Ancient love in modern times
FOURWAYS - Modern relationships may have a lot more in common with our ancient ancestors' relationships than we think.
Biological anthropologist, Dr Helen Fisher is of the mind that modern love is not really that modern. Fisher has written a number of books on the evolution of love and in one of these, Anatomy of Love: The Natural History of Mating, she argues that we are in fact heading back in time with our ‘new’ relationship patterns.
According to Fisher the double income family was the rule in ancient times. Women commuted to work and were the social, sexual and economic equal of men.
“It was only when humans settled down to farm that things changed and our modern misunderstanding about the sexes emerged,” said Fisher. “Today we are shedding many of these beliefs and returning to patterns of business, sex, love and marriage that are compatible with our ancient human spirit.”
Brendon Billings, Maropeng bone detective and curator of collections housed within the school of anatomical sciences at Wits Medical School, said according to an article in the International Journal of Primatology, male-female bonds may have been strengthened in Plio-Pleistocene hominid social groups because of the energy demands placed on woman’s bodies when giving birth. The Plio-Pleistecene era was a geological period of less than 5 million years ago during which the earth experienced a gradual atmospheric cooling and there was major and continuous development of vertebrates, particularly hominids.
“This meant that they needed more nutrient-dense foods which were difficult for them to acquire, and this possibly led to reliance on males to source it for them, leading in turn to a strengthening of male-female bonds,” he said.
Fisher explained that romantic love was a powerful and primordial mating drive that evolved for the sexes to find and keep an appropriate mating partner.
