Monogamy, Polygamy and the Social Compact - By johnsmith79

Monogamy, Polygamy and the Social Compact

Male investment in reproduction is minimal and males are the diversity experiments for the species, and this leads to species fitness. Females provide the bulk of the cytoplasm via a large egg, while males provide a small packet of sperm - hence males investment in the creation of a zygote is minimal. It is because of the large difference in investment required to create a zygote (sperm is cheap to create, while eggs are expensive to create), that Males are by Nature, able to produce copious amounts of sperm - in fact Male sex organs, be it in plants, animals, or otherwise, produce billions of these, with each sperm capable of fertilising an egg. In this manner, Nature has designed sexually reproductive species to have Males possessing the capacity to to fertilise multiple eggs.

The Male sex is BY DEFAULT, designed for multiple fertilisation.

Theory and praxeology predicts that males should mate with as many females as possible, while females should mate with the best male available - Thus for both sexes, if nothing else is important, polygyny would be their preferred mating system. This allows favourable genetic mutations to propagate quickly, while weeding out unfavourable mutations. Monogamy constrains the mate choice of both sexes, to the detriment of the species as favourable genetic mutations do not propagate quickly while unfavourable ones continue to propagate.

By using DNA fingerprinting technology, researchers found that even in socially monogamous species, most individuals indeed 'cheat' by seeking fertilizations outside their pair bond, called ‘extra-pair fertilizations,’ with frequencies of extra-pair young reaching 70% in some populations. Extra-pair copulations seem to be a strategy males use to increase their reproductive success, and females to obtain benefits (H. Hoi, M. Griggio, in Encyclopedia of Animal Behavior, 2010). DNA fingerprinting studies done on almost every supposedly life-long breeding pair (monogamous) species, has found conclusively that cheating is a common occurrence, with only a few exceptions (source: The Myth of Monogamy, David P. Barash, Judith Eve Lipton).

Monogamy is not the default condition between Males and Females. In Monogamous species, 'cheating' is a common occurrence.

Why does Human Society practise Monogamy?

The answer lies in Civilisation and the Social Compact. Countries which practiced Polygamy significantly disenfranchised a great deal of men, as for example, for every man that took 4 wives, there are 3 men who were disenfranchised from society and had no stake in its success. In Monogamy, the top tier men (men who were the most genetically fit, most capable or had the most resrouces) all agreed to put their needs secondary to that of the Society they lived in. They formed a Social Compact with the rest of the males that each man would only take one wife, giving a chance for the lesser-gifted males to have a wife and a chance at a family (a chance at reproducing). Thus Monogamy gave all males an equal stake in society and in working towards its success. And it is this Social Compact that has enabled Civilisation to flourish.

J.D. Unwin examined of the link between Culture and Sex, where a correlation is found between a country's cultural achievement and its sexual restraint. Societies which enforced strict sexual restraint rose and grew in Culture and gained in prominence and power. Once sexual restraints were loosened, it signalled the downfall of that society. Note that this Social Compact is driven out of the concept of 'Fairness' - this can only occur if all the Males form a compact to willingly forego Polygyny in favour of Monogamy for the good of society.

What are the implications of this?

1- The natural state of Men everywhere is to be Polygamous; We claim to be a monogamous species only because Men have agreed to form a Social Compact, where each man would have a fair chance at a family and thus would be given a fair stake in Civilisation/Society's future. Under the current climate of sexual liberation and easy no-fault divorce, the Social Compact has been completely trashed. This disenfranchises a vast majority of males who used to have an equal stake in society's future. The implications of this could be as disastrous as the fall of Rome.

2- Monogamy is artificial - understand that Cheating is rampant even amongst supposedly mated-for-life monogamous species (remember those 70% extra-pair fertilisations found in supposed monogamous species?). Do not expect Humans to be any different.