Catchword: alloparent

Filed under: English, Relationships

Part of speech: n.

Quotation: Where did the term “alloparent” to refer to the mother’s helpers come from? I was one of the first people back in the ’70s to write about the importance of conspecifics—members of the same species other than the mothers—rearing offspring, but at the time I was using the very technical primatological term “aunties and uncles.” And I was writing a paper in a seminar for Edward O. Wilson, and he said, “You know, Sarah, this won’t do.” And so it was actually Wilson who coined the term “alloparent,” because he felt we needed something a little more dignified than calling them “monkey aunts and uncles.”

Article or document title:
“You can never have too many mothers” (URL)

Author:
Julia Wallace

Article, document, publication, web site:
Salon

Date of publication:
May 11, 2009

This catchword has yet to be researched.