Greater wealth inequality, less polygyny: rethinking the polygyny threshold model.

ABSTRACT: Monogamy appears to have become the predominant human mating system with the emergence of highly unequal agricultural populations that replaced relatively egalitarian horticultural populations, challenging the conventional idea-based on the polygyny threshold model-that polygyny should be positively associated with wealth inequality. To address this polygyny paradox, we generalize the standard polygyny threshold model to a mutual mate choice model predicting the fraction of women married polygynously. We then demonstrate two conditions that are jointly sufficient to make monogamy the predominant marriage form, even in highly unequal societies. We assess if these conditions are satisfied using individual-level data from 29 human populations. Our analysis shows that with the shift to stratif

SUBMITTER: Ross CT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6073648 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature