You can never have too many mothers | Salon Life

This is a must-read interview with a sociobiologist who proposes that people became highly social animals because of cooperative breeding whereby mothers relied on "allomothers" (other related caregivers) to provide care to her offspring. She discusses how this unusual pattern of rearing led to some interesting characteristics and behaviors among humans including empathy, hypersociality, doting grandmothers and aunts, and fathers and mothers who abandon or ignore their kids.