> People who haven't lived long enough to reproduce have no impact on that figure.
They impact it indirectly. Say you have a tribe with 12 men and 12 women. 11 men die (before they can reproduce.) Then the next generation has 1 father and 12 mothers. One could say that the men's deaths caused more people to have the same father. So having a lot of men die before reproducing increases the strength of the effect, under the assumption that women will usually reproduce regardless.
Obviously the root cause is that men can bear more offspring, that much is obvious.
They impact it indirectly. Say you have a tribe with 12 men and 12 women. 11 men die (before they can reproduce.) Then the next generation has 1 father and 12 mothers. One could say that the men's deaths caused more people to have the same father. So having a lot of men die before reproducing increases the strength of the effect, under the assumption that women will usually reproduce regardless.
Obviously the root cause is that men can bear more offspring, that much is obvious.