From: Bill Roh (billroh@churchofvirus.com)
Date: Mon Jan 14 2002 - 13:50:04 MST
I'll mention some more of the specifics I remember just to clear some things up:
Yes, I thought I made it clear that it was the lack of sense of smell in the
first sentence.
1> It is also the fact that to get a really good wiff - your head would need to
be located at ass height. Obviously aside from the poor smell, the nose is
poorly loacted, in most cases, for a really good wiff.
2> At the time when people were developing into people, we seldom lived that
long (40 years) - we were lucky to make it to puberty. If you lived to 30 you
were an old man. So instead of 27 or 28 years of reproductive potential, it was
only a few years, maybe 10 that you were able to reproduce.
3> Even if 20 out of 100 got pregnant - at the time we were developing that
would have been a catastrophic % of reproducing women. I would think anyway.
Infant mortality at the time had to be phenominal.
4>I am not positing this as the answer, but a possible one of many aspects that
drove the bus to monogamy.
regards
Bill
L' Ermit wrote:
> [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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