Evolution on the Meat-Sex Exchange

New York Times ^ | August 28, 2003 | MEREDITH F. SMALL

[xzins]

The same way....no doubt....she just woke up one morning as the first woman in history menstruating.

Musta been a craving.

The only thing deserving the "c" word around here is this article....CRAVEN.

[Alamo-Girl]

LOLOL! Thanks for the heads up!

[rface]

... women should have their own genus name, Gyno sapiens

Gyno sapiens - good FReeper name

[KellyAdmirer]

Assumed throughout all this is that the women did not want sex as much as the men, but instead just used it to get things from them. The clear implication being that women are natural, um, women of the evening shall we say, being in polite company, and men simply their clientele.

No wonder the female reviewer was irked. ;)

[xzins]

Did they crave pickles and ice cream before pickles and ice cream were invented? And if they didn't, why not?

And if they didn't then, then why now.....

Sigh....

[xzins]

Sorta like "meat aspirins" for headaches, huh?

I'm passin' this one on to both my wife and my witchdoctor and my whirling dervish.

The logic is stunningly circular.

[babyface00]

You have a whirling dervish?! Lucky duck.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thanks for the second chuckle! I can see that if a creature has eaten something and liked it - or it made them feel good - they'd want more of it. My dog is that way - it was a big mistake to give him a bite of steak.

[Bob]

Women have also lost the usual advertisement of fertility — heat — and are always open to sex.

This gal obviously never met my ex-wife.

[xzins]

This kind of logic makes Dervy spin to beat all -- he alone can cure the energy problems

[Right Wing Professor]

It's pretty darn speculative, and it imposes a very 21st century kind of sexual behavior on creatures that were as much ape as human, and may have had a social organization we know nothing about.

I haven't read the book, but to make anything like the sort of causal connection it tries to make it would have to

1. show anemic women actually crave meat.
2. show that 3 million years ago humans tended to anemia, so there was strong selective pressure.
3. show that they had a social organization (like bonobos, say) where it was possible for women to barter meat for sex. For example, if men were able to force women to have sex with them, why would they have had to share their meat (no Kobe jokes, please)?

The first could certainly be tested experimentally. There's probably fossil evidence that bears on the second. I don't know if there's any way to determine the third.

[dalereed]

Sounds like I should have become a cattle rancher instead of going into construction!

[GodfearingTexan]

if you have any questions, just let me know. thanks.

[duckbutt]

May not be too far fetched. I know when my period was upon me, I craved protein, and my daughter practically turns into a vampire - - wants steaks and burgers very rare......

[dennisw]

makes some sense .... I think

[Junior]

Ya gotta eat the food first before your body knows what's in it. At that point, your body records that such food is a good source of this, that, or the other. So, no woman would crave pickles and ice cream before she tasted them.

[Junior]

This post makes no sense.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

Men, who have high levels of testosterone, which increases their sex drive, are then lured into hunting and sharing meat by the promise of continuous sex from these menstruating, sexy women. The trade is meat for sex and everyone wins as genes are passed down by the iron-rich women who produce healthy, intelligent babies.

So we've been conditioned to buy dinner for hundreds of thousands of years?