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From: vu0112@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu (Cliff Joslyn)
Newsgroups: soc.men,sci.bio
Subject: Re: Sexual selection
Message-ID: <967@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu>
Date: 19 Mar 88 16:07:56 GMT
References: <1566@mmm.UUCP> <3138@arthur.cs.purdue.edu> <1164@microsoft.UUCP> <25701@cca.CCA.COM> <4368@blia.BLI.COM>
Reply-To: vu0112@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu (Cliff Joslyn)
Organization: SUNY Binghamton, NY
Lines: 18

In article <4368@blia.BLI.COM> heather@blia.BLI.COM (Heather Mackinnon) writes:
>There have been many human societies with baboon-style alpha male
>mating patterns.  The early Hebrews practiced polygamy.  
> [etc. interesting comments on *polygamy* ]

Is it wise to identify alpha-male "harem" style breeding behavior with
human polygamy? My impression is that in *large* cultures that
*actively* practice polygamy (e.g.  Arabic, African Moslem, ruling out
Mormons as a "deviant" group (I can see those Mormon flamers getting
going)) that it is not required, and that most all men have at least one
wife, while the wealthy few can afford more than one.  Two or three is a
bit more common, but in, say, elks, the harem sizes can be more than a
dozen. 

O---------------------------------------------------------------------->
| Cliff Joslyn, Professional Cybernetician 
| Systems Science Department, SUNY Binghamton, New York, but my opinions
| vu0112@bingvaxu.cc.binghamton.edu
V All the world is biscuit shaped. . .