“As an offshoot of the Human Genome Project, a new discipline, known as ‘Computational Biology’ was invented. Biologists study changes in DNA over time by gene sequencing human remains from different historical periods. They use computers to crunch through the genetic changes and modifications over time.”
“And from these calculations they are able to establish that more than twice as many women as men reproduced?” asked Gerhart.
“Precisely,” said Greg. “It is a hard factual mathematical data.”
There were nods across the table. Greg congratulated himself that this was the right thing to say. He knew they weren’t going to argue about the validity of math with a hard science geek like him.
“The studies are quite striking,” Greg continued. “Somewhere around 8,000 years ago, the genetic diversity in males suddenly declined. The ratio of women reproducing to men reproducing was seventeen to one. One way of looking at this is that each man that reproduced had seventeen wives. It suggests that humanity was massively polygynous.”
“Why was that?” asked Quiara. Greg laughed to himself that his wife, who had been trying to shut down this conversation moments before, was now honestly curious.
“There are several anthropological hypotheses, but there isn’t any factual scientific basis for these,” Greg replied.
“What are they, Greg?” Quiara asked.
“The main hypotheses is that large scale stable agricultural societies emerged around this time. This allowed the accumulation of wealth and power, which necessitated the creation of military to protect the accumulated wealth. This led to labor specialization and the creation of professional soldiers. This led to the creation of empires through large-scale conquest warfare.
“You had concentrated wealth, large numbers of young men being taken off to war under the command of a small number of professional military types. The best of the young men who survived were usually the fittest and most capable, and they were typically co-opted into the professional military. After a couple of cycles of this, you had two types of men: super alphas and confirmed betas.
“The super alphas were reproducing and the betas either weren’t allowed wives, or they didn’t survive long enough to conceive,” Greg replied.
“But this is what anthropologists would say. A biologist like myself can’t take it seriously. It is a non-scientific hypothesis. It isn’t testable.”
To Greg’s chagrin, only two heads nodded at that declaration.
“What is the impact of a one to seventeen reproduction ratio on society?” asked Quiara.
“You had the fittest men reproducing more frequently. The result was a fitter gene pool, but with less genetic variation. This was advantageous to the alphas, it was awful for the women, and it was utterly disastrous for the betas.”
“How was it bad for the women?” asked Kailey.”Don’t they get better genes for their children?”
“If the male to female breeding ratio is one to seventeen, women were splitting their share of their mate’s time and attention to a seventeenth of what they’d normally get. That’s if the mate is fair. Knowing how people are, however, the male would have favorites and they’d get almost all of his availability. The rest would get scraps. Imagine being one of seventeen wives. You’d spend a less than twenty nights each year with your mate and your children would barely know their father.”