russ@wpg.UUCP (Russell Lawrence) (03/20/88)
From article <4368@blia.BLI.COM>, by heather@blia.BLI.COM (Heather Mackinnon): > There have been many human societies with baboon-style alpha male > mating patterns. The early Hebrews practiced polygamy. The Egyptians > practiced polygamy as did the early Greeks (concubinage). Polygamy has > been practiced until recent times by American Indians, in the mideast, > by Mormons in the U.S., throughout the Orient and by various African tribes. > In fact, I can't think of any non-European culture that has exclusively > practiced monogamy... > > This leads to an interesting question: when did the move towards monogamy > happen and why? Did it happen when agriculture replaced hunting and > gathering? Did it happen with the growth of cities? Did it happen when > the male and female populations became more even? Does it have anything > to do with Christianity? (In India, Hinduism permits polygamy, but > Mohammedism forbids it.) > > In any case, our human history of polygamy would explain high levels of > sexual dimorphism in humans. Heather has raised an important and intriguing issue. I'm not a religious studies scholar, but I'm fairly confident that Islam (or Mohammedanism, as it is often called) does not forbid polygamy. Nor is there any scriptural proscription of polygamy in either the Old or the New Testament. If I'm wrong, please don't flame me... just post some references *IF* you can find any. The reason that the practice of monogamy *SEEMS* to be congruent with Christianity stems from the fact that the practice of Catholicism (and Protestant Christianity later on) is/was congruent with the political and economic dominion of the Roman Empire and its successor nations and colonies. The Romans apparently adopted monogamy for a variety of reasons but matriarchal influences in their society and the "logical" or right-minded, ie left brained, concern that Roman aristocrats had about the inheritance of property rights seem to stand out in my mind. (Maybe it's coincidence, but I think monogamy became the standard Roman marital practice at the same time Roman men started shaving their faces; perhaps someone on the net, other than me, would care to comment on some of the connections between dimorphism, monogamy, roman christianity, and unisex fashions such as beard shaving. Homosexuality, BTW, is logically and historically a part of the same picture.) I suspect that the concept of private property is one basis for monogamy. In pre-agricultural, hunter-gatherer societies, the notion of inheritance would have been meaningless, so there couldn't have been the kind of probate wrangling (about whose kids had which birthright) that we find in post-agricultural, old testament stories about the polygamous patriarchs. This comment may start a brawl... but honesty compells me to observe that some of our "western", ie roman, notions about monogamy AND unisex fashions have made less and less sense to me over the years. My skepticism has risen in direct proportion to the rising divorce rate among friends pursuing a monogamous "ideal" along with my growing appreciation for the fact that there *ARE* physical differences between men and women. --- Russell Lawrence, WP Group, POB 306, Metairie, LA 70004 AT&T: +1 504 456 0001 UUCP: {philabs,hpda,nbires,amdahl,...}!uunet!wpg!russ