Are humans more inclined towards polygyny? If so, should polygyny be more normalized?

sarkington · 2022-06-16T02:58:06+00:00

Humans, according to their amount of sexual dimorphism (1.15 disparity), are supposed to be “mildly polygamous”

This, of course, assumes that you’re ok with killing off the appropriate number of men required to achieve this “mild” polygamy

GhostofCamus · 2022-06-16T02:41:58+00:00

It’s worse because it conceivably diverts resources for my potential children to another woman’s potential children.

2022-06-16T02:54:48+00:00

There’s a lot of evidence to show that our early ancestors tended towards polygyny but it’s a maladaptive practice in light of todays social institutions. Offspring require intense economic and labor investment. There’s also a more long winded answer of how monogamy helps preserve social order on multiple levels.

2022-06-16T05:37:09+00:00

There is no real reason to think human beings are more inclined towards polygamy than they are to monogamy. There is definitely no reason to think that if human beings were polygamous it would be because women secretly prefer to share one man. Whenever people point towards societies and communities that were, or still are, polygynous they point towards extremely patriarchal ones where most women existed on a spectrum from literal slavery to nigh-on practical slavery. Those relationships were dictated entirely by (powerful) men.

briiiana1122 · 2022-06-16T02:50:03+00:00

[permanently deleted]

Philip8000 · 2022-06-16T04:58:04+00:00

It ends up being oppressive to both men and women. Women have to compete for a single man's attention and harems weren't anything like the romanticized version you see. They were full of backstabbing, treachery, and even murder.

Might sound good if you're one of the 5-10% of men who has the wealth for multiple wives, but that would leave 25-30% of men with no options at all. That's not a good recipe for societal stability. China's got a huge problem with 100 million excess young men and we've got the incel movement. Imagine if that grew to a quarter of young men. Some would accept it and learn to survive, but many others would become less productive, apathetic, even violent.

WilliamWyattD · 2022-06-16T10:52:43+00:00

According to most of the evo psych I have read, humans have mixed instincts here. Ancient polygamous instincts dating back to time before we were even human, and newer pair bonding and monogamous instincts. They both exist in tension with one another, but it sort of works because humans are very adaptable to their circumstances. As Sarkington says, our degree of sexual dimorphism suggests we might be overall 'mildly polygamous', but that is ultimately at best a clue and not definitive.

We are also in uncharted waters with modern technology and the severance of sex from reproduction, and for a highly adaptable species, that means a lot. It should be noted that even what 'polygamy' or 'monogamy' can mean, or how instincts for either can manifest, is complex. We could be more serial monogamous/polygamous than lifelong, especially with birth control, as well as digital media constantly stimulating both genders' most primal sexual novelty triggers.

Ultimately, the real question will be how selective women end up being. They may or may not be OK sharing men at the same time, but serial polygamy where top men are shared over time may become increasingly popular, combined with women taking periodic time outs from men altogether. It seems far from clear whether women are actually wired to voluntarily want to be with anything close to 100% of men as was the monogamous ideal. Not if we assume society puts both genders on an equal footing, and both genders put roughly the same effort into life.

wtknight · 2022-06-16T12:29:49+00:00

Most men don’t have the resources to afford polygyny for the women who would benefit from it. And the women who can earn their own money don’t want polygyny. They want one high value man for themselves, or they’d rather just be single.

Although, one can argue that polygyny is already normalized for any woman who has a FWB. Women are fooling themselves if they think that said guy doesn’t also have a few other FWBs that he keeps in a “soft harem”.

MelodiousTones · 2022-06-16T03:17:03+00:00

All of human history points to monogamy as “normal” (the most common).

You are deleting love entirely, like it doesn’t exist even though it’s one of the most profound and universal elements of human identity.

nemma88 · 2022-06-16T15:48:32+00:00

It is more normalized. As is Polyamory.

We are pretty adaptive, we're not very polygamous, not very polyamorous, not very monogamous biologically. We have the capability and inclination towards what ever sexual strategy is best for the individual and on a wider scale are the masters of none.

This isn't particularly unique though, the Alpha Beta dichotomy from wolves was retracted ultimately because the wolves studied didn't act the same in captivity as they did in the wild - because resources and environment are fundamentally different. People like to talk about the Alpha and beta thing but the important part imo in that is external factors change how even animals behave, including their sexual strategy. Sexual strategy then isn't just a function of biology set in stone, but as with every evolutionary case shifts based on external factors. In humans we grow up in very different environments and just see that range or scale happening real time within the same species. Another way of thinking is biology evolves to suit us (kindof) rather than us yielding to it. The important part is the most efficient spread of genes, the rest is malleable.

The problem if it's not happening is superman isn't worth sharing, for whatever reasons. Have we ever been freer to pursue what we are inclined to want?

My opinion is that is a world where a man excels he will more likely engage in polygamy. Where a women excels she will more likely engage in polyamory. And they both hit the most efficient of sexual strategies for their sex.

briiiana1122 · 2022-06-16T03:35:48+00:00

Probably because this idea that women are somehow sharing men in some kind of harem is just not reality.

