Martin Traynor made some good points about the long period of care that
human infants require lending itself to monogomous behavior. I would
only add that it would tend to encourage women to find a steady and
reliable provider, but it would not in anyway discourage men from sowing
their plentiful seed at every opportunity. That, of course, is
Evolutionary Psychology 101 day 1.
Martin wrote:
> I think this is why monogamy as we know it has
>developed, although I suspect that the mechanism has not had enough
>time (in evolutionary terms) to perfect, hence the broken marriages
>etc. I also think that it will not develop further in the current
>climate as a lot of the need has disappeared.
I think you're on to something with that second sentence. I suspect that
monogomy, rather than being yet to be perfected propagative strategy, has
seen its hayday. It's not going to diassappear from the cultural stage
in the near future, but a woman in the industrialized world today has a
better chance of keeping her child alive until that child reaches sexual
maturity than does a married woman in the devoloping world or a married
woman anywhere two hundred years ago.
Take care. -KMO