6) from matriarchy via polygamy to monogamy Written by Rainer: rainer.lehrer@yahoo.com Learn languages (via Skype): Rainer: + 36 20 549 52 97 or + 36 20 334 79 74

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From matriarchy via polygamy to monogamy Various tribes in Africa still live in a kind of extended family. Such a community or village generally consists of twenty members and three houses, one for the animals, one for the men and one for the women. Why twenty members? About five goats are needed to feed one person, if one slaughters a goat and has to wait until the next goat grows, additionally, they don't give as much milk as cows, for example. With twenty people, that's a total of a hundred animals. Water holes are in short supply there and also quite small. The swelling amount of water is therefore unsuitable for a larger number of people and animals. As the group grows, it divides. Since men and women do not live in the same house, sexual contact can only take place behind a bush during the day. And since there is no marriage, one changes partners within the family at will. Everyone knows who their mother was, but nobody can say for sure who their father is. To prevent inbreeding, male parts of the community are exchanged from time to time with those of other groups. This model of the group can be considered generally valid for up to five thousand years before our era. After that, a kind of regionalization (the model for today's globalization) began. The groups wandered, also to do business with others. The elderly could no longer sit there every evening to discuss the necessary measures, because very often decisions had to be made quickly due to unforeseen events. So they needed a leading personality to whom everyone was subordinate and who claimed all women for himself. That is polygamy. Then about four thousand years ago there was an economic revolution: the cow was tamed as a domestic animal. With the amount of milk (cheese, butter) from a cow, it was possible for one man to feed a woman and a few children. That way, monogamy started with a man and a woman. One of them (the man) and another of them (the woman) probably led to the development of the article in grammar (in today's English: the, this, that), and thus to monotheism ('the' god and not 'a' god). George Sand, an intimate friend of Chopin, not a very good or significant nineteenth-century writer, was of paramount importance for a particular development in modern society. She was one of the first to divorce and then to build her own social position. After this time, it became increasingly common for a woman and a man to live together in a so-called 'wild marriage'. Today, mankind continues to move in the direction of a large 'country family', later 'global family' because the fathers of state have long recognized that poorer layers of society must be supported in childhood and adolescence if one wants to prevent them to become criminals. The big problem, however, that arises for every individual, is the ever faster change of behaviours that have no time to root themselves firmly in society as traditions. I don't want to say that I think that's bad. In my opinion, it is even desirable to achieve a certain degree of flexibility in society because, of course, the world is also changing, which means that new and adequate behaviour is always necessary. Mankind would only have to use their head and think more often. Back to list!

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