The Birth of a Movement?

Comments

[rox]

Just stumbled upon your blog!

In an earlier post you wrote: 'However, humans are among the estimated 3 percent of mammals whose brains are hard-wired for monogamy'

How did you reach this conclusion? Have you read "The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature" by Matt Ridley?

[Susan Kuchinskas]

The 3 percent number and that humans fall into that 3 percent of monogamous mammals is the consensus among biologists I've talked to. I haven't read The Red Queen, but I know there's a segment of evolutionary biologists who think we've evolved to be non-monogamous.

It's important to note that this is social monogamy, not an absolute sexual monogamy. Biologists think, based on bird DNA studies, that 10 to 20 percent of offspring in monogamous species are fathered by a male not in the pair bond.

Humans in most societies have consistently lived in ways that fit the biologists' definition of monogamy, which is not based on sexual exclusivity: There's a small amount of difference between the bodies of male and female; the male has a high investment in rearing the young; and it's equally likely for the male and the female to engage in sexual activity outside the pair.