Re: how many bastards are there, anyway?
Bryant (mycol1@unm.edu)
3 Sep 1996 12:26:47 -0600
In article <LwFLyAwZq0bW091yn@io.com>, Lars Eighner <eighner@io.com> wrote:
>[bryant asked how husbands react to their wives' infidelity in an unnamed
culture described by Lars...]
Lars replied:
>He is delighted, especially if there is some prospect of offspring.
>The biological father's family will almost certainly attempt to
>ransom the child. Most of these societies are 1)chronically
>underpopulated and 2) dependent upon a very labor-intensive
>economy. The husband gets to keep the child or he gets the offerings
>of the biological father's family. In either case, he will be
>wealthier and the biological father's family will be poorer.
1. You fail to demonstrate that the emotion of jealousy is absent in this
culture, whatever culture(s) it/they are/may be. Only that men will,
when hard up for resources, pimp their wives and ransom other fellows' sons.
If real, this is, however, a nice potential example of how emotion can be
suppressed. 'Very human ability.
The ransom bit is strange, though; how do the families of the extra-pair
male copulator know the kid is theirs, and not the husbands??
(Again, with feeling: This request for information is not meant as an
insult or challenge. It is just a request for information! Honestly.)
>=Lars Eighner
Bryant
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