pages: 183-207 •
By Whiting, John W.M., Whiting, Beatrice Blyth

Hypothesis

"We propose that husbands and wives will room apart in those societies where warriors are needed to protect property [i.e. more commonly among farmers and herdsmen than among hunters, gatherers and fishermen] and that rooming apart has the psychological effect of producing hyperaggressive males" (192, 194)

Test

Test NameSupportSignificanceCoefficientTail
phiSupportedp<.001.15UNKNOWN

Variables

Variable NameVariable Type OCM Term(s)
Husband And Wife Rooming ArrangementsDependentHousehold, Sleeping
SubsistenceIndependentAnnual Cycle, Diet
Warlikeness/aggressive MalesDependentIngroup Antagonisms, Instigation Of War

Related Hypotheses

Main AuthorHypothesis
Whiting, John W.M.". . . husbands and wives should room together in . . . agricultural societies [with] complex [stratification] that have developed a constabulary and/or professional army as an alternative means of protecting property. . . . Rooming apart is most likely to occur in . . . societies at the middle level of development" (196)
Whiting, John W.M."[There is] no association between wife beating [,] . . . another index of the relation between husband and wife [,] . . . and rooming arrangements. It is associated rather with independent versus extended households. Wife beating tends not to occur in . . . [extended] households" (190)
Whiting, John W.M."[Most of the] . . . societies in which a husband and wife have separate bedrooms are situated in tropical climates where heating is not a problem. . . . [Societies where settlements are permanent rather than nomadic or seminomadic tend to have separate bedrooms for husband and wife]" (190, 191)
Whiting, John W.M.". . .in a significant number of societies men and women who room together eat together. . . . Fathers [tend to] have a close relationship with their infants . . . [and in societies where husband and wife sleep together] . . . the husband is [generally] permitted to be present . . . when his wife is giving birth . . ."
White, Douglas R.The sororal polygyny complex: hypotheses relate a) husbands' and wives' relative generation of wealth, b) husbands and wives autonomous residences, c) sororal mode of polygyny, and d) the husband's responsibility to attract new wives.