Sexually transmitted infections, peer pressure may have turned humans into monogamists
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Prehistoric humans may have developed social
norms that favour monogamy and punish polygamy thanks to the presence of
sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and peer pressure, according to
new research from the University of Waterloo in Canada.
As hunter-gatherers began living in larger populations of
early settled agriculturalists, the spread of STIs could explain a
shift towards the emergence of social norms that favoured one sexual partner over many.
The work, published today in Nature Communications, uses
computer modeling techniques to simulate the evolution of different
social mating behaviours in human populations based on demographic and
disease transmission parameters.
"This research shows how events in natural systems, such as the
spread of contagious diseases, can strongly influence the development of
social norms and in particular our group-oriented judgments," said
Chris Bauch, a professor of applied mathematics and a University
Research Chair at Waterloo. "Our research illustrates how mathematical
models are not only used to predict the future, but also to understand
the past."
The study, by Professor Bauch and Richard McElreath from the Max
Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, found that when
population sizes become large, the presence of STIs decreases fertility
rates more among males with multiple partners, therefore changing which
mating behaviour proves to be most beneficial to individuals and groups.
In early hunter-gatherer populations, it was common for a
few males to monopolize mating with multiple females in order to
increase their number of offspring. In these small societies where there
is a maximum of 30 sexually mature individuals, STI outbreaks are
short-lived and tend not to have as significant an effect on the
population.
However, as societies evolved around agriculture and group
sizes grew, the research predicts that prevalence of STIs increased
amongst polygamist networks that overlapped. With the absence of modern
medicines, infertility from syphilis, chlamydia and gonorrhea would
likely have been high. This made it more advantageous for males to mate
monogamously, and more importantly, to punish other males who did not.
Groups that enforced monogamous social norms could therefore outcompete
groups lacking such norms.
"Our social norms did not develop in complete isolation from
what was happening in our natural environment. On the contrary, we
can't understand social norms without understanding their origins in our
natural environment," Professor Bauch. "Our social norms were shaped by
our natural environment. In turn, the environment is shaped by our
social norms, as we are increasingly recognizing."
The researchers note that STIs may be one factor among many -
including female choice, pathogen stress and technological impacts -
that altered human behavior from polygamy to monogamy.
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