Well, one possibility would be that a polyamorous inclination is simply rare. In that case, we wouldn’t expect any society to adopt large-scale polyamorous practices for the same reason why we wouldn’t expect any society to adopt e.g. large-scale asexual or homosexual practices.
I don’t think I would necessarily expect that.
Of course, it depends a lot on what we mean by “large scale”. A society with a 5% Buddhist minority can still have large-scale Buddhist practice (e.g., millions of people practicing Buddhism in a public and generally accepted way). I would say some U.S. states are visibly adopting homosexual practices (e.g. same-sex marriage) on a large scale, despite it being very much a minority option, for example.
In the absence of any other social forces pushing people towards nominally exclusive monogamy/monoandry (and heterosexuality, come to that) I would expect something like that kind of heterogeneity for natural inclinations.
Of course, in the real world those social forces exist and are powerful, so my expectations change accordingly.
In general agreed, but a quibble about:
I don’t think I would necessarily expect that.
Of course, it depends a lot on what we mean by “large scale”. A society with a 5% Buddhist minority can still have large-scale Buddhist practice (e.g., millions of people practicing Buddhism in a public and generally accepted way). I would say some U.S. states are visibly adopting homosexual practices (e.g. same-sex marriage) on a large scale, despite it being very much a minority option, for example.
In the absence of any other social forces pushing people towards nominally exclusive monogamy/monoandry (and heterosexuality, come to that) I would expect something like that kind of heterogeneity for natural inclinations.
Of course, in the real world those social forces exist and are powerful, so my expectations change accordingly.