We have seen that the militant type of social structure is based on the principle of compulsory co-operation, while the industrial type of social structure is based on the principle of voluntary co-operation. Now it is clear that plurality of wives, whether the wives are captured in war or purchased from their fathers regardless of their own wills, implies domestic rule of the compulsory type: the husband is tyrant and the wives are slaves. Conversely, the establishment of monogamy where fewer women are taken in war and fewer men lost in war, is accompanied by increased value of the individual woman; who, even when purchased, is therefore likely to be better treated. And when, with further advance, some power of choice is acquired by the woman, there is an approach to the voluntary co-operation which characterizes this marital relation in its highest form. The domestic despotism which polygyny involves, is congruous with the political despotism proper to predominant militancy; and the diminishing political coercion which naturally follows development of the industrial type, is congruous with the diminishing domestic coercion which naturally follows the accompanying development of monogamy.
Herbert Spencer, Principles of Sociology, Vol. I, Part III: Domestic Institutions, Chapter IX: “The Family” (1898).
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Herbert Spencer
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The natural way birth number seem to work is that there are a similar number of males and females born at the same time. There are a few more males born, because males tend to do dumb things that get them killed off, like dares, and going to war. In polemicist cultures, that means that some males just don’t get their mate.