"Evidence for human polygyny is not confined to physiological differences. Prior to the cultural..."

“Evidence for human polygyny is not confined to physiological differences. Prior to the cultural homogenisation that came with Western colonialism and missionary coercion, more than 80 per cent of traditional human societies were preferentially polygynous. Moreover, genomic data tell the same story: there is considerably more variation when it comes to mitochondrial DNA, which is inherited only from mothers, than in Y chromosome DNA, bestowed upon subsequent generations exclusively by fathers. In other words, over the evolutionary history of Homo sapiens, a relatively small number of men produced children with a relatively large number of women. As a species, we have had a greater variety of mothers than of fathers.”

- How monotheists modelled god on a harem-keeping alpha male | Aeon Essays (via wildcat2030)

from Stowe Boyd http://www.stoweboyd.com/post/147546072567