Nicholas Wade

Well, I think this is where culture comes in.

Our culture is so rich that we live primarily in a world created by our culture, and the genetic framework is invisible to us.

I think where we get into trouble is where we...

where we violate some of these genetic structures that nature has put in place.

So I think the kibbutzim are a good example of what happens when you destroy the family.

It simply doesn't work.

And there are lots of ways in which you can successfully modulate human nature, it seems to me.

I mean, it's like remodeling a house.

You can change a lot of things around as long as you don't touch the load-bearing walls.

So you need to know what the load-bearing walls are.

And they're very interesting examples in our history, I think, of where we have successfully modulated our innate instincts.

So one good example is monogamy.

So most early societies were polygamists.

The top guy got the most girls.

But we changed that to monogamy, I think, essentially because it's a very unstable situation to have a lot of young men who have no prospect of getting a wife

They become very disaffected.

So what do you do with them?

The traditional policy is to send them off to fight the neighbor and have them die in battle.

But if you start wars, it doesn't always turn out the way you hope.

So it's much more stable, in fact, to distribute women equally, which is what monogamy does for you.