Monogamy
In monogamy (Greek: monos = single/only and gamos = marriage) a person has only one spouse at a time (as opposed to polygamy).
Monogamy is also often used to mean having only one sexual partner during an entire lifetime.
In the animal world, monogamy is the practice of remaining with one partner for sexual reproduction and the raising of young.
Human monogamy
The practice of restricting sexual contact to a single partner (married or not) for a limited period of time, ending that relationship before beginning another (though in practice there may be a brief overlapping time-period) is referred to as serial monogamy (as opposed to polyamory, swinging, etc.).
Historically, monogamy was much less practised than polygamy (specifically polygyny). Mostly because of European expansion, monogamy is more popular than it was ever before.
Polygamy as an institution continues in much of the developing world. However, even where polygamy is allowed, it is less than commonly practised, as few men in such communities have the financial means at hand to support additional wives. It is usually observed in groups of people that have recently experienced war or famine - disasters which typically kill proportionally more men than women. The Anglican Church in Kenya for example, has semi-officially adapted a positive stance on polygamy, largely because of deficit of males in that country due to decades of war.
Polyandry, or the practice of women having more than one male spouse, is traditionally a rarer phenomenon than polygyny. The most famous example of polyandry, in Hindu culture, for example, occurs in the Mahabharata where the Pandavas are married to one common wife, Draupadi. Today it is almost exclusively observed in the Toda tribe of India, where it is sometimes the custom for several brothers to have one wife. In this context, the practice is intended to keep land - a precious resource in a populous country like India - within the family.
Modern groups that advocate polyamorous relationships attempt to identify historical or archaeological evidence which favours these types of relationships as "natural" to human beings. This is a controversial claim, however, and it cannot be settled by appeal to the behavior of humanity's closest relatives, the bonobo and the common chimpanzee. These display very different types of sexual behaviour - chimpanzees favour fairly rigid hierarchical relationships while bonobos are openly promiscuous. Some other close human relatives, such as marmosets and gibbons, are more or less monogamous in their habits. Others, such as gorillas, are not. The Neandertal seemingly lived in small groups revolving around a single breeding couple.
While most pre-modern human societies exhibited varying degrees of polygamy, in most instances, pair-bonding was more commonplace than not. It is interesting to observe that even in cultures that permit polygamy, its practice may nevertheless be discouraged. The Islamic Qu'ran, for example, suggests men restrict themselves to one wife: "If you have more than one wife, you will never be able to treat them equitably...and if you cannot treat them equitably [then you should not engage in the practice at all]."
Note that the term "monogamy" is also used to mean confining a sexual relationship to one other person even in the absence of a legal status of marriage (for example, an unmarried heterosexual couple or a homosexual couple in a jurisdiction that does not recognize marriage between homosexual persons.) Monogamy in this sense is recommended by health professionals discussing safer sex practices.
Some argue that polyfidelity, which is restricting oneself to a group of people, would provide the same protection if each person who has sex follows the same rules, stays in the group, and the only way to join is a negative test for STDs. The lack of completely reliable tests for STDs — false negatives can occur and some STDs, such as HIV, are not detectable by blood test for up to six months after exposure — suggests, however, that even in the absence of cheating, the risk would increase for each participant. These risks should be weighed against the fact that even monogamy increases the risks beyond someone who is sexually abstinant; it is a question of to what degree the risk is worth the reward.
Note also that existence of a legally monogamous relationship (marriage) is no guarantee of a monogamous one in fact. Some societies have formally or semiformally recognized that married persons may have other sexual partners outside of the marriage relationship, while in societies that do not condone this practice it is nevertheless not unusual.
Monogamy in the animal world
"Monogamy" also refers to the mating pattern in which an animal maintains a single sexual partner.
Animals who exhibit monogamous relationships do so because it increases their ability to survive and hence their reproductive success. For this to be true then both mates must benefit from the relationship, and the number of young who are born and survive must be larger than the number who would survive had the pair not been monogamous. In altricial birds constant parental care is required to feed and protect young. Two parents means that a larger brood can be reared. If a female had to search for food and leave the nest unguarded, the chance of her young being attacked would greatly increased. Furthermore she may not be able to collect enough food for her large brood, and so would have to raise fewer young and hence be less reproductively successful. Another situation that requires a male to stay with just one female is mate guarding. This occurs when the ratio of males to females is very high. The male must stay with his mate in order to guard her so that another male will not impregnate her. In this case because the number of available females is so low the male would probably not be able to participate effectively in polygyny anyway. Another example of monogamy increasing reproductive success is in the cave dwelling oilbirds. The temperature in the cave is always low and the female must continually nest in order to keep her eggs warm. This behavior ensures that the eggs remain warm but leaves no time to gather food. In this case the male is also integral to the survival of his young. He seals the female in the nest and delivers food to her all throughout their clutches gestation.
Mammals display very little monogamy as a group. In most cases very little parental care is required of the males. The females produce milk and in many cases give birth to precocial young. Hence it is surprising to find monogamous mammals, but some do exist. For instance the male Djungarian hamster actually helps deliver his young. He pulls the birthing baby out of the female’s birth canal and clears its air passage. In studies where the male is removed before labor the young do not survive. This is yet another situation where male presence increases reproductive output. Another example of mammalian monogamy is apparent in primates. The male’s main function in this instance is to protect young from infanticide by other males. However, there is no connection between male mammals that offer parental care and monogamy. In many cases when a male offers parental care he is polygynous.
An incomplete list of monogamous animals:
- Albatross
- Orcas
- Bald Eagles (mate for life)
- Mallards
- Ravens
- Gibbons (but not bonobos, chimpanzees or gorillas)
- Swans
- Parrots (with the exception of the Kea and the Kakapo)
- Patagonian Maras
- Penguins
- Prairie Voles (with interesting link to the genetics of monogamy)
- Tiger Pistol Shrimps (aka snapping shrimp)
- Isopods
External links
- Devra G. Kleiman - Monogamy in mammals http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=857268&dopt=Abstract
- U. Reichard, C. Boesch(Eds.): Monogamy: Mating Strategies and Partnerships in Birds, Humans and Other Mammals: Review. Cambridge University Press, 2003
- Miranda M. Lim, Zuoxin Wang, Daniel E. Olazábal, Xianghui Ren, Ernest F. Terwilliger und Larry J. Young: Enhanced partner preference in a promiscuous species by manipulating the expression of a single gene. Nature 429 (17 June 2004), 754–757.
- "The Virtues of Promiscuity" by Sally Lehrman http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=13648 - on studies showing social and genetic benefits of promiscuity
- "The End of Monogamy" by Jaques Attali http://www.foreignpolicy.com/story/cms.php?story_id=3170
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