時(shí)差N小時(shí):一夫一妻制的演變

One common explanation of social monogamy isthat it's a result of females choosing mates based onthe male's ability to provide for his off spring andprotect them from being killed by hostile males orby predators.

雌性動(dòng)物需要一個(gè)能養(yǎng)育后代的雄性，這個(gè)雄性動(dòng)物還可以保護(hù)幼崽們免于被具有敵意的其他雄性和天敵殺害。人們通常這樣解釋一夫一妻制的由來(lái)。

As you can imagine, females who have help frommales produce more litters, and have moreoffspring that survive to pass on that paternalbehavior.

你可以想象，有了雄性動(dòng)物的幫助，雌性可以生產(chǎn)出更多幼崽，這樣就有更多的后代存活，父系行為模式就可以世世代代傳播下去。

Actually, a study suggests that maybe things happened the other way around, that monogamyevolved first and that paternal instincts evolved later and helped stabilize monogamy.

事實(shí)上，一項(xiàng)研究表明，也許一夫一妻制形成的過(guò)程恰好相反，即，首先是一夫一妻制逐漸形成，之后才有了父性本能的介入，并最終鞏固了一夫一妻制的形成。

Researchers in the UK classified more than 2500 mammalian species as either solitary,socially monogamous, or as group living, which is when several breeding females live together.

英國(guó)的研究人員分類整理了在多個(gè)正處于孕期的雌性動(dòng)物一起生活時(shí)，獨(dú)居動(dòng)物，實(shí)行一夫一妻制的動(dòng)物，和群居動(dòng)物等2500多種哺乳類動(dòng)物的行為。

Then, for the socially monogamous species, they analyzed data from closely related speciesand discovered that, in each case, the females used to be solitary and territorial, and thatinfanticide was rare and therefore couldn't have led to monogamy.

他們分析了實(shí)行一夫一妻制動(dòng)物近親的數(shù)據(jù)，發(fā)現(xiàn)在各個(gè)案例中，雌性動(dòng)物以前都是獨(dú)居，并且地盤意識(shí)非常強(qiáng)，殺死幼崽的現(xiàn)象也幾乎沒有，因此不可能促使一夫一妻制的形成。

Then why did monogamy evolve?

那么一夫一妻制是怎么形成的呢?

The current thinking is that monogamy evolved as a mateguarding strategy in species wherefemales lived alone too far apart for a single male to monopoliz eaccess to more than one femaleat a time.

目前的想法是，當(dāng)雌性動(dòng)物離得太遠(yuǎn)，雄性動(dòng)物一次無(wú)法同時(shí)兩個(gè)及兩個(gè)以上的雌性動(dòng)物時(shí)，出于雄性動(dòng)物保衛(wèi)自身繁衍的目的，出現(xiàn)了一夫一妻制。

So monogamy enabled males to pass on their genesmore reliably.

這種制度可以增大遺傳雄性基因的可能性，于是一夫一妻制就形成了。