Relationships

[Postmaster]

How does God want sexual relationships to be?

From a scientific point of view Humans are monogamous animals. Thinking about and keeping one partner to save energy for the offspring to be looked after better. Research suggests that children raised in families with couples that remain together are healthier.

In Japan I think I remember something about a tradition of the lady in a marriage would offer her husband a mistress as a present?

Muslims practise polygamy marriage but only for the male.

Are men or women any less monogamous then each other or are they equal? With the liberation women have in western society it's not hard to see a woman is not anymore monogamous then a man.. This could even be backed by science, there is a time in any relationship from any cultural background and any ethnicity that a relationship is likely to fall apart and that’s when a couple has children that are walking. So scientists say the most crucial part of any relationship is after 2 years of having a child. And from what I remember I'm pretty sure the blame was put more on the women for the break down.

[arthra]

Hello my good friend!

Well I think the relationships between men and women are constantly in flux and ever changing..

At least in the culture where I live and what I persoanlly can testify to...a monogamous marriage is preferable and is much more suitable to modernlife... Are there stresses and problems? ..yes indeed!

But if we had consider polygamy it would be much worse...Consider the HBO series Big Love where the man had to deal with all the issues raised by his contending and some conniving wives not to mention all the obligations he had to his children.

Also while the Qur'an permitted up to four wives it was with the priviso that the husband treat them with equality and how can this really be do in real life? So a strong case is made even in the Qur'an for monogamy.

In the Baha'i Faith we have monogamy and as a Baha'i I accept that this is what God "wants our sexual relationships to be".

Finally and this is very important I think is that even more than one marriage in a life time where children are produced or involved creates tremendous stresses and injustices as there is built in tensions between the older and younger family. So I would advocate..though it is not required in my Faith that if there be marriage with children involved that there be no later marriage.

So that's what I think my dear friend!

- Art

[wil]

Originally Posted by Postmaster

From a scientific point of view Humans are monogamous animals.

Can you provide references for this? Seems it is more political and religoius institutions that create monogamy.

[Awaiting_the_fifth]

Less than six percent of all primate species (more than 300) are considered monogamous.

From the Smithsonian National Park Website
http://nationalzoo.si.edu/

This would suggest that from a scientific point of view, as humans are primates, they are likely to be naturally polygamous.

[Postmaster]

Damn really! that would explain alot of things.

[arthra]

It seems to me that at various stages of human society..polygamy would make more sense... high infant mortality...dangers of birthing...and fewness of numbers...vast spaces to be developed such as deserts. vast forests and the demand for hand labor...more workers needed on the farm to do the jobs that needed to be done cheaply and so forth.

Contrast that with todays issues...overpopulation, demand for highly educated skilled labor, competition for the best jobs, higher and higher expectations and competition...so smaller families have more resources to educate and prepare their fewer children and "smaller" means closer to monogamous type families... also the need the need to have more controls on population growth.

Another effect though is a process I call "atomization" that is families are becoming smaller, more nuclear and dissolving and breaking ties with extended family members.

Greater mobility also means there are more people with less ties to their community. For example when I was being raised my town had fourteen thousand people and everyone knew everyone else..contrasted with today my town is a city of seventy thousand with most people not born here...this affects society and the identity of community or lack thereof.

Unfortunately the breakdown of the family or higher divorce rates and means the children in these families are having more trouble being socialized properly and having important values instilled in them so proper parenting and passing along a culture and ethic is becoming more of an issue I think. Breakdown of the family...breakdown of society leads to greater a-social or antisocial behaviour.

So I think we need to have stronger families with ties to uncles, aunts, cousins and rebuild or re-invent communities so children can have a more stable home with stronger ties to grow up in and have the proper value system inculcated to carry them into the future.

- Art

[Postmaster]

Unnaturally changing human nature isn’t a bad thing anyway.. Turns out better in the long term, that’s what god asked for I suppose.

I'm strictly monogamous and anti-homosexual.. I think that’s the way forward.

[seattlegal]

Originally Posted by wil

Can you provide references for this? Seems it is more political and religoius institutions that create monogamy.

I can provide some self-limiting natural controls:

• polygamy: When women live together, their menstral cycles synchronize, which would then subject the polygamous husband to PMS in not only stereo, but in full surround sound. Mental problems can multiply in such an environment.
• polyandry: When a woman has more than one male partner, rivalry between the males will develop, often resulting in violence. You can see this echoed in the animal world by watching male bucks butting heads for control of the females, and in male lions battling for control of the lionesses in a pride.

To summarize, polygamy is naturally limited by breakdown of mind or psyche, or the desire for sanity, whereas polyandry is naturally limited by rivalrous violence, or the desire to minimize injury.

It's sad that the value of soundness of mind is not as highly regarded as the value of soundness of body. Go figure.

[Postmaster]

Doesn't polygamy simply mean lots of marriage which is the literal translation from Greek to English poly = many, gamy = marriage

Polyandry literal translation from Greek to English is Poly = many, andry = husbands.

So thats how I always viewed them to mean.

I heard about women’s menstral cycles synchronizing. How can that happen?

[seattlegal]

Originally Posted by Postmaster

Doesn't polygamy simply mean lots of marriage which is the literal translation from Greek to English poly = many, gamy = marriage

Polyandry literal translation from Greek to English is Poly = many, andry = husbands.

So thats how I always viewed them to mean.

Oops! You're right. I should have written polygyny instead of polygamy.

Originally Posted by Postmaster

I heard about women’s menstral cycles synchronizing. How can that happen?

I'm not exactly sure how it happens, but it does happen. It might have something to do with pheromones, but that's just a guess.

[Postmaster]

So basically it possible for bodies to communicate in a non physical and subconscious way.

[seattlegal]

Originally Posted by Postmaster

So basically it possible for bodies to communicate in a non physical and subconscious way.

I would say that pheromones are physical {they are chemical compounds}, but act subconsciously.

[Postmaster]

i see, thanks.. I suppose that would have something to do with how love works too. These so called pheromones could have something to do with attraction.