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From: cedar@athena.mit.edu (Walid F Nasrallah)
Newsgroups: sci.pschology,sci.bio,alt.romance,soc.men,soc.women,soc.singles
Subject: Re: Are Humans Naturally Monogamous?
Keywords: drives : sex love monogamy
Message-ID: <1990Oct26.182603.342@athena.mit.edu>
Date: 26 Oct 90 18:26:03 GMT
References: <1990Oct24.175532.9407@pmafire.UUCP>
Sender: daemon@athena.mit.edu (Mr Background)
Reply-To: cedar@athena.mit.edu (Walid F Nasrallah)
Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Lines: 18

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?

Both!

I think that there are several distinct biological drives that direct hyman beings into
associations with others for the purpose of procreating.  The classic "sex drive" is
probably the most overrated of those, and it is not per se monogamous.  However, there is
a totally different drive which only operates on a singly member of the opposite sex, and
which might bear the apellation "romantic love" (eg. see posting 5337).  The trouble is
that cultural institutions, legends and expectations regarding this feeling are so
pervasive in the western world that many who have not really experienced the monogamous
drive will feel peer pressure to pretend that they do and misinterpret some other drive (
I an not sure how many there are) as the "real thing".

Does this seem to correlate with other peoples' feelings about the issue?