AbstractThe suitors' ownership of land influenced the marriage age of the women in the Krummhörn population (Germany, 1720–1874). This led to a characteristic distribution of the categories of land ownership of husbands by the wife's age at marriage: the younger the brides, the higher was the percentage of high‐status males among their bridegrooms. But the natal status of brides did not exert any significant influence on their age at marriage. Moreover, socially hypergamous women married younger than those whose marriage meant a social drop. We have interpreted these findings as the expression of a conditional female choice strategy with age‐dependent decrease in demands on a marriage partner: “If you are young, be very choosy and marry only a high‐quality mate; the older you become, the more you must reduce your initial standards!” On the average this strategy was adaptive, because in this population land ownership correlated with the local reproductive success
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