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Very early the connection between copulation and breeding was sensed, combined with the problems of interbreeding, and inter-tribal sexual connections were encouraged. Because of the individual connection between mother and child, the father might return to his tribe or join the new tribe, but the mother would remain with her birth tribe. This makes a lot of sense in the light of the importance of the mother in forming and centralizing the Tribe. The influx of the new gene pool would invigorate the tribe. Also the mixture of cultural information between tribes as a result of the father joining the new tribe canÕt be underestimated.
Ironically we still see this tribal mixture of ideas institutionalized on the university level. Someone trained by one tribe or college, must leave that tribe to transmit his information to another tribe or college. In other words, the graduating students must get a job in a different school than the one he graduated from.
On this level of development, the male must have been chosen for the need to culturally transmit with a non-specific non-attached love. He could not become too attached to his specific tribe because there was a good chance that he would leave it to procreate and transmit with another associated tribe. So men at this level were chosen with a capacity for non-specific love.
Before getting too ethnocentric let us realize that the early homo was tribal. Although there might have been nuclear family units out there, the tribal structure probably dominated because of the durability of the collective unit compared to the fragility of the nuclear family. The nuclear family was probably a much later development because of the length of time between impregnation and birth was so long that it detached the father from the child.
In the tribal situation, the male and female feel sexual urges of attraction, as do all species. They procreate not to produce children but just because of the desire. A substantial period later the womanÕs belly begins growing bigger and she more dependent in the last stages. Her children and tribe come to her assistance in her dependency, not necessarily the father. Her children are born and the process of cauterization begins. It would seem that while couple love probably existed from a very early time, that it didnÕt play a huge part in the development of the collective tribe.
The scenario just presented for the development of the Tribe is based upon how tribes ended up combined with modern residuals. The conclusions resonated loudly with what is and what was. Some of this is based upon personal experience and some upon cultural experience.
First came maternal love connected with the preservation of the species. This was a pre-mammalian tendency. The Homo species was distinguished by its ability to culturally transmit technology and social forms over generations, while other species only transmit genetically. The more information transmitted, the fitter. Hence the time of child rearing and dependency became longer and longer. It was necessary for the woman to draw the man into the child rearing process. The woman drew the man into this circle with the combined tools of comfort and pleasure. The man provided protection and food to the mother-child combination. Further it was necessary that he transmit what he had learned. The womanÕs personal love connected with the manÕs general love was the balance that formed these early tribes.
Note that the Confucian notion of social responsibility addresses these deep-seated urges that connect preservation of the species with selfless service to the tribe. The Confucian concept of filial duty taps into that early mother love which was one of the foundations of tribe formation.