From: L' Ermit (lhermit@hotmail.com)
Date: Mon Jan 14 2002 - 12:44:40 MST
[Bill] Something that you seemed to miss here that I picked up from the book
"Demonic Males - Apes and the Origins of Human Violance" by Richard Wrangham
and Dale Peterson:
[Bill] All of the apes except humans have a sense of smell capable of
telling the males when the females are fertile. This means that the ape can
pay little or no attention to the female except when necessary - when sex is
likely to result in a pregnancy. Humans on the other hand cannot tell by
smell alone when the proper time to mate is. Women have learned over the
millenea to hide their cycle from the males.
[Hermit] No. The woman still releases pheromenes - at about the same level
as chimpanzees. It is the man (and the woman) who have traded the sense of
smell for the ability to think.
[Bill] This means that in order to create a baby, to reproduce, the male
must entice the female to ramain with him throughout a the reproductive
years if they wish to reproduce.
[Hermit] If 100 averagely fertile women mate randomly with averagely fertile
men over a one year period at average rates [3x per week below age 40], but
without using contraceptives, then about 20/100 women will become pregnant.
[Hermit] If, in the course of a serious overnight relationship, you fuck
under the same circumstances (as too many US kids do), it seems that the
probability is a lot higher (as is the probability of catching something
else simultaneously - which also might explain the 25% STD rate in the under
25).
[Bill] So - it is in part a woman's deception that puts the males in a
position of choosing to remain with them - or risk their reproductive
future.
[Hermit] Given the above, I have to say it is an elegant theory, but it does
not match all the known facts.
[Bill] Certainly there are other arguments - but I thought this one might
help
Kind Regards
Hermit
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