From the prehistoric past of the cave dwellers to the technological societies of today, what guarantees children’s survival and thriving better than anything else is the presence and the interest in them of their father. The presence and the interest of the mother is pretty much a given, but the father’s is not.
Bonding a man to his children is a process. At the very least, he needs to know the child is his. A mother is bonded to a child through powerful biological and chemical processes. A father, however, needs an extra reason to stick around. These extra reasons had to be so strong, they had to be spelled out at the level of sacred meanings to take root.
Monogamy is, thus, an evolutionary strategy and a survival mechanism. The biggest, most consequential pro-woman and pro-child revolution in human history – which is, of course, Christianity – came down so fiercely on the side of monogamy precisely because of this.
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Plus it’s loads cheaper than the alternatives.
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Judaism, which came way before Christianity, also supported monogamy.
I know there are stories of first patriarchs or king Solomon having several wives (and/or concubines), but
“From the time of the Jews’ return from exile in Babylon in 539 BC, monogamous relationships became the cultural norm, with very rare exceptions. The first person to outright ban polygamy in Jewish law was Rabbi Gershom in approximately AD 1000, which was accepted by western Jews – but by this time, the practice of monogamy was already well established.”
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Jews and Christians also came together in their (unusual at the time) opposition to infanticide.
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Absolutely. That was one of the most important developments in the history of humanity.
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Cultural norm is one thing. But marriage as one of the sacraments is completely new. It becomes a way for a human to achieve a union with God. That’s completely revolutionary.
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But the Jews absolutely laid the foundation.
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Hindus, too.
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