Mate Guarding in a Caribbean Village Mark V. Flinn Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan Behavioral observation, economic, and genealogical data collected in a rural Trini- dadian village indicate: (1) males courting the same females have higher rates of ag- onistic interactions (e.g., arguing, fighting) with each other than they do with other mates; (2) females courting the same males do not have higher rates of agonistic in- teractions with each other than they do with other females; (3) exclusive (monogamous) mating relationships have lower rates of agonistic interactions than nonexclusive (po- lygamous) mating relationships; (4) coresident mates interact more frequently when the female is fecund; (5) coresident mates have higher rates of agonistic interactions when the female is fecund; (6) males with fecund mates have higher rates of agonistic interactions with other unrelated males than do males with infecund mates; (7) fecund females do not have higher rates of agonistic interactions with other females than do infecund females; and (8) females do not guard prosperous males (those from households with 6 or more acres of land) more intensely than poorer males. These res.ults suggest that mate guarding is an important aspect of reproductive competition, and that there are significant male/female differences in mate ‘guarding strategies in this human population. KEY WORbS: Mate guarding; Behavioral scan; Caribbean village. Jealously normally runs so high in Dobu that a man watches his wife closely, carefully timing her absences when she goes to the bush for natural func- tions. And when it is time for women’s work in the gardens here and there one sees a man with nothing to do but stand sentinel all day . . . (Reo Fortune 1963:7) This stress upon the biological tie of parenthood can thus be seen to relate to a variety of phenomena . . . the father’s doubts about whether a child is his, and his watchfulness and wariness . . . (Hyman Rodman 1971:138) In fact, constraint of female sexuality by the threat of male violence appears to be cross-culturally universal. (Martin Daly and Margo Wilson 1983:295) Received December 3, 1985; revised September 10, 1986. Address reprints requests to: Mark V. Flinn, Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109. Paper delivered at the American Anthropological Association meetings, Dec. 4, 1984. Ethology and Sociobiology 9: 1-28 (1988) 0 Elsevier Science Publishing Co., Inc., 1988 52 Vanderbilt Ave., New York, New York 10017 0162-3905/88/$03.50