To be blunt, the most effective method of doing something dominates. As a central economic tenant states “A firm that does not seek to maximize profit is either eliminated by competition or bought out by firms that do seek out that goal.”
Polygamy was the mode of a majority of primitive human societies and as [civilization] grew and developed, monogamy began to dominate. Why is that?
1) Raising a kid is extremely resource intensive ($200,000).
2) Humans are sickly and weak, frequently requiring a social network to survive (concrete family structure).
2a) For a concrete family structure there needs to be a clear view of priorities and who comes first.
All of that together means polygamy causes wasted emotion energy, blurs who takes priority when it comes to distributing resources, and results in inferior children. If monogamy wasn’t the best way, monogamous societies would not have taken over societies with a more open [approach to] relations.
Reader Charles recently posted his theory as to why monogamy rules in the comments section of our post “Top 10 Reasons to Be — and Stay — Non-Monogamous.” Jump into the debate in the comments below:
You be the judge:
Top 10 Reasons to Be NON-Monogamous
VS.
Top 10 Reasons to Be Monogamous