Xref: utzoo soc.men:3073 sci.bio:1006
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!pyramid!voder!blia!heather
From: heather@blia.BLI.COM (Heather Mackinnon)
Newsgroups: soc.men,sci.bio
Subject: Re: Sexual selection
Message-ID: <4368@blia.BLI.COM>
Date: 19 Mar 88 04:21:45 GMT
References: <1566@mmm.UUCP> <3138@arthur.cs.purdue.edu> <1164@microsoft.UUCP> <25701@cca.CCA.COM>
Organization: Britton Lee, Los Gatos, CA
Lines: 19

There have been many human societies with baboon-style alpha male
mating patterns.  The early Hebrews practiced polygamy.  The Egyptians
practiced polygamy as did the early Greeks (concubinage).  Polygamy has
been practiced until recent times by American Indians, in the mideast,
by Mormons in the U.S., throughout the Orient and by various African tribes.
In fact, I can't think of any non-European culture that has exclusively
practiced monogamy.  In hunter-gatherer and belligerent societies, the
death rate among adult males would be expected to be higher than among
adult females.  In a subsistence culture, you wouldn't want to waste any
breeding females; too few babies survive to adulthood.

This leads to an interesting question:  when did the move towards monogamy
happen and why?  Did it happen when agriculture replaced hunting and 
gathering?  Did it happen with the growth of cities?  Did it happen when
the male and female populations became more even?  Does it have anything
to do with Christianity?  (In India, Hinduism permits polygamy, but
Mohammedism forbids it.)

In any case, our human history of polygamy would explain high levels of
sexual dimorphism in humans.