Male homosexual were far more promiscuous than
heterosexual males before the outbreak of AIDS.
A study that was conducted in the
Harems
and Wealth
The game theory which is a technique used in
economics, is used in studying different mating systems. Game theory identifies that the outcome of an
operation depends on what other people are doing. From this technique the question of why
different animals have such different mating systems was answered. But we are going to focus on how this plays
out in humans. Both monogamy and
polygamy can be seen in humans. Here is
an excerpt of how each one of these could work,
“We became monogamous because the
advantage that a junior father could supply in feeding the family outweighed
the disadvantage in not being mated to the chief. Or we became polygamous because of the
discrepancies in wealth between males, “ Which woman
would not rather be John Kennedy’s third wife than Bozo the Clown’s first?”
said one (female) evolutionist.” (p 185)
Do the first wives usually object to
having to share their husband with other women?
In some situations they do. The
husband either has to force her to accept the arrangement or he must bribe her
to accept it. “In parts of
There are four basic commandments of
the mating system theory. First, by
choosing monogamy, females do better and faithful males are the result. Second,
the first will not happen if men can persuade them. Third, by choosing already mated males the
females can do no worse. Fourth, unless
the already mated females can prevent their males from getting another partner,
monogamy will be the result. But to be
realistic almost all mammals fall far above the polygamy threshold, which makes
these four commandments irrelevant.
Why
Play Sexual Monopoly?
Zoologists in the 1970s coined the
tern “socioecology” while investigating different species’ mating systems. In two studies, one on antelope and one on
primates, concludes that the mating system would be predicted from its ecology. For example, “Small forest antelopes are selective
feeders and as a consequence, are solitary and monogamous. Middle-sized,
open-woodland ones live in small groups and form harems.” (p186)
Another factor of how different
species mate is their history. A species
could have the same ecology and produce two different mating systems. The answer that most biologists come up with
is that they have different histories.
Hunters
and Gatherers
For humans when we are looking at our mating systems
the best place to look is our natural habitat and our past. An example of this is that in any modern
human today the brain designated for hunting and gathering resides.
Don Symons coined the term
“environment of evolutionary adaptedness” (EEA). This refers to humans that lived millions of
years ago. They hunted food, gathered
berries, and very friendly with people in their tribe but not with other
tribes. The combination of the time and
place is why Symons used that phrase. The
book goes on the explain that, “People cannot be adapted to the present or the
future; they can only be adapted to the past.” (p191) Others disagree with this saying that there
was no consistent EEA. One argument
against the EEA is that one of its main parts is still with us today, the other
people. What socioecology says is that
our mating system is determined by other people not our ecology. The second argument against the EEA was that
humans were designed to be adaptable.
Mankind has developed many different mating systems, with one for every
kind of circumstance.
Money
and Sex
While reading this section on money
and sex, the author stated that men will forever be obsessed with the idea of
gaining power. There is something about
men that makes them want to take advantage of all opportunities for
polygamy. During the Pleistocene period,
not many men had the opportunity for polygamy.
In hunting and gathering societies, polygamy was present, but it was
based on luck, and how much success that you had within your society. In our society today, most men are
monogamous, many are promiscuous and adulterous, but few men manage to be
polygamous.
In hunting and gathering societies,
men shared their food. This worked out
well because no matter how lucky someone was, his neighbor might be luckier
while he was hunting that day.
Therefore, everyone was considered equal. There was no fight for power because everyone
had to rely on other people. Agriculture
ended this equity and allowed men to be polygamous. Farming allowed people to gather more grain
and domestic animals, which was a form of wealth, and decreased the necessity
of sharing with one another because no one needed favors in return. The best farmer became the richest man and as
a result he could acquire more wives.
This led to the accumulation of wealth, which began to equal power, and
in some societies, the richest or most powerful man could have over 100
wives. Wealthy men were able to gain
this power because often times, other men would help them on a “you help me,
I’ll help you” basis. Strength was no
longer necessary to win power, instead “wealth, cunning, and political skill
led to power among men” (p196) because it led to the ability to form alliances.
