Are Humans Naturaly Polygamous?

If you take human breeding in purely Darwinian terms.

Does breeding with various partners increase the likely hood of the survival of your genes?

For example the black death, did the people who were more promiscuous create more genetic varations within their offspring in turn increasing the livelihood of survival?

Also if you are more promiscuous you're likely to have more kids than someone who is monogamous. Meaning more of your genes in the gene pool.

Do you think monogamous relationships are in direct conflict with human nature?

edao said:

If you take human breeding in purely Darwinian terms.

Does breeding with various partners increase the likely hood of the survival of your genes?

For example the black death, did the people who were more promiscuous create more genetic varations within their offspring in turn increasing the livelihood of survival?

Also if you are more promiscuous you're likely to have more kids than someone who is monogamous. Meaning more of your genes in the gene pool.

Do you think monogamous relationships are in direct conflict with human nature?

Click to expand...

i recently read an article a month ago which had data that said Non-religious people have a higher birthrate. promiscuous or not !

edao said:

If you take human breeding in purely Darwinian terms.

Does breeding with various partners increase the likely hood of the survival of your genes?

For example the black death, did the people who were more promiscuous create more genetic varations within their offspring in turn increasing the livelihood of survival?

Also if you are more promiscuous you're likely to have more kids than someone who is monogamous. Meaning more of your genes in the gene pool.

Do you think monogamous relationships are in direct conflict with human nature?

Click to expand...

I don't know,
Dolphins are single pair lovers while deers have 'horn'
I believe the sex has to do with our ancestors and times, and mostly with womans choice in free nature,
mans choice in Islam,
and economical conditions to raise the Kid in Christians and Europe,
the case of non religion, it is just no soul people don't care on how to raise the kid, and just spread their genes.

Interesting that you both mention religion. Has religious beliefs effected the way you live you life?
Most people I know in the UK are not particularly religious, only the over 60s go to church regularly in fear of death!

If you look at tv shows like Desperate Housewives and Sex in the City the whole appeal of them (predominately female audience) is the promiscuous behaviour of the characters.

These characters are role models for alot of western women setting fashion and lifestyles trends. Recently in London there was the slutwalk you can read about it here. While I appreciate the message of rape in not acceptable under any circumstance, they do seem to be promoting idea that being a slut is ok.

I'm not saying it just women, I'm arguing that promiscuous behavior is in our nature. To be monogamous is to be fundamentally unhappy?

Hmm.. I think evolution has programmed humans to be in various types.
Some are sticking to one partner, some will have mixed relations.

Nature will never bet on one horse in the race..
It's as simple as that.

I have some ideas about human sex.

1) The woman gives the impression that the man makes the first move, but he simply falls for a nice smile.
2) The woman chooses the man. Not the other way around.
3) The woman decides what is interesting for her offspring. Brains or power, good looks or a gentle character.
4) That is the reason, why women have no problem with getting children from different types of men in some circumstances.

Of course a lot of men and women have a sound relationship, but there are also lots of women and men that pick from different fruits. And that's only natural. Evolution works in many different ways.

To give a broad, rough answer: humans seem to be mildly polygamous (as opposed to wildly so as in the case of Hymenoptera, a type of insect, a very social species). In a state of nature, a small group of human males tend to monopolise access to women, and a lot of men fall short and don't get much action. A more technical way of saying this is that that reproductive variation is larger among males than females, and at the extremes males can produce far more offspring than women, compare Ghengis Khan with a woman who is constantly in a state of pregnancy. Institutionalised monogamy helps to level the playing field.

I have encountered a number of People (females and males) saying they will never get married (Just have fun so to speak and they do). Once they surprisingly fall in love and have their first kid/s they seem to change their outlook completely. Off spring seem to help in encouraging some type of monogamous relationship irrelevant of religion and institution, generally speaking of course. We also know that kids in their innocence do not take polygamy lightly and do go through though times (when in young ages) seeing their parent go through separation or divorce.