Male and Female Eroticism: Why We Are So Different
摘要
This chapter discusses the evolutionary origins of male and female sexuality. The acquisition by early Sapiens of the ability to form intergroup alliances played an important role. Marriage politics“ in one form or another, e.g. through “bride exchange“, probably involved the exchange of material goods and symbolic objects. Such interaction reinforced relations of kinship property (for children) and sexual property between partners. Pair partnerships (protomonogamy) developed. The Upper Paleolithic technologies of Middle Sapiens (broadly speaking, Cro-Magnon) allowed for a “new economy“ in which small groups or even individual hunters could provide for themselves. The result was a more personalized, deferred commitment, the development of social calculus and kinship relationships. In addition, people learned to make clothes and to build dwellings. In this context, the author discusses the purpose of the Paleolithic “Venus“ figurines. An important factor in the transition to the Neolithic was the invention of storage technologies and the subsequent development of military organization and social hierarchies. On this basis, polygamy developed in the higher strata. The chapter also focuses on the origins of the peculiarities of intra-sexual rivalry in male and female communities. The author pays particular attention to the evolutionary origins of male rigidity and female plasticity in the sphere of sexual orientation, the predilection of some men for role-playing sexual games with themes of power and submission, and the connection between sexuality and religiosity in the psyche and behavior of mature women. He proposes an explanation of the origin of male duality (split between high female images and “low lust“) and female syncretism (fusion of emotional, intellectual and sexual aspects of sensuality). These differences are based not only on the developmental processes of the relations of boys and girls to their mothers and fathers in ontogenesis, but also on the deep setbacks in the epoch of anthropogenesis, probably in the ancient orders of treatment of children and adolescents. The nature and purpose of the female orgasm also require an evolutionary explanation. Neither “egoistic“ (mate retention and “hunting” for good genes) nor hedonistic (self-value of pleasure) motives and factors are sufficient. The author proposes an alternative explanation related to female syncretism.