A society that extols monogamy, socially or penally punishes adultry and harem-building, and decries cad-like behavior, exhibits alpha churn. The stronger the social adherence to monogamy, the higher the rate of churn.
Alpha churn describes the evolution of social hierarchies where formerly alpha males devolve into betas through social pressures like marriage. In past times, alpha maleness encapsulated both the provisional and sexual realms. Men were alpha because they had superfluous status, power, and wealth. These men had extra resources to provide for marginal harem-members and children. I’ve heard it said that a woman would rather be the third wife to a first-rate man than the first wife to a third-rate one.
Monogamous marriage has changed all of this to the benefit of third-rate men. No longer can an alpha male convert his resources into more female partners and more procreation. Instead, one alpha female gets all of the glory unless they either divorce or he cheats on her. Both are expensive behaviors and are avoided by men in most cases. A once-alpha-now-married man can still be considered alpha, the only problem is that his lone wife has captured all of his alpha cred and sealed it in a glass jar. It serves no purpose outside of his castle; his alphaness has become local rather than universal.
Monogamy is a great converter: it turns alphas into beta providers. The alpha/beta dichotomy (yes, yes – its not a dichotomy, its a spectrum, but KISS) is relative. Within a closed monogamous system, single men become marginally more alpha when a former alpha marries. Alpha churn occurs when, like lemmings, alpha males dive off the marriage cliff. The alpha goes from being the beneficiary of hypergamy to a monogamous state. The multitude of spoils he could have wrangled are now dispersed to the new alphas that have taken his place. This is alpha churn.
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Also there is serial monogamy where alphas just periodically ditch the wives for younger ones. They do ultimately practice de facto polygamy in that they end up having multiple wives through their reproductively fertile years.
Atholk:this is true. monogamy reached its pinnacle in the past. for all intents and purposes though, it is still the most-favored system. i'd also argue that those older men who are still able to marry still get older, less-attractive women than they would be scoring if they remained single. so they are dropping out, allowing other men to pick up the more attractive women.
Men were alpha because they had superfluous status, power, and wealth. These men had extra resources to provide for marginal harem-members and children. I've heard it said that a woman would rather be the third wife to a first-rate man than the first wife to a third-rate one.This practice would be preferential for the children. A father who can provide for a child is preferable. It makes sense for an African Masai mother to prefer to be the 8th wife to a man with 500 cattle than the first wife to a man with no cattle. In the US, the ghetto girls have babies by men who can not provide resources, so we extract money from the wealthy men to pay for them, with no reward to the wealthy men.
jz:"In the US, the ghetto girls have babies by men who can not provide resources, so we extract money from the wealthy men to pay for them, with no reward to the wealthy men."our country is an alphocracy.
A more patriarchal (pre-1960) model of marriage doesn not necessarily castrate alphas. In fact, you can see it as being a step forward by alphas, and also for betas with alpha ambitions. When you are a single guy chasing poon, it's great. But you remain, for the rest of your life, on a 17-year-old's level of development. We live to 70 or so. Remaining a high school boy at some point in life yields diminishng returns. Getting married — at the right time and to the right girl — is like you are now building your own little empire. Having children, by the way, is a feeling that's undescribeable to those who haven't one.For a man, especially, and even more so to an alpha, having a son is glorious. Marriage — on pre-feminist/sitcom dad terms — is the institution that gives you this step forward from a high school boy to a man. And by the way, nothing stops an isatiable alpha from gettig nsome on the side, with due discretion.
great terminology. i'm going to adopt it for common usage.
PA:"Getting married — at the right time and to the right girl — is like you are now building your own little empire."David: Absolutely. Getting pussy is good, but the best is what I got. A pretty virgin in her prime, who gave me children and now washes and irons my shirts.That is Alpha status in my book.