It’s the bane of manly existence everywhere: to be a cuckold. Or so the story goes. It seems to be taken for granted, in both evolutionary biology and post-Neolithic societies, that one of the worst possible things is for a man to be married to a woman who cheats. Why? Because the man might end up raising another man’s child. Viewed from the perspective of a selfish gene or jealous phenotype, this is horrific.
This taken for granted story provides the contextual background for a recent PNAS article, “Religion As a Means to Assure Paternity,” by Beverly Strassman and colleagues. In the opening paragraph, the authors observe:
The major world religions sprang from patriarchal societies in which the resources critical to reproduction, whether in the form of land or livestock, were inherited from father to son down the male line. Consistent with patrilineal inheritance, the sacred texts set forth harsh penalties for adultery and other behaviors that lower the husband’s probability of paternity. The scriptures also place greater emphasis on female than on male chastity, including the requirement of modest attire for women and the idealization of virginity for unmarried females. Previous studies have considered the evolutionary biology of patriarchy, but have focused on primate antecedents or cultural factors rather than religion. Here we test the hypothesis that religions that more strongly regulate female sexuality are more successful at limiting the incidence of cuckoldry, defined as offspring sired by extrapair copulations (EPCs).
Let’s unpack these observations, beginning with the major world religions which are identified as Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism. Did each of these religions spring from patriarchal societies? The answer is yes — these are Axial religions that originated in societies which had been patriarchal for thousands of years. Patriarchy, contrary to common opinion, is not a human universal and there is nothing inherently “natural” about it. Patriarchy developed in conjunction with the Neolithic transition — wherever people settled down to begin producing food, there was a shift from community to private property. For a variety of reasons, men dominated this process and religions legitimated it. The Axial religions, which came much later, may have been “ethical” but they did little to challenge male dominance. In nearly cases and over time, they reinforced it.
This reinforcement came in several forms, not the least of which are injunctions against adultery. Cleverly couched as a two-way injunction applying equally to males and females, it was rarely so. In post-Neolithic and Axial societies, it is women who are punished most heavily for violating the rule. Males aren’t forced to wear the scarlet A, and aren’t beaten or killed in the fictitious name of religious-familial honor.
The evolutionary explanation for this non-natural state of affairs threatens to render it “natural” again. Two lines of evidence are usually cited. The first is genetic and phenotypic. Genes and individuals are supposed to be self-interested in a way that prevents them from expending resources on non-related genes-individuals. In theory, the worst possible outcome for a man is to raise the child of another man. The PNAS authors refer to this as a “biological problem,” thus giving the impression that it is “natural” for males to fret over the paternity of children. Religions that address this issue by hemming women in, therefore, are simply addressing a biological universal. I have my doubts.
My doubt stems from the hunter-gatherer ethnohistoric record. To the limited extent that this record represents the majority of the human past (i.e., the pre-Neolithic human condition which prevailed for tens of thousands of years), it doesn’t seem that males are all that concerned about cuckoldry or paternity. While one does occasionally encounter male jealously and outrage over cuckoldry, it is far less prevalent than in post-Neolithic or food producing societies. Hunter-gatherers generally engage in a fair amount of extra pair copulating. This has, of course, astonished outsiders who have either been scandalized or delighted, depending on their proclivities.
But it generally is the case that male hunter-gatherers don’t spend too much time worrying whether a child is or is not his own. In band level societies, children are raised by a large alloparenting group. Moreover, this alloparenting group need not consist of actual kin — fictive kin are often responsible. In many cases, actual fathers have very little to do with raising their genetic children. On top of all this, adoption — even in cases where the actual parents are alive — is quite common. The overall picture when it comes to paternity and parenting is one of fluidity and flexibility. It hardly accords with the standard theory of evolutionary biology or the cultural fictions of post-Neolithic religions.
For these reasons, I am suspicious of the argument that cultural-religious practices are being used to solve a “biological problem.” Problems aren’t biological when they exist only in abstract evolutionary theory or particular post-Neolithic societies. The effect of such an argument is to scientifically legitimate or “naturalize” the post-Neolithic or present order of things. It’s hard for me to accept that hunter-gatherer societies, in which father-son genetic mismatching is widespread, had it all wrong and things were set biologically straight when people settled down and began practicing new forms of religion.
The Cuckold's Nest (Justin Richel 2007)
Reference:
Beverly I. Strassmann, Nikhil T. Kurapati, Brendan F. Hug, Erin E. Burke, Brenda W. Gillespie, Tatiana M. Karafet, & Michael F. Hammer (2012). Religion as a Means to Assure Paternity. PNAS, 109 (25), 9781-9785 : 10.1073/pnas.111044210