Abstract
Despite a long history of study, consensus on a human-typical mating system remains elusive. While a simple classification would be useful for cross-species comparisons, across contemporary human societies monogamous, polyandrous, polygynous, and short-term mating patterns are present, with most societies exhibiting multiple kinds of marriages and mating relationships. Further complicating a straightforward classification of mating system are the multiple possible interpretations of biological traits typical of humans used to indicate ancestral mating patterns. While challenging to characterize, our review of the literature offers several key insights. Although polygyny is socially sanctioned in most societies, monogamy is the dominant marriage-type within any one group cross-culturally. Though the timing of the evolution of certain anatomical characteristics is open to debate, human levels of sexual dimorphism and relative testis size point to a diverging history of sexual selection from our great ape relatives. Thus, we conclude that while there are many ethnographic examples of variation across human societies in terms of marriage patterns, extramarital affairs, the stability of relationships, and the ways in which fathers invest, the pair-bond is a ubiquitous feature of human mating relationships. This may be expressed through polygyny and/or polyandry but is most commonly observed in the form of serial and social monogamy.
Highlights
How best to characterize the human mating system is a subject of intense and polarized debate
After reviewing the literature on marriage and mating systems in humans, we present a cross-cultural examination as well as comparative and evolutionary evidence for and against particular lines of inquiry
Consensus on a human-typical mating system has remained elusive in the literature
Summary
How best to characterize the human mating system is a subject of intense and polarized debate. Sex differences in reproductive investment, and resultant differing potential reproductive rates, are argued to favor elevated mating effort behavior in males (i.e., a short-term, multiple mate seeking orientation; Symons, 1979) and polygyny. On the other hand, an evolved sexual division of labor, with offspring dependence on paternal care, is argued to generate overlapping interests in long-term, monogamous relationships for both men and women (Washburn and Lancaster, 1968; Lancaster and Lancaster, 1987; Kaplan et al, 2000). After reviewing the literature on marriage and mating systems in humans, we present a cross-cultural examination as well as comparative and evolutionary evidence for and against particular lines of inquiry
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