Highly
Sexed Emperors
In late 1970, an anthropologist
named Mildred Dickemann did a series of investigations to find out if the
predictions that evolutionists were making for animals were also true for human
beings. What she found was that people
in Oriental societies saw reproduction as their purpose for existence, persuading
women to attempt to marry into the highest status, and men to have as many
wives as possible. One example is in
At about the same time, a man named
John Hartung hypothesized that a rich man in a polygamous society would be more
likely to make his son the heir to all of his power and riches over any
daughters that he may have. This is
because a man has more reproductive potential in polygamous societies than
women do. If their son becomes rich and
powerful, he can have many wives, but a daughter on the other hand can only
have one husband. Even if a daughter
were to have more than one husband she would not be able to increase her
reproductive potential. This means that
polygamous societies almost always have male-biased inheritance.
In the mid 1980’s Laura Betzig
wanted to investigate the idea that people are sexually adapted to take
advantage of whatever situation they come across. This means that men would use their power and
riches to gain sexual power. In other
words, the more wealth and power that a man has, the better his reproductive
success will be. In Western societies
today, this is definitely not always true, but in other societies in the past,
her hypothesis was proven again and again.
Polygamy was evident in all of the
early civilizations, including
In
When Betzig looked at Medieval
Christianity, she found out that although on the surface their society seemed
to be monogamous, polygamy continued to secretly thrive. The new harem consisted of all of the women
who worked in the castles whose size was dependent on wealth.
The
Rewards of Violence
Sexual rewards often caused violence
within societies. This is where the
Christian ideals about sex came about.
The church noticed that sex lead to violence, and as a result sex was
seen as sinful. One example is what
happened on the
Monogamous
Democrats
No body really knows why, but
polygamy has become almost inexistent in Western societies today. Over the past few centuries it has died out,
and there is no logical explanation why.
It seems like we have gone in a huge circle. Our civilization is more like the Pleistocene
period where men had one or two faithful wives and a few affairs. Today a man can hope for one good wife who is
traded in every once and a while, and a good-looking mistress. But throughout all of time there has always
been monogamous core. Even the most
powerful people usually had one Queen and many women on the side.
Barash,
David P. and Judith Eve Lipton. Making
Sense of Sex. “Brain”. 1997.
Intro
Our brains are the most important part of being
human. While the brain is a major influence in sex, sex is also a huge
influence on the brain and likewise operates differently in males and females.
How Genes and Hormones Influence Sex
There is little difference between males and females
-- only the Y chromosome dictates the sex of an embryo. "Hormones
are the enforcers of gender (174)." All one needs to become a normal
male or female is a hormonal pull in one direction. The testes produce
testosterone for males, while the ovaries and the hypothalamus produce female
hormones.
As the Brain Goes, So Goes Behavior
The same hormones that determine gender also
influence the growth and patterns of an embryos brain. The body, brain,
and behavior are all linked. The process of differentiation is determined
by two periods for secretion of sex hormones: "the first phase, when the
embryo is first bathed in hormones, is followed by a second phase, which occurs
at puberty (176)." These phases act on the human brain by exposing
and then developing photographic film.
The Power of Male Hormones
Male hormones produce a male brain. Spotted
hyenas are talked about in the context that even female hyenas act and even
have many male characteristics. They have a fully developed penis and
scrotum. This is an example of prenatal masculinization. "Male
hormones determine both anatomical and behavioral sex differences...(177)."
When the Dose is Wrong
Here we focus on defects in hormones and how
individuals are affected. Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) is where,
in a mild case, a baby girl is born with external genitals that look
male. She is still genetically XX though. They act as tomboys in
many cases. In more extreme cases, the child is reared as a normal boy,
but later on will need help from a doctor, since the ""boy" is
not developing into a man (180)." Despite this hormonal defect, one
should take into account, before jumping to conclusions, that in many children
some degree of tomboyishness is perfectly normal.
There are several known sexual
disorders, which explain how brains and bodies don’t always match up. In the 1950s and 1960s physicians found that
women with low levels of the female hormone progesterone were not able to carry
their babies to term. So they were
administered DES which is a form of progesterone and it increased the women’s
chances of carry out the pregnancy to full term. But what the physicians did not know was the
side effects DES would have. Girls who
had been exposed to DES in the womb turned out to be tomboys, were infertile
and were more likely to suffer from vaginal cancer. Boys on the other hand avoided the rough and
tumble that other boys enjoy and were seen to be less assertive. The DES that was in their systems reduced the
normal relationship between testosterone and the central nervous system.
