At 01:00 PM 2/4/2008, Alberto wrote:
>Keith Henson wrote:
> >
> > Considering that polygamy is the norm for the vast majority of the
> > cultures in the world, it's an interesting question how the western
> > countries, and a few others, became monogamous. It seems to be
> > associated with settled agriculture but I don't know if there is a
> > connection or why.
> >
>I would guess that it's peace that doomed polygamy. There can't
>be polygamy unless there's more women than men, otherwise
>the men without women will revolt.
This does not square with field anthropology. Polygamy is well known
in cultures where female infanticide and distorted sex ratios are prevalent.
"Polygamy greatly exacerbated women's scarcity and direct and
indirect male competition and conflict over them. Indeed, a
cross-cultural study (Otterbein 1994: 103) has found polygamy to be
one of the most distinctive correlates there is of feuding and
internal warfare. Female infanticide was another factor contributing
to women's scarcity and male competition. Although the number of male
and female babies should be nearly equal at birth (105:100 in favour
of the boys), a surveys of hundreds of different communities from
over a hundred different cultures (of which about one fifth were
hunter-gatherers) has shown that juvenile sex ratios averaged 127:100
in favour of the boys, with an even higher rate in some societies
(Divale and Harris 1976). The Eskimos are known to have been one of
the most extreme cases. They registered childhood sex ratios of
150:100 and even 200:100 in favour of the boys. No wonder then that
the Eskimo experienced such a high homicide rate over women, even
though polygamy barely existed among them. Among Australian
Aboriginal tribes childhood ratios of 125:100 and even 138:100 in
favour of the boys were recorded (Fison and Holt 1967 [1880]: 173,
176). Among the Orinoco and Amazonian basin hunters and
horticulturalists childhood boy ratio to every 100 girls was recorded
to be: Yanomamo 129 (140 for the first two years of life), Xavante
124, Peruvian Cashinahua 148 (Dickemann 1979: 363-4). In Fiji the
figure was 133. In tribal Montenegro it was estimated at 160 (Boehm
1984: 177). Although the evidence is naturally weaker, similar ratios
in favour of the males have been found among the skeletons of adult
Middle and Upper Palaeolithic hunter-gatherers, indicating a similar
practice of female infanticide that may go back hundreds of thousands
of years (Divale 1972).
"Polygyny and female infanticide thus created women scarcity
and increased men's competition for them.
snip
Page 14 http://cniss.wustl.edu/workshoppapers/gatpres1.pdf
And in any case, all societies, including the western ones and Japan,
were engaged in war long after the switch to monogamy.
Sorry to shoot down your thoughts. Please try again because I would
really like to understand it and am clean out of ideas.
Keith
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