The super man that’s being referred to here is probably not really what a lot of women would actually consider a superman. Men here seem to have a weird cartoonish stereotype of a definition of what makes the best version of men.

2022-06-16T05:23:47+00:00

Contraception, the pill std clinics, abortion clinics and dating apps social laws etc are all set up to maximize female hypergamouse interests. We are moving into uncharted waters. History and polly was very very different to our newly forming post monogamy society. Historicly men only acted monogamous when he had the reasorces to provide for 1,2,3 virgins and communal woman have always been that (and why woman instinctively don't like to be labeled sluts).. As society is driven by female hypergamousely Insticts it will not work. Men have insticts such as jealousy that often lead to killing other men or not sticking. etc. . So we are heading to a new era. Currently it looks like, Baby mommas, AF plate spinning men and secure BB nesting cucks.

KindnessIsAMask · 2022-06-16T11:53:54+00:00

Would incline more towards serial monogamy, in my stupid brain.

A harem wasn’t always built through the sexual appetite of the leader as much as those women were politically placed in.

Also, most women in a harem didn’t even get to sleep with the suveran, they would serve as servants, entertainers or would sleep with the participants at the banquets organized by the suveran. Some of those women would be married off to some men to assure loyalty to the suveran.

More often, the women that actually slept with him were chosen from rich or noble families, they served a political interest.

Play_Muted · 2022-06-16T03:03:16+00:00

You have two female ancestor per one male ancestor, human males on average breeded with 2 females but half of the males didnt get to breed.

RealNiceLady · 2022-06-16T06:31:59+00:00

Are humans more inclined towards polygyny?

Men are, but not women.

If so, should polygyny be more normalized?

No.

And since there are so few supermen and many women, why is it taboo for women to share the supermen if that's all they're attracted to?

No one likes to share and betas would be sexually disenfranchised. The incel problem would get worse, and war and violence would become more prevalent.

FatmanSlim93 · 2022-06-16T03:38:47+00:00

Polygyny is for losers, people who can’t have partners stay.

PlayfulLawyer · 2022-06-16T03:36:33+00:00

As I always say on here, unless you've literally only been sexually attracted to one person your whole life, human beings are not made to be monogamous, we're just not, monogamy is a choice that people make for various reasons that Society embraced and enforced for a number of reasons, far from the only thing we do that isn't natural but should it be normalized? I think it's kind of happening either way lol

I told my wife when we first started getting serious that me being strictly monogamous was just not going to be an option as an example, I don't think it'll be a hundred percent truly normalize yeah, but it'll definitely be popular enough as a niche to where some people will just be out in the open with it

OrdinaryFarmer · 2022-06-16T13:05:12+00:00

American and western society has demonized poly lifestyles of any kind, period. And this group likes to yell cuck as an insult so much, you can see how deeply ingrained it is.

When Bill Clinton cheated, know who got shit on a ton? Hillary. For a woman's man to cheat, in America, historically was an insult to the woman. When Alexander Hamilton cheated on his wife, she was humiliated and withdrew from the public for decades. Being cheated on is seen as a huge disrespect to yoir partner because society has made the excuse "he cheated, you must not be doing enough".

Poly in general should be normalized, because nothing should be normalized lol. Nobody ahoukd care how many people you consensually date or fuck as adults with other adults.

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That__EST · 2022-06-16T13:50:12+00:00

I think humans are more inclined towards serial monogamy.

Thewaybackmachine54 · 2022-06-16T15:46:52+00:00

It’s shouldn’t be ostracized but I shouldn’t have to think it’s traditional

ruboyuri · 2022-06-16T16:03:00+00:00

If you don’t mind either more male death or more male celibacy, sure, go ahead and normalize it

2022-06-16T16:55:27+00:00

Na, polygamy results in abuse of the women and children. Its toxic. And for society. And you end up with a large group of men who have zero potential women because the top men have massive harems.

Even that modern polygamy family that was featured on youtube as an example of how good it is ended in tragedy for the baby

stevehem · 2022-09-21T14:53:31+00:00

This thread is quite interesting. It discusses the greater number of female ancestors than male ancestors that is suggested by the DNA of modern humans. It seems that polygyny could be the explanation, but there are others.

I don't know much about this subject, but I read a recent newspaper article that implied that the DNA evidence was that 50% of men never got to pass on their genes, which may not be correct now I have done some research. (Well, what passes for 'research' these days, i.e. a quick google.)

Title	Are humans more inclined towards polygyny? If so, should polygyny be more normalized?
Author	Mysterious_Ad8665
Upvotes	2
Comments	116
Date	June 16, 2022 1:05 AM UTC (4 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/PurplePillDebate
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/PurplePillDebate/comments/vd9pcq/are_humans_more_inclined_towards_polygyny_if_so/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/PurplePillDebate/are-humans-more-inclined-towards-polygyny-if-so.1119849 https://theredarchive.com/post/1119849

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