Another syndrome
is androgen insensitivity syndrome (AIS).
“This disorder arises when male embryos have a biochemical anomaly that
renders them insensitive to male sex hormones” (p181). The body is secreting the normal amounts of
androgens but the body is not responding to them. The male who is genetically XY develops to
look like a female on the outside, but testes remain on the inside. The only physical difference is that the
females may be slightly taller than other females. They are also said to be more feminine that
most females. Most are so feminine that
they choose to have the testes removed and have a vagina constructed.
Another condition
is 5-alpha-reductase deficiency syndrome (5ARDS). This disorder is where a person is
genetically male but on the outside is entirely female. The only difference between 5ARDS and AIS is
that when the person hits puberty their testes appear and their bodies becomes
definitely male.
When Chromosomes Get Mixed Up
One syndrome
known as Turner’s syndrome is where a female embryo inherits only one
chromosome (XO). These women are overly
feminine but don’t have ovaries or other female reproductive organs. Babies who experience Turner’s syndrome
experience hyper-feminization of the brain.
This leads them to be overly obsessed with dolls, hate aggressive play
and have a strong desire for marriage and to be a mother.
Another
chromosome error is what is called supermales.
This is where an individual has an extra Y chromosome, which makes their
genetic makeup be XYY. These men appear
to be taller than average men, have lower IQs and are well represented in
prisons.
A third
chromosome difference is Klinefelter’s syndrome. This is where women inherit a Y chromosome
(XXY). This makes them look male but
they develop breasts at puberty, which leads them to problems with their sexual
identity. Treatment for this syndrome is
to administer testosterone, but the right amount must be given or the child can
become irritable or aggressive.
When Men and Women Think Differently
There are certain sex differences that
keep reappearing. For example males do
constantly better than females on tests of spatial and mathematical ability. Girls on the other hand do better in verbal
ability and responsiveness to stimuli.
These are mostly just generalizations but it is true that girls and boys
display different abilities.
Test Scores
Camilla Benbow and Julian Stanley conducted a study in which they looked at SAT math scores for both males and females. The results were that boys do better than girls. They received lots of criticism on this so they conducted the study again but this time with bigger numbers, and still got the same results. It turns out that the average math scores are not all the different. In actuality boys are just at the upper end of the curve but also at the lower extremes. But girls are consistent and are average.
The
World of Achievers
Though women have higher verbal
ability and responsiveness than men, throughout history, there have been many
more males recognized for their talents and achievements. If women were not so preoccupied by the
duties of motherhood, these may be able to direct more time towards the
utilization of their talents. Yet if
this were to happen, women would probably be looked upon as neglecting their
families and home life. Motherhood may
be the cause of sensitivity in women.
They have to care for, and understand their infants without actually
having to talk to them. Differences in
the brains of males and females may explain why men are more recognized for
their achievements than women.
Women are more intuitive and less
cognitive than men. They are much more
sensitive. This may explain why men have
more success. Men are more aggressive
and care less about what is going on around them. Both characteristics are those that are seen
in people who are dominant leaders. One
example is how “office employees fret over a casual remark made by the boss”
(p190).
Why
Men Read Maps and Women ask for Directions
Women are very focused on
individual’s feelings and relationships.
They have high verbal and auditory skills. Men have more spatial skills. “Their greater aptitude for spatial
relationships makes men more adroit at reading maps and perhaps at mathematical
functions…” … “Women rely on landmarks for finding their way…” (p191). Estrogen equals verbal ability, and
testosterone equals spatial ability. In
a man or a woman, the presence of either increases the corresponding ability.
On the surface, a man’s brain may
appear bigger than a woman’s. But in
reality, it is all relative to their differences in body size. The “female brain is not just a scaled down
version of a man’s brain” (p193).
Women’s neurons are actually more densely organized than a man’s. This could be important because neurons are
what controls intellectual functioning.
In rats, the SDN (sexually dimorphic nucleus) of males is much bigger
than the SDN of females. In humans the
INAH-3 is supposedly equal to the SND of rats.
