Biology and history: the triumph of monogamy.

The author reviews recent theories concerning the history of marriage and the significance of differential reproduction in human groups. He argues "that historians should be sensitive to biological experience--more specifically that they ought to consider the observations and the theories of those biologists who study how living species change through differential rates of reproduction and yet maintain a certain cultural stability." The reasons why monogamy became the dominant European form of marriage are revealed. (EXCERPT)