Quotes:Among human societies, polygyny is by far the most common marital system (Ford and Beach, 1951). George Murdock's (1967) Ethnographic Atlas presents a categorization of 849 societies. Of these, 709 are polygynous and only four are polyandrous (women being permitted more than one husband). As noted above, in officially monogamous societies like our own, men are usually recognized as being more attracted to the idea of extra-marital sex than women, and many socially powerful men maintain mistresses as well as legal wives.
The Guinness Book of Records lists sixty-nine as the greatest number of children ever produced by a woman, compared with an official male record of 888 contributed by the last Sharatan Emperor of Morocco. Had he been inclined towards monogamy, his genes would have been much rarer in the world today.
Glenn Wilson, The Great Sex Divide, pp. 51-53. Peter Owen (London) 1989; Scott-Townsend (Washington D.C.) 1992.........................................................
Anthropologists report that the overwhelming majority of human societies either are polygynous or were polygynous prior to the cultural homogenization of recent decades. They also suggest that individuals are mildly polygynous, having evolved in a system in which one man maintains a harem. This, incidentally, helps explain the persistent sex appeal of successful, dominant men, whether they be high-ranking politicians, movie or rock stars, glamorous athletes or wealthy entrepreneurs. Power, as Henry Kissinger once noted, is the ultimate aphrodisiac.
We are imbued by Western culture with monogamous ideals. Yet, like other living things, we're often compelled by our biology to depart from monogamy.
David P. Barash, professor of psychology at the University of Washington in Seattle from his book, "The Myth of Monogamy".........................................................
My opinion:I think that sexual monogamy is a social construct, designed by humans in order to encourage social harmony. And although I take the position that sexual monogamy is inconsistent with our biological tendencies, I do think that it can be extremely complimentary to a sustainable kinship between two individual humans.
It would appear (from anthropological perspective) that it is indeed natural to want to breed with many different people, and in my opinion; that is far from evil or wrong (which are human philosophical concepts that do not exist elsewhere in nature). However, polygynous actions leading to the betrayal of a monogamous kinship 'pact' do tend to arouse biologically natural emotions such as jealousy, anger and disgust.... which creates quite a conundrum.
In conclusion; kinship is natural, monogamy is not. But ironically, both of these are inextricably linked.
Any thoughts? ...apart from moralistic viewpoints