When the brains of homosexual males were looked at, they found the
INAH-3 to be about the same size as a female’s INAH-3. They are still unsure of what exactly the INAH-3
does, but they do know that it is twice as big in a male’s brain than a
female’s brain. Among women, a
homosexual male, a heterosexual male, and transsexuals there are big size
differences in another part of the brain called the “central subdivision of the
bed nucleus of the stria terminals” (195).
Using
Our Heads
Males are more “left brained” and
females are more “right brained” (195).
The right side of the brain deals with visual and spatial functions, and
the left side deals with verbal functions.
This may explain why men are not as verbal as women. They are just not capable of having the same
amount of intuition and verbal ability as a female. Females also utilize more than just the right
side of their brains. Studies have shown
that females use all different parts of their brain at once. That is probably why they recover more
quickly than men when it comes to head trauma.
Men are more likely to lose their verbal ability when they severely
injure their brain. Women’s brains are
just “more specialized, especially in
regards to language” (p196). The
difference between men and women’s brains shows that the brain can work in two
different yet both very successful ways.
Uncertainties
The difference between a man a
woman’s brain is largely due to the fact that woman are wired to be
mothers. Whether they
actually become mothers or not, they are biologically predisposed to be a
certain way. Men are biologically
predisposed to be aggressive and more sexual than women. Whether or not they have a chance to act upon
these instincts, they still have it wired in their brains somewhere. These instincts do not always match up
according to your sex. The environment
which a man or woman grows up in can reverse the aggressiveness or passiveness
that they are predisposed to.
A.
The Inca
1. Sex was a regulated
industry
a. Atahualpa, the sun
king, kept 1500 women in his "house of virgins" in
his
kingdom.
b. women selected for
their beauty and had to be around 8 years old, to
ensure their virginity.
c. if a man violated
one of Atahualpa’s women, he would be put to
death
d. the village would
be destroyed, etc.
B.
1. thousands of women were kept in the king’s harem for his
use.
C. The connection
between sex and power is a long one.
II. Mankind,
An Animal
A. Evolution is more
about reproduction of the fittest than survival of the fittest.
1. all creatures are a
product of historical battles between genes and other genes,
between
members of the same species, etc.
a. battles are psychological
b. never one, for success in one generation ensures that the
foes of the
next generation are fitter and fight harder.
B. We are not taught things such as anger or
lust
1. human nature
2. no nature that exists without nurture
a. every behavior is the product of an instinct trained by an
experience.
C.
some scientists think that evolution has nothing to tell them.
1. human bodies are products of natural selection, while human
minds are
behavior
are products of culture.
a. human culture does not reflect human nature, but the
reverse.
III. The Point Of Marriage
A. For a man, women are
vehicles that can carry his genes into the next generation,
while
for a woman men are sources of sperm that can turn eggs into embryos.
1. one can exploit the other gender by rounding up many of them
and persuade
them
to mate with you, then deserting them.
a. or one can find one person and share parenthood
duties equally.
B. 5
ways to find out where humanity falls
1. study modern people directly and describe the mating system.
a. answer is usually monogamous marriage.
2. look at human history from the past and see what sexual
arrangements are
typical
of our species.
3. look at people in simple, stone age technologies and see why
they lived like
our
ancestors lived long age.
4. look at the apes and compare our behavior and anatomy with
them.
5. compare
human with other animals that share similar social habits
a. teaches we are designed for a system of monogamy plagued by
adultery.
C. Only one polyandrous
society on Earth
1.
in
order to put together a family unit that is economically good in a harsh
land,
where men herd yaks to support women.
D. Democracy tells us to
live in monogamous societies, human do not seek this
1. 3/4 of tribal cultures are polygamous
2. even in polygamous societies, men usually have only one
wife, and women
have
one husband.
3. humans, overall, do what they want, and adapt their behavior
to the present
opportunity.
IV. When Males Pounce And Females Flirt
A. If
males and females had their way
1. males -- women would live in harems like seals
2. women -- men would be as faithful as an albatrosses
3. males are seducers and females are the seduced.
B. in
no society on earth do marriage proposals usually come from the woman
1. woman may flirt, but men will pounce.
C. Women flirt and men
pounce because of conditioning, according to sociologists.
1. biologists explain why male animals are more ardent suitors
than females
and
why they are an exception to the rule.
a. the gender that invests the most in taking care of
the offspring, is the
gender that has the least to gain from extra mating.
b. a peacock rants a peahen one batch of sperm and
nothing else. He
won’t protect and feed her, or bring up the chicks.
