Monogamy and the Making of Western Civilisation

A November 2023 study found that a third of heterosexual British men were open to having more than one partner.

But how many of us are actually polyamorous? Only 2.4 percent of Canadians are currently in a polyamory arrangement.

Polyamorists in traditionally Christian societies view themselves as a daring vanguard, bravely testing the boundaries of convention.

Solon made only children born in wedlock legitimate for purposes of citizenship and inheritance.

Solon disincentivised fathering of children with concubines, something that had been popular among aristocratic males.

It was probably in democratic or proto-democratic Athens , then, that the seeds of Western monogamy were originally planted.

Polyamory has been a feature of the West since Greek and Roman times.

The liberal mindset that may underpin the increasing acceptance of polyamory in elite circles in the West may contribute to the erosion of one of the key social practices that enabled the West to become liberal in the first place.

But fears of this sort may be exaggerated.

As late as the nineteenth century, Protestantism was associated with higher literacy.