Invert,
You're confusing the evolutionary cause with the biological impulse. An organism that does not enjoy reproducing is at a disadvantage, just as an organism that doesn't feel pain is at a disadvantage.
There are two types of reproductive strategies: k-selection and r-selection. r-selected species growth curves are exponential, which can simply look like y=
e^x (they curve upwards, fater and faster, each generation much larger than the last). k-selected growth curves exponentially slow down, or something like y=ln(
e) (the curve starts to level off, and each successive generation is not much larger than the last).
r-selection characterizes things with short lives and small brains, which usually means there is a very short development stage, requiring little or no parental attention. Usually things on the bottom of the food chain, salmon, roaches, rabbits, mice, spiders, are r-selected.
Elephants and lions and chimps are k-selected, and raise their young since they take years to mature. It is a better use of parental resources to take care of a cub, then let it try to survive on its own. First, there is the long and energy intensive gestation time of large mammals, humans included. All large mammals must learn the appropriate behaviour for their environment, and so require someone to teach it to them, as well as having longer development times (mostly because of brain size).
Isn't the survival of offspring more likely when cared for by two parents?
It's all dependent on the species reproductive strategy. Some animals raise their babies communally, and American society is moving towards this with welfare. Of course, in today's environment, two parents can best raise a child, as there are twice as many available resources for offspring.
In developed nations, reproductive strategies tend to focus on raising a small number of children, 1 or 2, as children have become enormously energy intensive to get them to maturity, and to get them fit for a developed nation's environment.
Compare this with the 8 or so kids per woman in the Congo.
Female chickadees, small songbirds, sleep around
lots to garner support from multiple males. The males don't know who has whose offspring, so take care of the mothers they've mated with as the chicks may be theirs.
But this is all tangent to what you're saying Invert, and now that I review what you wrote, and what I am writing, I find us in agreement. I offer this next bit as support of your argument.
Humans are one of the few animals that have sex for pleasure, and we are the only mammal who cannot tell when females are in estrus. Most of the time, when humans have sex it is for recreation and not reproduction. Pregnancy is an unwanted consequence. However, when men OR women want kids, most choose a partner they find suitable, that they can stay with for at least as long as it take to get the kid legal. The human reproductive strategy is fairly similar to an orangutan.
I agree that women aren't as big as sluts because they have to live with the consequence of unwanted pregancy, which, in gross energy terms, is 9 months of a parasite sucking her life away.
