ValentineWiggin wrote:
Monogamy and polygamy have been practiced by both men and women as reproductive strategies depending on the time and place.
Mate guarding (arguably responsible for current manifestations of patriarchal attempts to control women's reproduction) evolved as a practice because sticking to the heels of one woman consistently meant a much greater chance of having sex with an ovulating woman, as opposed to several non-ovulating ones, and also of preventing OTHER males from copulating with her.
Mate guarding is not monogamy. Typically, in pack animals, the alpha male is the FIRST who gets to mate, just like he's the first to eat. In chimpanzees, an ovulating female will f*ck pretty much any male she finds attractive; an alpha male who deprives the other ones of their desires will be overthrown.
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Appeals to modern and historical popularity of polygamy are irrelevant to the practices of eons of evolutionary pre-history, especially since the so-called "polygamy" in the former time period usually means/meant polygamy for MEN and monogamy (enforced by social and legal ramifications ranging from public-shaming to torture and execution) for women.
Before there were any civilizations, polyandry was not unheard of. Because of gender imbalance, polygyny was more common, though.
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It would also seem counter-intuitive that *no* individuals are inclined toward monogamy by nature,
given that many of these people are actually culturalized into hypersexualised societies.
A hypersexualised society that still tells us that anything sexual is taboo.
