Instead, biological indicators suggest a mating systemA mating system is a way in which a group is structured in relation to sexual behaviour. The precise meaning depends upon the context. With respect to animals, the term describes which males and females mate under which circumstances.https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Mating_systempairbondIn biology, a pair bond is the strong affinity that develops in some species between a mating pair, often leading to the production and rearing of offspring and potentially a lifelong bond. Pair-bonding is a term coined in the 1940s that is frequently used in sociobiology and evolutionary biology circles.https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Pair_bond
Science has yet to definitively pronounce on whether humans are naturally monogamous (lifelong male-female breeding pair) or polygamous (single male breeding with more than one female).
Monogamy in humans is beneficial because it increases the chances of raising offspring, but it is actually very rare in mammals – less than 10 per cent of mammal species are monogamous, compared with 90 per cent of bird species. Even in primates, where it is more common, only about a quarter of species are monogamous.
Well, it is only logical that men are polygamous. You see, as a species, we have 3 fundamental tasks for survival viz shelter, food and reproduction. And it is in our instinctive nature to search for multiple partners, when talking about men.
If we mean realistic for the species of humans, then the answer clearly is yes. In various cultures around the world people are able to engage in lifelong monogamous relationships.
In essence, men are only socially monogamous rather than genetically monogamous.
Although polygamy is practiced in various cultures, humans still tend toward monogamy. But this was not always the norm among our ancestors. Other primates – the mammalian group, to which humans belong – are still polygamous, too.
As with monogamous relationships, polyamorous relationships can be healthy or unhealthy — happy or unhappy — depending on the behaviors and actions of the people who engage in them. Many people in polyamorous relationships are satisfied and happy.
They found that polyamory was perceived most positively of the three consensually non-monogamous relationships, followed by open relationships, with swinging perceived most negatively.
Same-sex relationships, throuples, polyandry, polygamy, open marriage, beta-marriage, and cohabitating couples, are all condemned by Jesus' simple statement in Matthew 19:4-6.
Research, however, finds that people in polyamorous relationships are in fact, often quite happy with their arrangements: They report the same levels of relationship satisfaction as married partners, as well as high sexual satisfaction.
Monogamy is not simply unrealistic; it is unnatural. You do not find it often in the animal kingdom, and where you do it is generally born of an evolutionary necessity. The necessity of monogamy among humankind has evaporated.
According to the New York Times, a 2011 paper showed that early humans, or hominids, began shifting towards monogamy about 3.5 million years ago—though the species never evolved to be 100% monogamous (remember that earlier statistic).
Monogamy, after all, does not come naturally; it is not the norm unless a society enforces it as such. There are immense benefits to doing so. But it is unclear how well we humans can achieve this aim in the present environment.
Men were almost twice as likely to say they are polyamorous or want to be polyamorous.
Only about 2% of the global population lives in polygamous households, and in the vast majority of countries, that share is under 0.5%.
Although the Old Testament describes numerous examples of polygamy among devotees to God, most Christian groups have historically rejected the practice of polygamy and have upheld monogamy alone as normative.
Summary: In cultures that permit men to take multiple wives, the intra-sexual competition that occurs causes greater levels of crime, violence, poverty and gender inequality than in societies that institutionalize and practice monogamous marriage.
Monogamy as policy
As Christianity emerged in the Roman Empire in the first centuries AD, it embraced monogamy and took it further, insisting that two people must reserve their bodies and desires for each other, marriage becoming 'an everlasting threesome with God'.
Evolution dictates that genes have the final say. And if there is one thing genes want, it is to spread as far and wide as possible. That is why monogamy is rare among mammals. Females have to wait for a long gestation period to have a child, where as males could go and inseminate many other females in that time.
Monogamy is the concept of having only one partner at a time (sexual and/or romantic). While this is a personal preference and isn't inherently toxic, the idea of toxic monogamy has been defined as monogamous principles of power and control that have been interpreted and practised in unhealthy ways.
Probably the biggest factor in why it is hard to remain monogamous is that there are several drives built into us that contribute to reproduction, but they do not work in unison.
Finally, polyamory has also been described as a distinctive identity (M Barker, 2005). I will discuss poly identity narratives in more detail, because representations of polyamory as identity most strongly resemble sexual orientation discourses.
More recent field research on a large Canadian sample also found that those in open or polyamorous relationships were just as happy as those in monogamous relationships. The Rubel and Bogaert review reports that most non-monogamous people are just as or more sexually satisfied than monogamists.
Polys and Religion
Of those who do practice a religion, the most popular are (in descending order): Paganism, Unitarian Universalism, Judaism, Buddhism, and some form of sacred serxuality.