Is there any research on if humans are evolutionary conditioned to be monogamous/polyamorous?

IchBenignBerliner · 2020-12-09T17:43:23+00:00

Humans are evolutionarily conditioned to want their partner to be monogamous to them, while also secretly being as polygamous as they can get away with themselves. Hypocrisy is a good evolutionary strategy.

minawolf_ · 2020-12-09T16:58:37+00:00

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3083418/

Phylogenetic reconstructions suggest that marriages in early ancestral human societies probably had low levels of polygyny

The reconstruction of low levels of polygyny in early humans is straightforward because high levels of polygyny for hunter-gatherers are only found in Australian Aborigines and are mostly low elsewhere (most exceptions are some New World foragers that are not in the phylogenetic analysis). Low levels of polygyny and low reproductive skew among ancestral humans are consistent with human morphology and behavior (i.e., moderate sperm counts [20] and testicular size [21]; facultative paternal investment [22]) and the general decline in sexual dimorphism beginning at least with early Homo [23].

Our phylogenetic results support a deep evolutionary history of limited polygyny

There are several clues that make researchers think that we humans have evolved to be monogamous. First, the low levels of dimorphism between men and women relative to other animals. Especially compared to other primates. Second, the genetical variance in the Y chromosome and the mitochondrial DNA is quite similar, suggesting most people during hunter gatherer times had a diverse range of both fathers and mothers.

Asbelowsoaboveme · 2020-12-09T17:20:55+00:00

There’s evidence of humans engaging in serial monogamy, polygyny, and even polyandry. Humans are the most adaptable species on the planet, and our mating styles adapt to changes in resource availability, presence of environmental pathogens, and population ratios. When resources are plentiful, the population is high, pathogens are more common, and females are readily available, polygyny occurs. When resources are scarce and people are few and far between, polyandry occurs, because mate guarding becomes more important and it requires multiple males to accumulate enough resources to support any offspring. The polyandrous cultures tend to exist in higher altitude climates with harsher environments, the polygamous cultures tend to exist more in equatorial climates. This coincides with the relative levels of resource availability and pathogen threat.

Cultural monogamy with some sexual dalliances is the most common across the globe, because it’s rare for resources to be in extreme surplus or extreme scarcity.

https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/anthrotheses/6/

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C22&as_vis=1&q=human+polygyny+and+resource+availability&btnG=#d=gs_qabs&u=%23p%3DYXa9Ed7GpsAJ

Asbelowsoaboveme · 2020-12-09T17:02:03+00:00

[deleted]

Emervila · 2020-12-09T17:07:32+00:00

makes no sense

Whatever "condition" directing either way does not means humans have to follow such path to be "successful" on mating. Reason, intelligence allow us to master environment and choose our own path.

Both, women and men hate to be cucked, even the most cucked lame beta would like to a woman just for himself given the chance and the D-tool/money he thinks he needs to deliver.

SaBahRub · 2020-12-09T17:19:00+00:00

Sexual dimorphism is evidence of our tendencies. So is ball size and hidden ovulation

Cmon people; google exists

Hoopy223 · 2020-12-09T17:56:30+00:00

Most research points towards monogamy, likely for stability and child-rearing.

passepar2t · 2020-12-09T18:49:41+00:00

I read that the penis is mushroom shaped to extract the sperm of rival men. You're welcome for that delightful image, by the way.

No idea if it's true but if it is, kinda points to humans not being monogamous.

SonicBackScratcher · 2020-12-09T17:02:04+00:00

The general evolutionary consensus is we evolved for longer term pair bonding. Cheating etc is also part of our nature.

Our brains have confused too much in how we live to really say "THIS IS IT" for humans. We were wide spread enough there might even be some differences archaically too in early human populations.

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wub1234 · 2020-12-09T16:53:21+00:00

It would be impossible to prove that humans are evolved to be monogamous. I'm pretty dubious about the whole field anyway, but clearly humans are not monogamous in physical nature.

Cimorene86 · 2020-12-09T17:05:11+00:00

It's not a stupid question at all, but I've never once found any studies or evidence that humans are monogamous in general. A few of us outliers are, but for the overwhelming majority it seems our species is meant to be poly, with numerous short lived relationships instead of one long relationship.

I've had a few conversations here with dudes who claim homo sapiens are monogamous as a whole, but they have never given any sources or even the name of a book or article to support this. I very much think that our monogamous ways are due to social expectations rather than nature.

