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The theory you brought makes no sense for two reasons: 1. If all women mated with the same small group of genetically-gifted men, there would be much less gene
by jazzyk 11y ago
The theory you brought makes no sense for two reasons:
1. If all women mated with the same small group of genetically-gifted men, there would be much less gene-mixing and variation in their offspring. Not good for evolution.
2. Monogamy was invented because it takes a lot of time/effort to bring up human offspring (typically 18-21 years :-)). Mothers need a guarantee that fathers will be around to provide for the children.
- rndn 11y ago1. Do you have a source for that claim? You probably only run into a significant lack of variation if the gene pool is extremely small, i.e. in incestuous relationships. 2. As far as I know this is not fully known yet. It is conceivable that the offspring did just fine in polygamous relationships or just inside the secure environment that the pack provides. There is, for example, some evidence that intensive mothering is ineffective [1]. Among Great Apes the upbringing of the young is commonly shared between the members of the pack and the identity of the father is unknown. Moreover, consider that the importance of education only became really significant within the past 100-50 years, or so, but the concept of marriage in Western culture is much older than that [2]. [1] http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jomf.12170/abstract http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jomf.12170/abstra... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriage#Europe https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriage#Europe
- flinty 11y agohttp://arstechnica.com/science/2015/03/neolithic-culture-may-have-kept-most-men-from-mating/ http://arstechnica.com/science/2015/03/neolithic-culture-may...