[sphinx]

I agree that one man-one woman is the ideal. The question is what cultural adaptations are appropriate when the gender ratio becomes seriously skewed. Historically, the biggest chronic culprit in this area has been endemic violence in tribal societies resulting in a shortage of young men. Polygamy is a standard response. A lesser but still significant factor is high female mortality in childbirth. A third factor is high mortality in general prior to modern sanitation and modern medicine, leading to high rates of non-divorce driven remarriage for both men and women.

One man-one woman is a sound ideal and should be the default baseline assumption, but other factors do intrude.

[wita]

“One man-one woman is a sound ideal and should be the default baseline assumption, but other factors do intrude.”

Indeed they do. In that regard I have suspected without proof that low birthrate societies destined for the discovery of demographics have a tendency to have more out of wedlock births to make up for the stupidity of society.

Except for Covid where no one seems to think closeness of any kind is warranted.