“Instead of winning by being the best female monkey”
Girlworld isn’t like that, Patri. Isn’t that guyworld you’re describing? I don’t have be the best skirt monkey at all to “win,” if you consider what my chick definition of winning is. “Being the best” is what male monkeys need to be—the gorilla troupe’s got only 1 alpha silverback.
Whereas all I need to be is just high enough in the harem hierarchy that the silverback will do me when I solicit him and I have enough social support among my female relatives to raise his kids—or the kids I am passing off as his. As a female, I like a larger social network very much, more help with child rearing and more useful alliances.
However a larger group does make it harder to be that 1 silverback, I agree.
@Patri
“Instead of winning by being the best female monkey”
Girlworld isn’t like that, Patri. Isn’t that guyworld you’re describing? I don’t have be the best skirt monkey at all to “win,” if you consider what my chick definition of winning is. “Being the best” is what male monkeys need to be—the gorilla troupe’s got only 1 alpha silverback.
Whereas all I need to be is just high enough in the harem hierarchy that the silverback will do me when I solicit him and I have enough social support among my female relatives to raise his kids—or the kids I am passing off as his. As a female, I like a larger social network very much, more help with child rearing and more useful alliances.
However a larger group does make it harder to be that 1 silverback, I agree.
You’re assuming humans are polygynous.
But in terms of observed behavior… we’re actually pretty close to monogamous (with a side of polygyny occasionally thrown in).
Hate to break it to you, but female humans also have to compete pretty hard for mates.
Doesn’t it vary from culture to culture?