WrongBot comments on Against the standard narrative of human sexual evolution - Less Wrong

7 Post author: WrongBot 23 July 2010 05:28AM

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Comment author: Eneasz 27 July 2010 09:49:59PM 2 points [-]

In light of many of the negative comments and downvotes, I wanted to express thanks for this post, and I hope you continue the sequence.

I think people delude themselves as to how monogamous they actually are (monogamous-but-had-a-fling-once is NOT monogamous. Monogamous-except-that-three-month-period-we-were-broken-up is NOT monogamous. Generally, even monogamous-with-first-spouse,then-monogamous-with-the-new-spouse isn't considered ACTUAL monogamy. And certainly monogamous-by-circumstance shouldn't really count )

And furthermore, I suspect that the sort of group-mating/iving outlined by Ryan and Jetha could/did provide a real-world mechanic for actual group-selection.

Comment author: WrongBot 27 July 2010 10:27:35PM 2 points [-]

You shouldn't need group selection to explain that sort of thing. (And I'd be very, very suspicious if you did.) Kin selection should be more than enough.

For what it's worth, anthropologists generally consider relationships to be monogamous if they involve paired-living, long-term association, or joint parenting. Sexual fidelity is not a criterion.