DrBoby · 2020-12-09T17:45:16+00:00

Slightly polygamous, depending on occasion.

Difference size between male and female translates to polygamy in most animals. In humans the difference in size is small but males are slightly bigger.

It translates to historical data.

Mimoxs · 2020-12-09T18:00:24+00:00

Weren't most ancient tribal girls getting trains run on them on the regular?? I remember learning in history in uni that in the past, like wayyyyy back past, women were having sex with a lot more men than vise versa, and then it flip flopped sometime around the time society began making more sedentary lifestyles and establishing connections with one another, which provided greater need for male protection.

2020-12-09T18:49:51+00:00

Humans do not have a single mating motive that remains invariant across domains, temporal contexts, and biological sexes. Instead, humans have mating adaptations sensitive to temporal context, to the challenges each sex has recurrently faced, and to personal, social, and ecological factors such as mate value, sex ratio, and parasite prevalence.

Buss and Schmitt, “Sexual Strategies Theory,” in Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science, ed. Shackelford and Weekes-Shackelford (Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2017) DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_1861-1.

Overall, there is a complex link to paternity and monogamy in different parts of the world and history. I really— and I mean really— recommend the works of Rob Brooks, he is a really good communicator that has guided my own scientific literacy of evolutionary psychology and evolutionary ecology.

Articles of interest

wekacuck · 2020-12-09T21:02:50+00:00

There is but I don't think it's conclusive. There's a general idea that monogamy has a genetic basis but it's not understood (particularly in humans). Studies in mice suggest a role for vasopressin.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170419131720.htm

Based on that there's been some study going on about infants and vasopressin in men.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22840551/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31164810/

Just some speculation: my hunch is that men bond with their "own" infants primarily and with the mothers secondarily. There's a speculative theory in "The Polygamous Sex" that tantalizes me that men have evolved a powerful "adoption instinct" to help raise kids and that women present themselves as childlike in order to tap into it. If that's the case, then it's possibly more of an indirect monogamy mediated by offspring.

Edit to add: there is also research about vasopressin gene variants being associated with women who cheat https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1090513814001317

Sufficient-Ad-3586 · 2020-12-09T21:52:00+00:00

In prehistoric times, I imagine Neanderthal Chad probably fathered children to multiple females like gorillas do while many males probably never reproduced.

With the advent of civilization and modern history, people had to work together to survive and thrive. Monogamous marriage eventually became the best environment to raise a child in.

Animal instincts may tell us to fuck as much as possible but a core point of being human is controlling that desire. Just because you want to fuck that person doesn’t mean you should rape them. Monogamy for me at least was a huge step towards modern day.

CosmicBioHazard · 2020-12-09T23:26:10+00:00

When male Voles establish pair-bonds with their monogamous mate, it activates a function in their brain which basically changes the type of dopamine that will be released during sex with a different female, should they choose to cheat. This prevents the formation of a second pair bond to override the first, which prevents the male from trading their long-term partner in for a new one.

I definitely think there are some human men who operate that way as well.

jdobrila · 2020-12-09T17:57:07+00:00

We know that reproduction was always heavily skewed in favour of females until very recently. 50 thousand years ago about 2 women reproduced for every 1 man. 10 thousand years ago about 10 women reproduced for every 1 man. 6 thousand years ago we almost hit 20 to 1; after that, it quickly started stabilizing.

We know that all hunter-gatherers are polygynous. This inlcudes those still in existence today. To clarify I'm talking about real hunter-gatherers, not hoe agriculture, even though for some bizarre reason scientists love to lump them together.

We know that our closest primate relatives are polygynous.

Pretty much a slam dunk to me. Humans are naturally polygynous, but economic realities take precedence. We were polygynous in our "natural" hunter-gatherer state, then switched to monogamy once plough agriculture put most on the labor on man's back, and now that industrial revolution removed almost all labor requirements from work we will slowly but surely go back to our polygynous roots.

Title	Is there any research on if humans are evolutionary conditioned to be monogamous/polyamorous?
Author	Mammoth_Ad_5181
Upvotes	0
Comments	41
Date	December 9, 2020 3:53 PM UTC (5 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/PurplePillDebate
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/PurplePillDebate/comments/k9ubeo/is_there_any_research_on_if_humans_are/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/PurplePillDebate/is-there-any-research-on-if-humans-are.731931 https://theredarchive.com/post/731931

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