234 Catherine Wilson
enough to support a double standard. However, sexual jealousy is a leading cause
of homicide in present-day hunter-gatherer societies [Boehm 2000, 93-4 ]. The im-
position of harsh punitive codes in larger societies with an effective legal structure
is doubtless an attempt to reduce social conflict and forestall lethal outcomes. Such
codes target women’s behaviour presumably under the assumption that women are
easier to control than men are. From a moral point of view, however, despite the
need for effective measures to prevent homicide, such measures as stoning and
ostracism are unacceptable, as is the extra moral burden born by females in this
department.
Marriage — a form of bond that may, but need not be supported by emotional
attachment and exclusive sexual preference — by contrast with the natural pair-
bond, appears to be an institutional solution to a number of problems that did not
manifest themselves in the early adaptative environment. These include the social
usefulness of the exchange of women in cementing relations with neighbouring
tribes, as increasing populations came to encroach upon their neighbours; the
inability of women, in later conditions of urbanization, at all stages of their lives,
reliably to provide for their nourishment and that of their offspring without male
assistance; the inability of men to compete effectively in the public realm in the
absence of a maintenance staff to provide meals, cleaning, and clothing, and the
need for clear lines of inheritance in societies in which wealth is accumulated
and bequeathed by men. These “unnatural” aspects of marriage raise important
questions for the moralist. Would women’s full participation in the labour force,
or different systems of inheritance, render marriage obsolete? Are there reasons
connected with human well-being for encouraging and providing incentives for
marriage?
The tendency of the natural pair bond to degrade can be countered, wherever
sentiment is insufficient, by constraining forces or appropriate ideation. Whether
it is worthwhile on a social or individual level to invest effort in marriage depends
on the value attached to its various functions and aims. These include the raising
of children known to be one’s own, the efficient division of labour, the pooling of
resources, the sharing of a history, and safe sex in the psychological as well as the
microbiological senses. Modern societies are notoriously conflicted in that they
are inclined to support the institution of marriage by e.g., imposing penalties on
defectors and making their exit as complicated and unpleasant as possible, at the
same time as they attempt to show compassion for unhappily trapped individuals
by easing on the price of exit. The proper balance is a matter for debate, but
the suggestion by some authors that whimsicality and intolerance [Cere, 2001]
must lie at the heart of all marital breakups does not take into account either the
capacity of humans to learn about other people from experience, or their capacity
for making others near them miserable.