The recent political fever in Delhi had caught me too. From
a point where we were wondering if the new party’s manifesto made sense, we
recently witnessed a never seen before swearing in ceremony of Delhi’s youngest
chief minister. In hindsight, though, it seems like the most logical outcome of
a confused election. “ At least the newbies deserve a chance,” was the voters
state of mind. “Anti-incumbancy” became the buzz word ruling the media waves.
A science blog talking of politics? That too by someone who reads
only the science and bollywood pages of the daily newspaper? Don’t worry, for
this again is a classic example of a science lover finding the basis of a
scientific dialogue everywhere. Argumentative Indian, some may call!
I feel the basis of this unexpected politicial win is mostly
because of our need for change. We all love change. We all pine for a break in
the monotony. Its wired into our genes.
Which brings me to the next question- if a need for change
is so wired in our genes- then is it in also wired into something the genes
live for-i.e. reproduction? Is this high rate of infidelity we see in human
society orchestrated by our very own selfish gene? Our genes telling us to
“spread out” and strengthen the resulting variants?
No no don’t get me wrong. Im not advocating any way of life.
I would any day vote for monogamy. Without sounding like a rebel or hurting
anyone, im just trying to understand the evolution of monogamy. Because from all
that we know of evolution, monogamy would be suicide as it limits the probable
chances and variation of pushing your gene pool ahead. Even for the progeny,
having a chance to mix with different MHC types would only improve the quality
of their resultant genes.
So keeping aside all other aspects, im trying to understand
monogamy at the genetic level.
Humans are complex organisms. So keeping the complex human
aside, lets study monogamy at the level of some lower organisms (again lower in
terms of genetic complexity and not because of some anthropocentric view).
A “pure” study model would be animals who are monogamous by
nature. Many birds, goose, wolves etc are known to be monogamous. One partner
pairing is rampant among them. Any ecologist will be able to tell you that the
need of monogamy arouse from the higher chances of survival of a baby that was
reared by parents who have mastered division of labor. The female took care of
the baby and did not worry about finding worms to feed it while the male flew
out of the nest to look for a hard day’s earned bread. With the mother behind
to protect the young one, of course its chances of survival increased
tremendously and it got fed well too. Hence we can attribute this increased
chance of survival of progeny as a reason that might have caused birds and some
other species to evolve this way of life revolving around monogamy. Makes sense
evolutionary too.
At present there are not many views other than the child
rearing angle in support of monogamy. But what happens when the children are
reared?
Even in birds monogamy is now classified under varies tabs
with monogamy being used in terms of one partner pairing at a time and doesn’t
imply having one partner throughout ones’ life span. Another great trick by
evolution actually. Rear the precious gene pool (ie progeny) to its maximum
potential by forming monogamous pairs and then mix with another gene set for
creating the next progeny with different permutations.
Coming back to my favourite specie- Humans. We seem to have
gone a step further and advocated life long monogamy. At least it is taught to
be the correct way of life. Cutting a long story short- is there a genetic
basis of monogamy in human society where child rearing theory seems to have
lost its shine because of the ultra luxury and convenience offered by the
modern way of life? So if the life of our children is not being threatened even
if both the parents are flying from the “nest” everyday and division of labor
among male and female is losing its charm- what is telling us to be monogamous?
Why are we comforted in monogamy? Are our genes tricking us again into
believing what they want us to or has social conditioning finally blocked us
from any genetic gut feeling?
There is no answer available even on Wikipedia right now for
this question!
Of course evolution of the modern society is miniscule in
terms of evolution of humans. Like I said in my previous blog “Mirror Mirror”,
our emotional evolution is happening exponentially and our genes have not yet
caught up. So monogamy could be probably another way of life advocated by
society to bring some discipline in our lives without any genetic basis. Its
like an unsaid universal law. “Forever and ever” is the ending of most fairy
tales being fed to children everyday. Walking into the sunset holding hands is
the way we all want our lives to be.
But I just had a thought recently that pushed me to
investigate a probable genetic angle to monogamy. What if monogamy is helping
save a life? It would make sense to evolution then, wont it?
So I started looking into the evolution of virus of sexually
transmitted diseases (STDs). The most popular among these is the AIDS virus. If
you are not monogamous sexually this virus leads you to a death you don’t want
to even imagine. And one of the major causes of AIDS in humans is having multiple
sexual partners. That’s where monogamy is going to rescue you from a fatal
horrible end.
So is monogamy one of nature’s way of telling us to steer
clear of sexually transmitted diseases?
To test the “naturality” of monogamy, the most logical
question is “Do animals of less complex social makeup also suffer from sexually
transmitted diseases?”
The answer is YES.
In fact AIDS is a classical case of zoonosis, ie transfer of
a pathogen from a non-human host to humans. Originating in chimpanzees, one
bite to a hunter in Africa is postulated to be the origin of HIV in humans.
Chimpanzees are largely polygamous. So sexually transmitted diseases might not
be a surprise. What about goose, wolves and beavers that are strictly
monogamous or birds for that matter? There have been incidences in birds of
STDs like Chlamydia but in strictly monogamous animals, there have not been any
reports or probably not been a study.
The answer is still vague. But it surely will be another
angle that we could consider to answer the riddling question of what could have
lead the beautiful birds or the ferocious wolves to devise this way of life?
Why do we find happiness in monogamy? Why are we taught to “resist thy
temptation”?
Lots of scientists are trying to find out the genetic basis
to this question? I know for sure the emotional basis of this way of life is
correct. Then why are our genes always pulling us into the devils’ fire? Is
this one lone case where its better to ignore our natural instincts?
So what about other natural instincts? Should we stop
listening to our genes which are clearly making us falter?
What about my “happily ever after”??
The answer surely doesn’t lie within- for this question. But
it sure is a great debate. A case where nurture Vs nature debate has the scale
clearly tipping towards Nurture.
In our span of one human life (of around 100 years) opting
for monogamy gives us happiness. But what about seeing this on a larger scale?
Over the span of human evolution (which takes millions of years) will monogamy
kill us by reducing the permutation and combinations of our genetic material
and making us susceptible to some horrible disease of the future? Are the
“straying” individuals of today’s society actually helping us save the human
race by mixing their gene pool (of course without the knowledge of their
wives!!)
Makes for a good debate, right? And I would leave it as I
leave all my other blogs…open ended. All comments and thoughts would be
welcome….
Lets talk about….eh….monogamy, baby!!
