This article is from the source 'guardian' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/dec/19/polygynous-apes-may-explain-men-of-today
The article has changed 4 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 2 | Version 3 |
|---|---|
| Polygynous apes may explain men of today | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| You report (Stepping back 3.6m years: footprints yield new clues to humans’ earliest ancestors, 14 December) that Marco Cherin supposes from features of his find that other males in the species concerned, like gorillas, had multiple female partners. It is not the main conclusion that can be drawn from this, though it is usual for males to assume that they, in the past, would have been the one with several wives. The existence of family groups with one dominant male and several wives means that there would be many more males with no partners, circling aggressively round the family groups, attempting to displace the fathers, possibly, like lions, eliminating the offspring of a displaced male. It is not a nice ancestry. It is one in which females have little agency in the selection of mates. If this is, sadly, a strand in human development, it explains a lot about the behaviour of some males nowadays.Penelope StanfordNew Ash Green, Kent | You report (Stepping back 3.6m years: footprints yield new clues to humans’ earliest ancestors, 14 December) that Marco Cherin supposes from features of his find that other males in the species concerned, like gorillas, had multiple female partners. It is not the main conclusion that can be drawn from this, though it is usual for males to assume that they, in the past, would have been the one with several wives. The existence of family groups with one dominant male and several wives means that there would be many more males with no partners, circling aggressively round the family groups, attempting to displace the fathers, possibly, like lions, eliminating the offspring of a displaced male. It is not a nice ancestry. It is one in which females have little agency in the selection of mates. If this is, sadly, a strand in human development, it explains a lot about the behaviour of some males nowadays.Penelope StanfordNew Ash Green, Kent |
| • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com | • Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com |
| • Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters | • Read more Guardian letters – click here to visit gu.com/letters |