Tracking affordances requires a sophisticated model of life stages, phases, and transitions

Tracking the emergence, use, and transformation of affordances across the life course requires a sophisticated evolutionary model of development. I argue that the proposed distinction between "childhood," "mating," and "parenting" stages suffers from important limitations and should be replaced by a finer-grained taxonomy in which stages are not identified with specific overarching goals. I also suggest that obligate life stages may be usefully distinguished from facultative, reversible life phases.