Third, our children are vulnerable for a long time and infanticide could be a risk from other males. Second, males need to guard their female from other males. First is the need for long-term parental care and teaching, as our children take a long time to mature.
Three main theories have been put forward. Human monogamy has long puzzled anthropologists, and lots of effort has gone in to working out what keeps males hanging around. It is worth noting that hunter-gathers around the world practice only monogamy or serial-monogamy which suggests that our ancestors may have used this mating system.Īt first sight, however, it would seem sensible for males to reproduce with as many females as possible. Polygynous marriages are usually a privilege reserved only for high status or wealthy men. However, even in these societies most people remain monogamous.
Primates with simpler penises tend to be monogamous like cotton top tamarins (a) or polygynous like gorillas (g).
