"What kind of reproduction strategy is this???"

We have drastically oversimplified "reproduction strategy" in order to conflate it with fertilizing an egg; as if everything prior to fertilization and everything afterwards were not a factor. And, in that pseudo-Darwinian fetish that flourished for a while, we have even argued that evolution is some rugged individualist that thinks of strategies that would kill off an entire species if it promoted some short-term advantage to just one instance of fertilization.

The Uncle Chester theory demonstrates that strategies that favor ones kin are of benefit even if they end up promoting, in some minorities, a sexuality that makes them eroticize caregiving the child rather than extending ones ego into the future in a bid for personal immortality.

Heck, at some point, seeing the child as ones future can undermine the grand strategy nature came up with when it opted to create different descendants, not just mini-mes.

But since any reproductive strategy is a fail if the offspring don't reproduce, then our extended dependency is part of a strategy which requires making "Aaaaaaawh" into a permanent feature, and one we extend to all and which occurs in males in a unique way.

Most of our animal brethren race to adulthood and quickly become competitors who must be fought until they give up trying to reproduce. And many feel nothing for the infants of others, even killing off the dependent children of their new mate.

Neotenous attraction even to strangers' children and in males is pretty remarkable. When eroticized, it becomes Pedophilia. And unlike animals who are only sexually responsive or receptive when fertile, we are disposed to eroticize everything year-round.

If humans were more like other critters, maternal love would shut-off when the hormones generated by breast-feeding cease at weaning. And the female mate's breasts reducing to a non-feeding size would be a cue for males to also cease thinking of the new competitor as off-limits to the standard social violence which stems from competition.

( Hmmmmm. Perhaps the sex kitten is the evolutionary end: baby-face and large "nursing" breasts throughout adulthood. )

Dante