young. Human children require a greater parental investment from both parents than any other species' offspring. In non-human primates and in many non-industrialized human societies, the average time that a child is breast-fed and thus entirely dependent upon its mother is four to five years. Non-human primates have a thick coat of hair, to which their young cling while the mother is moving. This thick coat of hair is lost in humans, thus requiring human mothers to be more attentive to carrying their children, lessening the mother's ability to move about and gather food. This natural increase of dependency on males for support has been suggested as another reinforcement of monogamy in humans. Monogamy has also been suggested for a means of ensuring reproductive success in a species that lacks an outward sign of estrus. In this way, humans copulate at all times, in order to ensure that copulation results in a successful conception. This can be increased through mating with only one partner. Mating with one partner in a species that displays no outward signs of estrus also serves to reduce that competition among males, who would be competing at all times for females, thus destroying any group solidarity. Monogamy has therefore been suggested as the trend towards which human sexuality in a "state of nature" is and has been moving. The monogamy practiced by humans is, however, more of a serial monogamy than a life-long pair bond between two members. In a survey done of societies across the world, both industrialized and aboriginal, only 16 percent claimed to be monogamous, while 84 percent claimed to be polygynous, although only about 10 percent of men in the self-proclaimed polygynous societies have more than one wife. Even within studies of self- proclaimed monogamous cultures, 73 percent of both men and women have admitted to extramarital affairs. Despite this overwhelming evidence that humans are not naturally monogamous, society continues to impose monogamy on its members, in order to reduce tensions within the society. Because of the serial monogamy practiced by humans and the naturally mildly polygynous "state of nature" of humans, it has been suggested that "our [most recent] ancestors, perhaps as early as 2 million years ago, lived in small groups or unrelated females and several males who might have been related." There is reason to believe that our
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