Quebec team calculates “breeding sex ratio” of homo sapiens
Was modern man meant to have many partners, or just one? Recently, a team of Quebec researchers set out to answer this age old question. After extensive
genetic study, the jury is in: modern man is generally monogamous, but has a slight polygamist bent. To arrive at that conclusion, Dr. Damian Labuda, professor at the Department of Pediatrics of the Université de Montréal, drew on a new method of analyzing X chromosomes to calculate the “breeding sex ratio” of homo sapiens. In a strictly monogomous society, that ratio would be 1:1, showing that men and women contribute equally to reproduction. Instead, Dr. Labuda found ratios varying between 1.1 and 1.4, in the Asian, European, and African populations that he studied. That means that modern man had a long-term tendency towards polygamy.