Human mating arrangements are freed from species-survival pressure by sheer population numbers

Evidence

In this time and place, men and women have the luxury of creating our relationships quite independently of their survival value to our species. Heaven knows there are plenty of us already. The ways we negotiate the balance of power and domestic harmony are unlikely to change the trajectory of our population. — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss, 164

Categorization

• SEED: Contrast humans (population free of survival constraint on social forms) with Dicranum (hard reproductive constraint producing the matriarchy) — a strong essay spine on how constraint shapes social structure.
• XREF: connects to: Habitat availability, not genetics alone, determines whether a moss spore becomes male or female — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural…, 160; Quiverfull framed reproduction as a culture-war strategy of outbreeding opponents — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne: How White…, 432

Broader Connections

• Quiverfull framed reproduction as a culture-war strategy of outbreeding opponents #qualifies (0.75) — Kristin Kobes Du Mez, Jesus and John Wayne, 432