She does all the
work.
c. unequal bargain
d. males like quantity, while females like quality.
D. Asymmetry between
genders is relevant to the difference in the size of sperm
and
egg.
1. the most
prolific males are far more successful than the least prolific males,
while
in females it doesn’t matter.
2. males are more likely to have lots of children, than women
a. men who marry twice are more likely to bear 2 children by 2
wives,
while women who marry twice aren’t as likely to bear
children by both
husbands.
E. Infidelity and
prostitution are unique cases in polygamy in which no marriage
bond
is formed.
V.
Feminism and Phalaropes
A. exceptions
to polygamy
1. seahorse females have a sort of penis that she uses to
inject eggs into the
male’s
body.
2. Phalaropes and
other seducer-female species
a. males invest more time or energy in the care of the young,
while
females
take initiative in courtship.
B.
asymmetry is clear in humans
1. "nine months of pregnancy set against 5 minutes of fun"
2. polygamous human society is a victory for men, where a
monogamous one
is
a victory for females.
C. Nature vs. nurture
1. murder is "natural", in the sense that ape’s
commit it regularly
2. hate, violence, etc are less part of human nature, and can
be countered by
the
right kind of nurture.
3. evolution does not lead to a utopia.
a. leads to a land where what is best for one man, may
not be best for
another.
VI. The meaning of
homosexual promiscuity
A.
Homosexual males are far more promiscuous than heterosexual males
1. 75% more than 100 partners
2. 25% more than 1,000 partners
B.
Society’s disapproval
C.
Infidelity
1. bigger problem among
homosexual males
2. lesbians total
contradiction to this
a. fewer than 10
partners
VII. Harems and Wealth
A. Game Theory
1. technique taken from
economics
2. outcome depends on
what others are doing
3. answered why there
are different mating systems
4. quote p185
B.
Four basic commandments of the mating system theory
1. monogamy- females do better and men are more
faithful
2. first one can not
happen if men persuade women
3. by choosing already
mated males, females can do no worse
4. already mated
females persuade males from getting another partner =
monogamy
VIII. Why play sexual
monopoly?
A. term socioecology
1. 2 studies- one on antelope and one on primates
2. concluded mating
system would be predicted by ecology
B.
Mating system from history
1. same ecology = 2
diff mating systems
2. answer= their
histories
IX. Hunters and
Gatherers
A. natural habitat and past
1. every human today
has a brain of a hunter and gatherer
B. “environment of evolutionary
adaptedness” (EEA)
1. humans that lived
millions of years ago
a. friendly with people of their own
tribe but no with other tribes
2. combo of time and
place
C.
Many disagree with EEA
1. no consistent EEA
2. main part of theory,
other people, are still here today
3. socioecology says
mating system determined by other people not our
ecology
4. humans designed to
be adaptable
X. Money and Sex
A. Men are obsessed with the
idea of gaining power
1. This makes them want to take
advantage of polygamy
2. In hunting and gathering
societies, polygamy was present, but it was based on luck, and how much success
you had within your society…there was no fight for power…men shared everything
3. Today most men are
monogamous, many are promiscuous, but few manage to be polygamous
4. Agriculture/Farming
a. Increased wealth
b. Led to the wealthiest (most
powerful) man to have the most wives
XI. Highly Sexed
Emperors
A.
Oriental societies saw reproduction as their purpose for existence,
persuading women
to
attempt to marry into the highest status, and men to have as many wives as
possible
1. Male power and resources are traded for a
woman’s reproductive success
B. A rich man in a polygamous
society is most likely to make his son (instead of daughter) heir to the wealth
1. Males have more reproductive
potential than women in polygamous societies
C. Men use their power and
riches to gain sexual power
1. The more wealth and power a
man has, the better his reproductive success
D. In all of the early
civilizations, Emperors had harems with large numbers of women living within
them
1. The women were used solely
for breeding purposes
2. Emperors were told when and
where they could breed with the women
3. Emperors were only
interested in having a lot of children, they didn’t care about the sex
E. In Rome Emperors had both
monogamous and polygamous relationships
1. They had a wife, but they
could also deflower any other women they wanted
2. Emperors had many women
slaves who were required to remain celibate…the emperor could copulate with
them at any time
XII. The Rewards of
Violence
A.
