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Originally Posted by derrida
There probably is an evolutionary root to human behavior, but no one seems to know exactly what it is yet. We do know however, from comparitive ethnography, that cultural constants are few and far between.
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What about gender relations and roles? There are a few significant constantly different roles for men and women across all cultures. Very few societies have ever been substantially polyandrous, certainly far fewer than the number of polygamous ones, female infedility is almost always considered worse than male infedility, matriarchy is far less common than patriarchy, and to my knowledge there has never in history been an all female army.
These differences are probably based on evolutionary differences based on the reproductive roles of men and women. Infidelity in women is considered worse since female infedility interferes with the assurance of paternity for 'married' men. The need for married men to be sure of paternity is also the reason you don't see a lot of polyandry going on. Polygamy happens when individual males accumulate enough resources to 'acquire' and support numerous wives, and makes good reproductive sense for all concerned, since the women can be assured of support for themselves and their offspring, and the man can use his resources to improve his reproductive success by being able to father children with multiple women. This ability for men who acquire significant resources to have the ability to father more children likely contributed to the evolution of aggressive male behavior, including war, since genetic tendencies that facilitate the acquisition of material resources and power can be selected for in males. Kinship based government is another fairly common feature of smaller societies.
As for the differences between cultures, I'd say a lot of the differences are either mostly aesthetic or are based on environmental conditions, like the abundance of species suitable for domestication and agriculture or for hunting and gathering.
There are exceptions to most of these things of course, but the tendencies are still pretty noticable.
Hybrid Mode
