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Is Monogamy Normal? -- A Scientific Review Related Links 10 Valentine Gifts for the Woman in Your Life Scent of a Woman?-How Her Smells Affect Your Health Bad Bed Habits Top 8 Reasons Men Should Get Married Zinc Increases Your Testosterone Level Fatty Diet Linked to Prostate Cancer Foods That Strenghthen Erectile Performance Blood Pressure-What It Means Foods That Reduce Blood Pressure Low Folate Harms Sperm Penis Shaving Bumps-Home Remedies Yoga That Improves Erectile Performance Better Tasting Sperm Get Lean Diet for Men February 8, 2012 By Stephen Kintz, Contributing Columnist Monogamy seems normal. Most cultures seem monogamous. Most people would find it difficult to list several polygamous cultures. Yet according to the Ethnographic Atlas Codebook, a survey of over 1,231 societies found only 186 monogamous societies and 1,045 polygamous societies. With the overwhelming number of polygamous societies, it becomes much harder to claim that monogamy is normal or natural. Compounding the problem for monogamy are studies like the one conducted by Mark Bellis and colleagues in 2006 at Liverpool John Moores University that found that up to 30 percent of men were raising children that were not their own . Also, an ABC poll conducted in 2004, men had a median of 8 partners. Women had a median of 3 partners. So are we monogamous, or is it perfectly natural for us to have multiple partners? The question is not easy to answer, and scientists are still debating the issue. However, we can begin by examining the biological and societal evidence. The easiest way to understand Homo sapiens is to examine their closest evolutionary ancestors, the Chimpanzee and the Bonobo. Unfortunately, for monogamous advocates, both these species are polygamous. The Bonobo is particularly known for using sex in a multitude of ways for a multitude of occasions. The Bonobo are quite easily classified as sex addicts. This biological evidence would suggest that Homo sapiens evolved from polygamous ancestors and would retain some vestiges of this past. In fact, we do. Homo sapiens are dimorphic, which means males and females are different. This should be obvious, even for children. In the animal world, dimorphic creatures are much more likely to be polygamous than monogamous. Therefore, it should be easy to conclude that Homo sapiens were meant to be polygamous. Yet males and females do not differ by a great amount. Males and females are much more similar than other polygamous creatures, but they retain many different characteristics compared with monogamous creatures. We are evolutionary in-between monogamy and polygamy. Sperm competition is another sign of our potentially polygamous past. "Sex at Dawn: the prehistoric past of modern sexuality" by Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jetha argues that Homo sapiens have large testes. Large testes are usually a sign of sperm competition between males and are indicative of polygamous species. Large testes are found in both chimpanzees and bonobos, along with squirrels and rats. For a counter example, gorillas have tiny testes because gorillas are able to use their sheer size to stop other males from mating. Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jetha argue that the size of male testes is a sign of our polygamous past. The authors argue that in early human history sex was a social lubricant and shared amongst the entire group, much like other resources were shared amongst the group. If this theory is correct, polygamy was common among ancestral humans. The main problem with the argument above is that genetic evidence points to an ambiguous past – not a strictly polygamous one. In 2010, Damian Labuda and colleagues conducted a study at the Université de Montréal, Canada that examined the sex ratios from population samples taken from Africa, Asia, and Europe. The researchers found that the ratio of women and men contributing to our genetic make-up were roughly between 1.4 to 1 and 1 to 1. In monogamous societies, we would expect couples of one male and one female. This would produce a ratio of 1 to 1. In polygamous societies, men have access to multiple women. This access means that many women would be contributing the bulk of our genetic make-up. So if society was purely polygamous, we would expect a ratio greater than 1 to 1. The research by Damian Labuda and colleagues suggest that early man was mostly monogamous with some polygamous leanings. So it appears we evolved from polygamous ancestor but do not practice polygamy that often. The major reasons for this development might be the limitation in resources and the amount of energy required to nurture offspring. For a man to acquire multiple wives, it is necessary for the man to have the resources to support the wives. For most of human history, most men have not had the resources to support a multi-wife household. In fact, even today the number of men in polygamous societies that practice polygamous is low . Therefore, our ability to be polygamous is limited by the resources available to the common man. Polygamy is a rich man’s game. Offspring also limit polygamy. Human children are some of the most energy and time intensive offspring on the planet. This fact can leave a stressed parent wondering why must he or she suffer. To demonstrate how the nurturing of offspring limits polygamy, F. Marlowe conducted a cross-cultural study in 2000 at Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. F. Marlowe found that in societies where men have more participation in nurturing the offspring also have a lower prevalence of polygamy. This simple fact is also seen in the animal kingdom. There is a correlation between time spent nurturing and supporting offspring and monogamy. The more time spent nurturing offspring, the more monogamous an animal generally is. All this is interesting, and we could continue to rack up facts for and against monogamy. In fact, entire books have been written on the subject. However, these appear to be the main points for and against monogamy. Basically, humans evolved from polygamous ancestor and, therefore, have many polygamous characteristics. If you have been cheated on by an unfaithful spouse, you have probably seen human polygamous nature at work. However, just because we evolved from polygamous ancestors does not mean we are entirely polygamous. We evolved from creatures who could not speak, but we speak. Instead, humans have evolved a middle ground approach to sexual selection, and this middle ground approach is often driven to monogamy because of cultural and societal limitations. This idea of humans being in-between monogamy and polygamy actually explains the data on the ABC poll conducted in 2004 that found only 16 percent of people in committed relationships cheat, and the majority of non- married people date exclusively than date around. Of course, if you are a champion of monogamy, there is evidence that monogamy benefits society as a whole – especially women. Joseph Henrich and colleagues looked at the benefits of culturally imposed monogamy and found that monogamy reduces violence, reduces crime, increases child welfare, and more. In fact, the benefits to monogamy appear to be so great, that rich men, who have every reason to reject monogamy, often support it. So maybe the question should not be are humans monogamous but should we support monogamy? Learn More Great Food and Relationship Tips for Men: Bad Bed Habits /Foods That Strengthen Erectile Performance/ Fatty Foods Linked to Male Baldness/ Prostate Cancer Linked to Fatty Diet / Soy Foods Reduce Sperm Count Sources: Want Access to More Articles Like This One?-Register -It's Free and Easy. Our Members Only Area Gets First Look at Articles |
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| The cast of the sitcom "Big Love" depicts a polygamous family. |
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