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Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!mhuxr!mhuxj!houxm!ihnp4!fortune!polard
From: polard@fortune.UUCP (Henry Polard)
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: Re: male/female differences
Message-ID: <4895@fortune.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 17-Jan-85 12:09:59 EST
Article-I.D.: fortune.4895
Posted: Thu Jan 17 12:09:59 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 18-Jan-85 02:46:06 EST
References: <74@mot.UUCP> <382@unisoft.UUCP> <203@masscomp.UUCP> <1305@orca.UUCP>
Reply-To: polard@fortune.UUCP (Henry polard)
Organization: Fortune Systems, Redwood City, CA
Lines: 27
Summary: 

In article <1305@orca.UUCP> ariels@orca.UUCP (Ariel Shattan) writes:
>The entire argument doesn't hold water.  Marriage developed when men
>finally figured out that they had something to do with babies,  and
>that if they wanted to be sure that the baby was theirs, they'd
>better make sure that "their woman" didn't go off in the bushes with
>anybody else.  Marriage as a societal institution has always been
>disadvantageous to women....

I suspect most theories on the origin of marriage are based on impure
speculation and not much more.  Consider matrilineal and matrilocal
societies: in these, who the father of a child is , is of no importance.
In many of these societies, women have a lot of power, are not considered 
the property of men, and are the people who inherit land.  Two examples
of such societies are the Iroquois nations and the Hopi.

In this discussion of sex and society, most of the views presented 
seem to be based on fantasies rather than research in the relevant
sciences.  If there is anyone on the net who has researched the 
evolution of sexual behavior, please speak up.  In the meantime,
Margaret Mead's _Male and Female_ might be a relevant read.


-- 
Henry Polard (You bring the flames - I'll bring the marshmallows.)
{ihnp4,cbosgd,amd}!fortune!polard
N.B: The words in this posting do not necessarily express the opinions
of me, my employer, or any AI project.