Marriage as a Partnership of Mutual Cooperation

The relationship between a mother and her child is fairly straightforward: Both are seeking roughly the same goal—the welfare of themselves and each other. The relationship between a man and his wife's lover or between a woman and her rival for a promotion is also fairly Straightforward: Both want the worst for each other. One relationship is all about cooperation, the ot other all about conflict. But what is the relationship between a woman and her husband? It is cooperation in the sense that both want the best for the other. But why? In order to exploit each other. A man uses his wife to produce children for him. A woman uses her husband to make and help rear her children. Marriage teeters on the line between a cooperative venture and a form of n mutual exploitation—ask any divorce lawyer. S. Successful marriages so submerge the costs under mutual benefits that cooperation can predominate; unsuccessful ones do not.

Matt Ridley, The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature (2003-05-01)

• evolution
• marriage
• reproduction