At 01:00 PM 2/3/2008, William T Goodall wrote: snip
>It's interesting that the USA with its supposed religious freedom >suppressed LDS polygamy and also doesn't recognise Islamic polygamy >although men having (up to) four wives is a part of the religion of >1.61 billion Muslims. There is an interesting discussion about which sex benefits from monogamy in Robert Wright's _Moral Animal_. I can't find my copy at the moment, but as I remember his analysis said women were more likely to benefit where men differ a lot in quality. I.e., better a fraction of a top ranked man than all of a loser. Considering that polygamy is the norm for the vast majority of the cultures in the world, it's an interesting question how the western countries, and a few others, became monogamous. It seems to be associated with settled agriculture but I don't know if there is a connection or why. Keith Henson _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
