Didn't some research group find that the younger male gorillas who were turned out by the Alpha male would sneak back in to get with the lady gorillas, usually while the Alpha was fighting off a challenging almost-Alpha? Otherwise, wouldn't gorillas have eventually fallen victim to inbreeding, especially any genetic issues that fall/are carried on the Y chromosome?
@2 The point is that which partner is "the father" is irrelevant.
@3 That's true, but it doesn't change the description of the social dynamics at play and how physiology reflects and enforces them. If caught, the paramours will almost certainly be killed. With bonobos, there's nothing illicit - the paramour simply waits his turn.
Pro-social (as I understand it) is intended to describe the situation (in early human societies) where, as no-one knows the identity of the father and all the males have contributed sperm, all of the males are willing to provide for the child. That process leads to a closer, stronger social bond between the males of the group. It's the masculine aspect of the village raising a child.
@11 – Sounds like the modern urban black ghetto (72 percent of the births to black women are out of wedlock). How’s that communal sense of responsibility coming along with their men folk?
@13:AFAIK ghettos are the antithesis of small, ancient villages. In ghettos the men who refuse to contribute to the society aren't beaten to a pulp, cast out and eaten by passing saber tooth tigers. The communities women aren't protected by the communities men. The threat to the members of a ghetto come from within the 'society', not outside.
And WTF does the mother's marital status have to do with the applicability of the theory to ANCIENT societies?
@3 That's true, but it doesn't change the description of the social dynamics at play and how physiology reflects and enforces them. If caught, the paramours will almost certainly be killed. With bonobos, there's nothing illicit - the paramour simply waits his turn.
What ev's
"the pro-social aspects of this practice"
?!?!?!?!
Please enlighten us...
(The savage mind can be sooo fascinating.)
And WTF does the mother's marital status have to do with the applicability of the theory to ANCIENT societies?