Sexual rewards often caused violence within societies
1. Christian ideals about sex came from this
a. Sex is a sin
b. Ex:
XIII. Monogamous
Democrats
A.
Polygamy has become almost inexistent in Western Societies today
1. We have gone in a huge circle, and there is
no logical explanation why
I.
Introduction: The Brain
A. Brain = most
important part of being human
1. influences sex and, in turn, is influenced by sex
II. How Genes and Hormones
Influence Sex
A. Little
difference between males and females
1. only Y chromosome dictates the sex of the embryo
B. Hormones are the
enforcers of gender
1. testosterone, for males, is produced by the testes
2. female hormones are produced by the ovaries and the
hypothalamus.
III. As the Brain Goes, So
Goes Behavior
A. Some hormones that
determine gender also influences the growth patterns of an
embryos brain.
1. body, brain, and behavior are linked
B. Process of
differentiation is determined by 2 periods of secretion of sex hormones.
1. embryo is bathed in hormones
2. occurs during puberty
a. these phases expose then develop photographic film.
IV. The Power of Male
Hormones
A. Male hormones produce
a male brain
1. Spotted hyenas
a.
Females even have male characteristics -- fully developed penis and
scrotum.
b. Prenatal masculinization.
c. Male hormones determine both anatomical and
behavioral sex differences.
V. When the Dose is Wrong
A. Defects
in hormones
1. Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH)
a.
in mild cases a baby girl is born with external
genitals that look male.
b.
Genetically XX.
c. Act as tomboys.
d. In more extreme cases, the child is reared as a
normal boy, but later on in
puberty need help from a doctor, since the "boy" is not developing into a
man.
2. Despite the hormonal defect, one should take
into account that for many children,
some degree of tomboyishness is normal.
A.
Can’t carry babies to term
1. Females have no levels of progesterone
a. Administered DES
b. Increased chance
to carry baby to full term
2. Side effects
a. Girls became
tomboys, infertile, vaginal cancer
b. Boys avoided rough
play and were less assertive
B.
AIS (androgen insensitivity syndrome)
1. Males insensitive to male sex hormones
2. Body secretes right amount of androgens but
body does not respond to them
3. Male develops looking like a female.
4. More feminine than most females
C. 5 ARDS (5-alpha-reductase deficiency
syndrome)
1. Genetically male but outside totally female
2. Person hits puberty testes appear
3. Bodies become male
VII. When chromosomes
get mixed up
A.
Turner’s syndrome
1. XO
2. Overly feminine with no ovaries or other
reproductive organs
3. Babies experience hyper-feminization
4. Overly obsessed with dolls, hate aggressive
play, strong desire for marriage and
motherhood.
B. supermales
1. Extra y- XXY
2. Taller
3. Lower IQs
4. Lots in prison
C.
Klinefelter’s syndrome
1. Women inherit Y chromosome (XXY)
2. Look male but develop breasts at puberty
3. Leads to sexual identity problems
4. Administer testosterone
5. Can lead to irritability or aggression
VIII. When men and women
think differently
A. Males do better on spatial and
mathematical abilities
B. Girls do better in verbal ability
and responsiveness to stimuli
IX. Test Scores
A.
Camilla Benbow and Julian Stanley study
B.
Looked at SAT math scores for males and females
C.
Lots of criticism so they had to do it again
D.
Same results both times---males are better at math
E.
Turns out average scores are the same…males are at upper end and lower
extremes
F.
Girls are average
X. The World of Achievers
A. Women are superior to men in
verbal ability and responsiveness to stimuli
1. They have not been
recognized for their achievement as much as men
2. Women haven’t been given the same
opportunities as males
a. More male artists,
authors, composers, roles models, etc.
b. Motherhood is one explanation
c. Another
explanation males are usually pushy/ aggressive which leads to
dominance
d. Males are more
competitive
3.
Females are more cognitive and intuitive than males
a. Women are more
sensitive
b. Men are more
oblivious to what’s going on
XI. Why Men Read Maps
and Women Ask for Directions
A.
Men score higher on tests involving spatial skills, and women score
higher on verbal