Apr 14 2009
Brute Sexuality
Rape. Group sex. Gang rape. Sexual violence. Human beings can be so animalistic and brutish in their reproductive behavior. Reproductive? Well, what is sex ultimately for?
Human males have fairly large testes. Not huge, not small. Average testes size in male primates reflects sexual propensities of the females. When females typically mate with one male per ovulation, males tend to have small testes. As with gorillas: the male needs to produce relatively little sperm to impregnate the females in his harem. Chimps are another matter. In the colloquial, one would say that male chimps have “big balls.” Why? Females tend to mate with a number of males. Although more dominant males have greater access to females, other males “get their shot.” And so male chimps produce more seed. It’s referred to as “sperm competition.” (12)
The human male does not have tiny testes. Thus, one could infer that in our evolutionary past, at least, there has been some “sperm competition.” Bigger balls means more ammo.
In his research into chimpanzee sexual behavior, Frans de Wall has noted that male chimps “cannot maintain exclusive access to a number of females. Instead, several males travel together over a large area and cooperate with each other against other males to protect their access to the large number of receptive females they engage.” (13)
Human males, of course, do not engage in this type of brutish sexual behavior. Not typically in our culture. But sometimes, if they can get away with it, they will. Cult leader David Koresh, for instance, allegedly advocated polygamy for himself and select other males in his group. Among “primitive” humans (14) competition for females is the leading cause of hunter-gatherer homicide.” (15)
Hmm. And we modern humans immune?
Watch television programming, read books, listen to songs. Sexual jealousy (as will be explored more fully later) is a pervasive theme. An example of a psychological study into the matter, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, shared this not-so-surprising finding: “As expected, jealousy was elicited in situations in which a subject’s spouse was involved (no matter how innocuously) with a third person.” (16)
Sexual jealousy boils down to reproduction, to “Who’s your daddy?” Writing at the cusp of the new millennium, Paul Ehrlich exposed his own mildly sexist perspective when he reported that sexual jealousy is a nearly universal human characteristic more violently expressed in males. Why? It is due to “an evolutionary response related to the absence of strict monogamy and consequent uncertainty about paternity, which has no female equivalent of uncertainty about maternity.” (17) No “female equivalent”? Strictly speaking, sure. Females don’t often kill their lovers for infidelity. But sometimes they do. Why? Not because they are unsure of the paternity of the child they raise, but unsure over the commitment a male makes to the mother of the child he fathers. And the resources that commitment may entail.
Why control sexuality? It’s the progeny, stupid!
In areas of the world today millions of girls are subjected to a procedure called, “female circumcision.” Another term for it is “female genital mutilation.” Sometimes only the clitoris is removed. Other times the labia are removed as well. What is purpose of this cultural practice? Paul Ehrlich has described it as “the cruelest expression of male dominance.” (18) And just what do the males hope to place under their dominating thumbs? Female sexual urges and potential infidelity. But that is only the proximal goal. When females and wives have multiple partners, the partner who wishes to be THE partner has no guarantee that she will produce offspring for him. Fidelity can be in the male’s interest as well. For how is he to know that his allegiance to her isn’t in vain, that she has not “fooled” him into raising another man’s child?
Ask Freud. Interview high school students. Question corporate personnel managers. Sexual behavior has great potential to disrupt group harmony and stability. So keep it in check. However possible.
In some cultures today, particularly those that don’t value individuals and civil rights to the degree democratic societies do, there are severe punishments for destabilizing a social group by way of wayward sexual behavior. “We also know that in Islamic societies a family dishonored by the nonmarital sexual activities of a daughter frequently respond by killing the daughter.” (19)
Sex is serious stuff.
Even in American culture police detective know that the first place to look for suspects in homicides is husbands and wives and boyfriends and girlfriends. While “tryst killings” may sound like serious consequences for silly reasons, the reasons are silly only to those with cavalier attitudes about sex. And by that I mean “modern.”
Why, in our “sexually liberated” era, would one man kill another man for getting between the sheets with HIS woman? In his book about these types of homicide, Roger Gould underscores the element of “perceived humiliation” as well as the implication for an individual’s dominance/status. In the colloquial, if you have been cheated on, you have been “dissed.”(20) And why care so much sexual dalliances? Why resort to homicide, and not just in the heat of the moment? We may dress it in psychodynamic or theistic-moralistic mumbo-jumbo, but it boils down to paternity. Insuring and protecting perhaps the most fundamental resource: offspring. And not just any offspring.
As an interesting tangent and tie-in to the Bible, in many tales of kingdoms past, including Jeremiah 38:7, kings frequently staffed their harems with eunuchs: castrated males.
If you look at it the right way, it certainly makes sense.
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(12) Jolly, A. Lucy’s Legacy, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1999, p. 174
(13) de Waal, F. B. M., (ed.), Tree of Origin: What Primate Behavior Can Tell Us About Human Social Evolution, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 2001, p. 16
(14) Deemed primitive due to their societal structures and food-production and economies that don’t produce surpluses and allow for high population density and trade and thus lead to advanced technology.
(15) Boehm, C., Hierarchy in the Forest: The Evolution of Egalitarian Behavior, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA., 1999, p. 7
(16) Fitness, J. & Fletcher, G. J. O., “Love, hate, anger, and jealousy in close relationships: A prototype and cognitive appraisal analysis,” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Vol 65(5), Nov 1993, p.949
(17) Ehrlich, P. R., Human Natures: Genes, Cultures, and the Human Prospect, Island Press, Washington, D.C., 2000, p. 193
(18) de Waal, F. Peacemaking Among Primates, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1989, p. 74
(19) Gould, R. V. Collision of Wills: How Ambiguity About Social Rank Breeds Conflict, University of Chicago, Chicago, 2003, p. 9
(20) Gould, R. V. 2003, p. 94-95
