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From: bevans@gauss.unm.edu (Mathemagician)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,alt.romance,soc.men,soc.women,soc.singles
Subject: Re: Are Humans Naturally Monogamous?
Message-ID: <1990Nov21.231047.5745@ariel.unm.edu>
Date: 21 Nov 90 23:10:47 GMT
References: <1990Nov15.141028.25126@eagle.lerc.nasa.gov> <1990Nov15.194025.27299@ariel.unm.edu> <1990Nov16.203058.7780@ariel.unm.edu> <1990Nov16.211050.8786@ariel.unm.edu>
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In article <1990Nov16.211050.8786@ariel.unm.edu> eellis@leo.unm.edu (Eli) writes:
> I write:
>>Well, I disagree.

>>For me, centuries of spontaneous monogamous behaviour is enough to
>>convince me that SOME of us ARE naturally monogamous and that
>>promiscuity, where it exists in SOME, is largely a culturally
>>imposed phenomenon.

>Then explain the high rate of divorce.

Lots of reasons:

You can't stand the person to whom you are married.  You got married
out of the "intensity of the moment" without knowing about all those
little things that drive you up the wall.

Something happens (like a death in the family) that causes
irreconcilable differences.

And, yes, sexual problems.  However, they are not necessarily
related to promiscuity.

I am defining "promiscuity" to be having more than one sexual
partner at one time.  Therefore, I can have more than one lover
and still be monogamous if I keep a sexual commitment to only
one person.  For example, if I am married to one person and
only have sex with that one person then divorce and marry a
second person and only have sex with THAT one person, then I
have been monogamous.

My posting was mostly in humour.  Granted, there were no smilies,
but I don't think I was being THAT vague.  People are people and
what is natural to you may not be natural to me.  That some people
are promiscuous should in no way reflect what is "natural" to
humans at large (and similarly for people who are monogamous).

--
Brian Evans             |"Momma told me to never kiss a girl on the first
bevans at gauss.unm.edu | date...But that's OK...I don't kiss girls."