How religion promotes confidence about paternity

[rug]

June 4, 2012

Religious practices that strongly control female sexuality are more successful at promoting certainty about paternity, according to a study published in the current issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The study analyzed genetic data on 1,706 father-son pairs in a traditional African population—the Dogon people of Mali, West Africa—in which Islam, two types of Christianity, and an indigenous, monotheistic religion are practiced in the same families and villages.

"We found that the indigenous religion allows males to achieve a significantly lower probability of cuckoldry—1.3 percent versus 2.9 percent," said Beverly Strassmann, lead author of the article and a biological anthropologist at the University of Michigan.

In the traditional religion, menstrual taboos are strictly enforced, with women exiled for five nights to uncomfortable menstrual huts. According to Strassmann, the religion uses the ideology of pollution to ensure that women honestly signal their fertility status to men in their husband's family.

http://phys.org/news/2012-06-religion-confidence-paternity.html

Abstract

The sacred texts of five world religions (Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and Judaism) use similar belief systems to set limits on sexual behavior. We propose that this similarity is a shared cultural solution to a biological problem: namely male uncertainty over the paternity of offspring. Furthermore, we propose the hypothesis that religious practices that more strongly regulate female sexuality should be more successful at promoting paternity certainty. Using genetic data on 1,706 father–son pairs, we tested this hypothesis in a traditional African population in which multiple religions (Islam, Christianity, and indigenous) coexist in the same families and villages. We show that the indigenous religion enables males to achieve a significantly (P = 0.019) lower probability of cuckoldry (1.3% versus 2.9%) by enforcing the honest signaling of menstruation, but that all three religions share tenets aimed at the avoidance of extrapair copulation. Our findings provide evidence for high paternity certainty in a traditional African population, and they shed light on the reproductive agendas that underlie religious patriarchy.

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/05/30/1110442109.abstract?sid=93ba09bf-53d3-4a3f-9474-edcfbe11c3db

[enough]

1. Interesting. More evidence that controlling women/fertility is the fundamental

purpose of patriarchal religions.

from the article>

"The major world religions sprang from patriarchal societies in which the resources critical to reproduction, whether in the form of land or livestock, were inherited from father to son down the male line," Strassmann and colleagues write. "Consistent with patrilineal inheritance, the sacred texts set forth harsh penalties for adultery and other behaviors that lower the husband's probability of paternity. The scriptures also place greater emphasis on female than on male chastity, including the requirement of modest attire for women and the idealization of virginity for unmarried females."

snip>

In short, Strassmann and colleagues maintain that the ideological and tactical similarities between these world religions and the Dogon religion have arisen in response to the same biological pressures. Religious patriarchy is directly analogous to the mate-guarding tactics used by animals to ensure paternity.

[daaron]

2. Ayup. nt

[cbayer]

3. Exactly and makes a lot of sense.

[cleanhippie]

4. So if you agree with that, how do you reconcile your personal feelings

About the purpose of your religion and your beliefs in your religion?

[Odin2005]

10. I had the same thought.

In pre-modern times marriage was essentially a kind of inter-family diplomacy, love had nothing to do with it. Adultery by Women threatened the inter-family diplomacy and so had to be "controlled".

[cbayer]

5. Here's another good analysis of this study: Women's religious lock-up

http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/opinion/shepherd-womens-religious-lock-up/story-fn34ojzj-1226383913562

BEEN cuckolded lately? Maybe you should have considered putting the wife in a "menstrual hut". Researchers have found it works.

A study on how cultures control women's infidelity also found religion helps, because the major religions all have some way to bridle potentially wayward women.

In a divine irony, evolution is the driving force - men are hardwired to try to get their DNA in the gene pool, so they create religious rules that help them do that, and stop other men having a crack. And in many cases those religions also deny evolution, the very process that led to the religion's existence.

In an article published today in the Proceedings of the National Academies of Sciences, US scientists and anthropologists picked apart the genes of an African population in Mali, a group which includes Christians, Muslims, and followers of the indigenous Dogon religion.


more at link

[rug]

6. That's a good take on it.

I confess I get more out of the analyses of scientific studies than the studies themselves.

[cbayer]

7. Agree. I have always struggled with sociological studies as it is often really

difficult to define categories and adjust for variables.

But they do often lead to interesting discussion and I find this one particularly interesting.

[rug]

8. Me too. I can't say as to when I last discussed cuckoldry and menstrual huts.

And that includes the Lounge.

[cbayer]

9. Both topics really in need of more attention, lol.

[Iggo]

11. So gross.