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From: mikeb@wdl31.wdl.fac.com (Michael H Bender)
Newsgroups: sci.psychology,sci.bio,alt.romance,soc.men,soc.women,soc.singles
Subject: Re: Are Humans Naturally Monogamous?
Message-ID: <MIKEB.90Oct25090008@wdl31.wdl.fac.com>
Date: 25 Oct 90 16:00:08 GMT
References: <1990Oct24.175532.9407@pmafire.UUCP> <13922@cs.utexas.edu>
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In-Reply-To: turpin@cs.utexas.edu's message of 24 Oct 90 22:00:26 GMT
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In article <13922@cs.utexas.edu> turpin@cs.utexas.edu (Russell Turpin)
writes:

    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?

   (... some stuff delete...)

   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

I think that your answer is a little too pat and simplistic. Yes, it is
true that you can't have humans without culture. However, it is also true
that you can't have humans without biological drives and genes, and they do
give us some direction (Actually, they usually give us a number of
different, conflicting, directions!).

In a follow-up book to Sociobiology the author (Wilson?) noted that the
current research indicates that human beings have a definite polygamous
tendency, although societies tend to prohibit against polyandry (i.e., the
female version.)  I would point out further that recent studies in biology
have shown that numerous animals, once thought to be polygamous, are NOT.
E.g., various species of birds that mate for life have recently been shown
to have numerous "extra-marrital" relationships.

So unless you deny evolution and assume that are behavioral tendencies are
completely cut off from the "lower" animals, then the answer to the
original question is probably that humans have a polygamous drive and that
they also have other drives, some of which push in the direction of
monogamy. 

Mike Bender