Xref: utzoo sci.psychology:3403 sci.bio:3691 alt.romance:5173 soc.men:23521 soc.women:29605 soc.singles:71762
Path: utzoo!utdoe!ontmoh!attcan!uunet!wuarchive!cs.utexas.edu!turpin
From: turpin@cs.utexas.edu (Russell Turpin)
Newsgroups: sci.psychology,sci.bio,alt.romance,soc.men,soc.women,soc.singles
Subject: Re: Are Humans Naturally Monogamous?
Summary: Humans naturally develop in a culture.
Message-ID: <13922@cs.utexas.edu>
Date: 24 Oct 90 22:00:26 GMT
References: <1990Oct24.175532.9407@pmafire.UUCP>
Followup-To: sci.psychology,sci.bio,alt.romance,soc.men,soc.women,soc.singles
Organization: U. Texas CS Dept., Austin, Texas
Lines: 23

-----
In article <1990Oct24.175532.9407@pmafire.UUCP>, reiser@pmafire.UUCP (Steve Reiser) writes:
> Without cultural training would human being by there biological nature
> be monogamous or is it culturally ingrained from childhood?

It is hard to imagine an environment that allows a human to
survive to adolescence that does not provide cultural training
of some sort.  To the extent that one can imagine such an
environment, like the fabled children who survived in the wild,
it is unlikely that any human so raised would be capable of 
much sexual activity beyond masturbation, at least, not without
being shown how.

Humans by their *nature* develop in a culture.  To talk about what
humans would *naturally* do without culture is nonsense.  It is NOT
natural for humans to develop without culture.  

To understand what is natural to humans, one can only look at the
range of cultures that have developed.  Are humans naturally
monogamous or not?  In some cultures they are and other cultures they
aren't, and in yet other cultures, such as our own, they can be
either.  That is the only realistic answer to your question.

Russell