monstersquad said:
It doesnt do us any good genetically, but we're far past that. If you look at other apes( we are apes, no use denying it), they're generally polygamous, and with chimps especially, there's a healthy amount of incest thrown in there as well. This is fine for their society, but it obviously wouldn't work in ours.
Couldn't just leave this sitting there. But there is very little incest in chimp communities because most chimps have an inherent sexual aversion towards known kin. What with natural selection not favoring the possible (and probable) faux pas of performing incest and having a baby with some crippling or fatal recessive gene.
More on topic: I like the evidence the testicle guy brought up earlier.
Monogomy is simply a sexual strategy which may or may not provide for the best chances at reproductive success. In general, modern Homo
sapien sexual social norms are the constructs of hundreds of thousands of years of selective pressures on long-term high-investment sexual strategies. Humans are incredibly complex and require a great deal more development time (in this case, time until sexual maturation) than most other organisms. As such, both males and females are more likely to successfully raise a child to adulthood if they invest their time and resources on raising that one child rather than go off and try to make as many babies as possible.
Obviously this is a simplistic and stylized view of sexual strategies and the issue is not this clearly black and white. But as for shades of gray, humans are far more monogamous than polygamous (at least we usually have one partner at a time, not neccessarily for our entire lives).
But who is to say what is "wrong" and what is "right"? Just because something was a successful sexual strategy for our ancestors doesn't mean we have to look at the issue with such detachment. As the average human lifespan increases more and more, perhaps the idea of feeling perennial love for only one significant other will fade with time.
I for one, feel that love is fundamentally rooted in trust and interdependency. In a polygamist society, the lack of a single person who completely knows and understands your very core being, who is your link to understanding youself, a firm tether tying you to reality and your responsibilities, your
one and
only, would make everything so meaningless. With multiple emotional bonds (or perhaps none) the entire experience of love is dulled. After all, what can one person mean to you when there are so many others?
Note: on a technical standpoint, monogamous just means one partner at a time, not one your whole life or 'till death do you part.
