Pulled this paragraph out because I don't think it is supported by the concensus of scientific literature. If you can source this as an accepted, published theory, please be bold and add it back. I've done a significant edit to this article based on my memory of a Scientific American article. This article would be much stronger with sourcing of the theories . Rossami 22:01, 2 Jul 2004 (UTC)
- But if the female does manage to sneak off and copulate with another male, she can get meat from that other male for herself and her offspring -- giving her an incentive to "cheat". So the same pair bonding that cements a male to "his" female also leads, inevitably, to jealousy, fratricide between males, and even male violence toward his mate, to "keep her in line".
And I cut these paragraphs because they didn't seem to flow well but I couldn't figure out where to put them that would be any better. They're a bit of a tangent. Rossami 22:01, 2 Jul 2004 (UTC)
- Female humans may not be able to consciously articulate why some males seem more masculine than others, but unconscious parts of their minds, adapted by evolution, can spot those signs.
- And once again, concealed fertility aids the female -- since the male can never be sure when the female conceives, he can never be sure that a particular child is his; he must take his chances and support all "his" mate's offspring on the hope they are his.