Part 6. Humans are (Blank) -ogamous: Many Intimate Relationships

This is the sixth part on the evolution of human mating behavior, comparing evidence for promiscuity and pair-bonding in our species. Please see the Introduction here. _______________________________________________________________ … “So be sure when you step, Step with care and great tact. And remember that life’s A Great Balancing Act.” – Dr. Seuss … … David McCandless at [...]

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Cosmically Connected Primates

“For small creatures such as we, the vastness is bearable only through love.”                 – Carl Sagan, Contact … Three different people have shared the inspirational video below with me in the past two days, and I thought it deserved to be disseminated as widely as possible. It’s the response of [...]

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Human Nature, Humility, & Homosexuality

“And, in the end, the love you take is equal to the love you make.”                            -Lennon/McCartney “Is that true?” - Chris Farley …. . Steve Silberman pointed his Twitter followers to a piece in Salon about the biography of Maggie Gallagher, the point person for [...]

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On Life, Death, and Shaking Hands with Your Ancestors

Appropriately, I’m writing this in the middle of Hurricane Irene. … .. A couple of days ago, NPR posted this quote on death by Steve Jobs.  … No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. [...]

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Part 5. Humans are (Blank) -ogamous: Pair-Bonding and Romantic Love

This is the fifth part on the evolution of human mating behavior, comparing evidence for promiscuity and pair-bonding in our species. Please see the introduction here. ____________________________________________________________________ … … “One of these days I will wake up – which I think I have done already – and realize to myself that I really do love. I [...]

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Humans are (Blank) -ogamous: A Musical Interlude

This post is probably not as serious as the others in this series. Maybe it’s half-serious. I’m still organizing my thoughts and reading up on pair-bonding and the biology of love from various disciplines. One seemingly mundane, but related, thing that often crosses my mind whenever I listen to music on the radio is the [...]

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Part 1. Humans are (Blank) -ogamous

“(A)s our forebears adopted life on the dangerous ground, pair-bonding became imperative for females and practical for males. And monogamy – the human habit of forming a pair-bond with one individual at a time – evolved.” (Helen Fisher 2004: 131) … “Several types of evidence suggest our pre-agricultural (prehistoric) ancestors lived in groups where most [...]

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On Fatherhood: Proud Primate Papas

… For Father’s Day, Scientific American compiled a series on the biology of fatherhood, including a list of 8 species where males are integral in raising offspring. Included were birds (rheas, emperor penguins), mammals (marmosets, red foxes, wolverines), fish (catfish, sea horses), and even insects (giant water bugs). For some of these species, male parental [...]

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On Parenthood

It’s hard to believe that my older son was born almost eight years ago. Sometimes I remind him that at one point he was only a little longer than my forearm, and that I could hold him in one hand. He’s a little taller than that now.

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In the Final Analysis

A couple of reminders from John F. Kennedy and Carl Sagan that we are, all of us, in this together. We are all connected, share commonalities, and come from one big family, after all. XXX “For in the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet. We all [...]

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