What grandmothers do, in other words, is remember. Living a really long time as a social mammal is good for two things: reinforcing the social status of adult children, and ensuring the well-being of the group overall in a crisis by remembering how to survive in a world that changes over time.[*15] Maybe, instead of the grandmother hypothesis, we should think about two things: Postmenopausal grandmothers may help their children to maintain their social status and resources over time (call it the mother hypothesis). And maybe grandmothers are also helpful because they’re really good at
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