Joshua’s Reviews > Marriage and Civilization: How Monogamy Made Us Human > Status Update

Sounds like a guy trying to sell himself on marriage. any good?

I'm about 75% through and it's been mixed. The beginning talks a lot about mating habits of primates and how hominids made a break at some point from the way chimpanzees currently do things. Hunter-gatherers were most likely monogamous; polygamy likely became much more common once agriculture was developed and greater disparities of wealth were possible. This part has been the most interesting. Towards the middle he starts to look at different periods of history and tries to make the link between polygamy and certain social ills, and simultaneously between monogamy and civilizational progress. This part is also good, except that, because he intended the book to be "accessible", it's lighter on the data and methodological argumentation than I'd like. Like I said, not finished yet, but I'll probably give it 3 stars.