Tales of sons and lovers

WE can be reasonably certain who our mothers are. Although babies get mixed up in maternity wards, very occasionally, we can be pretty sure of maternal identity.

Paternity, however, is a different matter. There are no such certainties here and random DNA profiling shows that some of us are not the offspring of our putative fathers. The old Celtic and Jewish traditions took account of this; primary descent in these cultures was through the maternal line.

Ensuring paternity is a problem for many animals. A father devoting his energies to raising young, must be sure that he is supporting his own offspring and not somebody else’s. If he is mistaken, not only will his own genes have lost out, but those of a rival will have prospered. Nobody wants to be cuckolded.