Chapter 7 Summary and Analysis

In the previous chapter, the author describes how men have an overwhelming desire for multiple reproductive and sexual partners. Men prefer to be polygamists. The question that naturally arises is, why is there so much monogamy? The reasons have to do with Man's competitor in the sexual arms race, i.e. woman. Woman, although preferring polygamy to celibacy, much prefer monogamy. Yet despite a preference for monogamy, many women do engage in adulterous affairs. Why would women who prefer monogamy ever be unfaithful to their male counterparts? The answer lies, as the author suggests, in an analysis of the evolutionary interests of females.

In our primate cousins, infanticide is common. After a male primate finds a female primate to mate with, he will tend to kill the children that she already has. Males do this to reduce genetic competitors that they...