Xref: utzoo sci.bio:3732 soc.men:23573 soc.women:29655 soc.singles:72076 Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!timbuk!cs.umn.edu!ub.d.umn.edu!rutgers!apple!voder!pyramid!ctnews!tsnews!ward From: ward@tsnews.Convergent.COM (Ward Griffiths) Newsgroups: sci.bio,soc.men,soc.women,soc.singles Subject: Re: Are Humans Naturally Monogamous? Summary: Purely cultural Keywords: drives : sex love monogamy Message-ID: <846@tsnews.Convergent.COM> Date: 27 Oct 90 00:10:04 GMT References: <1990Oct24.175532.9407@pmafire.UUCP> <1990Oct26.182603.342@athena.mit.edu> Organization: Convergent Technologies, San Jose, CA Lines: 47 In article <1990Oct26.182603.342@athena.mit.edu>, cedar@athena.mit.edu (Walid F Nasrallah) 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? > > Both! I don't believe that it is possible for a human being to survive to mate in any pattern, monogamous or polygamous, outside of a fairly complex cultural matrix which would place its pattern(s) firmly into the maturing mind. While there are undoubtably quite a few instinctive behaviours remaining, (the infant's urge to suck, the fear of falling), most of them are vastly overpowered by cultural conditioning, as well as by other learning systems. The fear of falling is a major example of a behaviour apparently instinctive in infants that can be overridden later on. (Though personally, I still think anyone who jumps out of a perfectly good airplane is in serious need of counseling.) My own pattern (in adulthood) has always been loosely monogamous, and I have spent the last 16 years either in a polyandrous triad or in an extended open marriage. (Yes, there are rules concerning disease and birth control.) This is primarily as a result of conscious decision based on reading, observation and experience rather than childhood conditioning, since I was raised rather conservatively Protestant. But since the invention of the printed word, books are part of our cultural matrix. Reaching puberty at the end of the sixties may have also played a subconscious role. Much of this also seems to apply to the larger apes. Gorilla or chimpanzee infants raised without the opportunity to observe the social, grooming mating and dominance behaviours of their elders rarely mate successfully and never achieve dominance of any sort if they are introduced to a tribe at a later time, and in fact are usually (always?) outcast by the rest in an unconfined setting. I don't have any references here in my cube, but if there's interest, I or someone who studies primate behaviour less informally can dig them up. -- The people that make Unisys' official opinions get paid more. A LOT more. Ward Griffiths, Unisys NCG aka Convergent Technologies =========================================================================== To Hell with "Only One Earth"! Try "At Least One Solar System"! "Let's get out of here. They've run out of meat. Funerals are a pain when there are more than twenty people. Never get enough to eat." Donald Kingsbury, "Courtship Rite": Gaet to Honey