DOI: 10.5061/dryad.v41ns1s27
title: Data from: Jeans and language: social networks and reproductive success are associated with the adoption of outgroup norms

description: Traditional norms of human societies in rural China may have changed due
 to population expansion, rapid development of the tourism economy and
 globalization since the 1990s; people from different ethnic groups might
 adopt cultural traits from outside their group or lose their own culture
 at different rates. Human behavioural ecology can help to explain adoption
 of outgroup cultural values. We compared the adoption of four cultural
 values, specifically speaking outgroup languages/mother tongue and wearing
 jeans, in two co-residing ethnic groups, the Mosuo and Han. Both groups
 are learning outgroup traits, including each other’s languages through
 contact in economic activities, education and social networks, but only
 the Mosuo are starting to lose their own language. Males are more likely
 to adopt outgroup values than females in both groups. Females of the two
 groups are no different in speaking Mandarin and wearing jeans, whereas
 males do differ, with Mosuo males being keener to adopt them than Han
 males. The reason might be that Mosuo men experience more reproductive
 competition over mates than others, as Mosuo men have larger reproductive
 skews than others. Moreover, Mosuo men but not others gain fitness
 benefits from the adoption of Mandarin (they start reproducing earlier
 than non-speakers). This article is part of the theme issue 'Social
 norm change: from evolution to policy intervention'.
description: Cultural characteristics of
 1,720 Mosuo and 712 Han people, who presented during the investigation,
 were collected in a single-round survey, along with a demographic and
 socio-economic survey of this population in 2017. The cultural survey
 included questions on speaking languages and dressing style. Here we
 focused on four cultural characteristics varying across group and spatial
 scales (Table 1), Mandarin (0=cannot speak, 1=can speak), Sichuan dialect
 (0=cannot speak, 1=can speak), Naru (0=cannot speak, 1=can speak), and
 wearing of jeans (1 =never wear, 2 = rarely wear, 3 = often wear, 4 =
 always wear). We used demographic data to calculate
 reproductive success and to identify biological kin and affinal kin
 networks. We calculated the number of offspring living to age 15 for elder
 Mosuo and Han men and women born between 1911 and 1950. We also computed
 the number of alive children (of any age) and age at first birth for all
 the adult participants aged 15 or more in the cultural survey. We also
 defined the intermarriage status of all the participants (0 = no, 1=
 intermarried with Han, 2= intermarried with other ethnic groups, and only
 those ever married were included). Only
 part of the data used in the paper is presented due to the need to
 preserve anonymity.
description: 1\. Title of Dataset: data from "Jeans and language: kin networks ad
 reproductive success are associated with the adoption of outgroup
 norms" Collected in southwest China. 2\. Sharing/Access information
 He Q-Q, Yu J-R, Tang S-H, Wang M-Y, Wu J-J, Chen Y, Tao Y, Ji T, Mace R.
 2024 Data from: Jeans and language: kin networks ad reproductive success
 are associated with the adoption of outgroup norms. Dryad Digital
 Repository. (doi:10.5061/dryad.v41ns1s27) 3\. Description of the data and
 file structure 1\) demography.xlsx i. variables: * ethnic: ethnic group
 (Mosuo or Han) * sex: 1 for male, 2 for female * mosuo: speaking the Mosuo
 language, 0 for cannot speak, 1 for can speak. * mandarin: speaking
 Mandarin, 0 for cannot speak, 1 for can speak. * sichuan: speaking Sichuan
 dialect, 0 for cannot speak, 1 for can speak. * Jeans1: wearing jeans, 0
 for never, rarely; 1 for often, always. * Jeans2: wearing jeans, 0 for
 never; 1 for rarely, often, always. ii. Missing data codes: NA (data not
 available) 2\) networks.csv i. variables: * ID: ID of ego * labels1: ID of
 alter * DyadID: ID of Dyad * CloseKin: whether ego and alter are close
 biological kin, 0 for no, 1 for yes. * CloseAffine: whether alter are
 ego's close affinal kin, 0 for no, 1 for yes. ii. Missing data codes:
 none. Note that due to the need to maintain anonymity of individuals, part
 of the data are not shown.