From Joseph Askew
Your article assumes that what has been normal for Western societies until
recently is the norm for all humans. Long-term monogamy is not typical of humans
at all. Roughly only 1 in 15 human cultures can be said to be monogamous. The
rate of polygamy among hunters and gatherers is higher still.
As for the idea of a “sex strike”, a high level of violence towards women
marks contemporary hunting and gathering societies. While some of this is due to
Western impacts, it is unlikely that all of it is. Every surviving culture I
know of allows men to use “rougher than usual handling” to obtain sex from their
wives, with the exception of a few modern Western cultures. Is it reasonable to
assume Stone-Age women were brave enough to challenge this?
Blackwood, South Australia
