Polygamy / Polyamory, thoughts?

[aguster]

Originally Posted by Tom in Napa County CA

aguster, how valid is any comparison of hunter-gatherer behavior twelve thousand years ago with the behavior we see today?
The authors Ryan and Jetha also wrote of behavior becoming more competitive when those hunter-gatherer took up agriculture.

Well, I'll admit that my original response was emotionally driven, but most men I've met try to get out of fatherly duties as much as possible. And when I read your post about the authors I simply inferred that they were talking about men nowadays, not 12000 years ago. You didn't exactly make that clear.

[Secme]

Darrel Ray came and gave a talk to Sydney atheists, it is on our youtube page here; www.youtube.com/sydneyatheists
Long story short he mentioned two tribes he had studied one that due to tradition was convinced that it took 5 men and one woman to conceive a child. Needless to say the children would all have and see it as normal to have 5 active fathers or thereabouts, and the women would walk around with smiles on their faces 24x7
There was another tribe he mentioned where it was the duty of the brothers of a girl to assist in bringing up her children, and the women of the tribe were very much encourage to have many, many one night stands. Their brothers would obviously take advantage of this with other women in the tribe and there was no way to know who was the father of the Children, but they looked after their sisters children in sort of a reciprocal deal.

Interesting, the theory of monogamy coming with agriculture seems to make sense. But obviously definitive proof is hard to come by. Everyone points at bonobos, I had a poly person tell me that the Bonobo is the patron saint of Polyamory, but I digress. Who knows if we have evolved to be monogamous, maybe some of us surely have, some of us have definitely evolved to be asexual so why not some on the other end, polyamorous? Of course polyamory is more than just sex so it isn't really the opposite of asexual, that would be hypersexual, but you get my drift.

[Tom in Napa County CA]

Thanks, Secme.
I long ago read of the importance of uncles but forgot it until now.
I know what having one father is like. What's having five like?
Whether the women walked around with smiles on their faces 24x7?
They would walk around with confidence that their children would be provided for.
Would they smile 24x7 if they didn't get off?