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The secret to a strong family is a man who can bring home everything you need.
Last reviewed: 01.07.2025
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The emergence of the family occurred due to a change in women's priorities: ancient ladies were no longer attracted to powerful alpha males, whose place was taken by male breadwinners, to whom women remained faithful throughout their lives.
Anthropologists have long been haunted by the question of the origin of the family. In this sense, human ancestors were similar to ordinary primates: free "relations" of everyone with everyone flourished in the group - of course, with an adjustment for the hierarchy of males. The "alpha" had a better chance of winning the favor of females, and therefore male ancestors had to spend a lot of time and energy competing with each other.
Of course, there are several theories explaining the transition from competitive polygamy to a monogamous family, but, as Sergei Gavrilets from the National Biological and Mathematical Institute (USA) claims, none of them could be realized. Instead, the researcher offers his own model, a detailed description of which will be published in the journal PNAS. The factors that can play a decisive role in the formation of a family are female choice and loyalty to it.
According to the scientist, at some point in our history, women stopped paying attention to the valor of males and began to prefer good providers, those who could provide for both themselves and their chosen one. It should be emphasized that a good provider is not necessarily a high-ranking individual: he may be inferior in strength, impudence, etc. to the alpha male. But as soon as women stopped paying attention to this, low-ranking men got a chance. The favor of a lady could be won not in the arena, but by showering her with gifts. And the clarification of the relationship between males lost its sharpness.
As a result, the promiscuous community in which the female was subject to the law of the strong was replaced by a more peaceful and structured community of families in which men went for food and women "remained faithful to the hearth."
The concept of female devotion, loyalty to one's choice is key in this model: it is thanks to it that the family structure was fixed in evolution. From this, the conclusion naturally suggests itself that the true guardian of family values is the man who does not forget to buy potatoes on the way home from work, and not the one who reigns in the family in a patriarchal manner, scolding his children and household members.