The virtues of promiscuity

The SF Chronicle ^ | August 20 2002 | Sally Lehrman

[2Trievers]

"Slutty" behavior is good for the species. That's the conclusion of a new wave of research on the evolutionary drives behind sexuality and parenting.

Women everywhere have been selflessly engaging in trysts outside of matrimony for a good long time and for excellent reasons. Anthropologists say female promiscuity binds communities closer together and improves the gene pool.

[lavaroise]

"Slutty" behavior is good for the species. That's the conclusion of a new wave of research on the evolutionary drives behind sexuality and parenting.

Yeah, sure is good for the AIDS specie. Sure is good for the leftist specie too, so that people can live by their definitions instead of by jurisdiction. The left kill people, render them completely irresponsible, but keep the live bodies for themselves.

[bvw]

Thanks! This set-piece was just too idyllic to be true.

Interesting that in North America where the native peoples were monogamous, their descendants are doing much much better -- equals within the advanced and advancing civilization that the European white men brought over -- than these near animals of Brazil. Maybe promiscuity does have something to do with keeping one and one's society at an animal level.

[Paleo Conservative]

The report was prepared by researchers at the Clinton Presidential Library.

Is that why the pages are stuck together?

[MadIvan]

Is that why the pages are stuck together?

And why Tipper put a label on it. ;)

Regards, Ivan

[Dimensio]

I want to tell you -- NOW -- how to make joyfull rejoicing plastic explosive from materials you already have at home or can easily pick up in a short jaunt around town. High explosives are an interesting pasttime that in other less-myopic and straight-laced cultures are enjoyed by many, young and old. Let us learn and try this stuff together, in great joy!

Nice strawman. The author was describing societial attitudes, hence the 'fun' comment -- it was a reflection of the tribal attitude, not necessarily his personal opinion on the matter. You have presented a 'counterexample' that inserts "positive" words into a process that normally would not have emotion attached to it, and it ends up sounding like Engrish. When providing instruction for a process, it is responsible and appropriate to insert safety cautions as necessary. The author of the article was not offering instructions for anything, however, he was describing the societal nature of a specific tribe. He was not offering instruction on how we should live our lives or frame our own sexuality, he was attempting to explain how the sexual habits of a group of people might have provided for a biological advantage to survival of the species (which is not the same as advocating a social framework).

[bvw]

You know the most degenerated and animal-like culture know to have been encountered in reliably reported history were the aborigines of Tazmainia, the island south of Australia -- now completely extinct (a sad story too, they were hunted down like animals). The aborgines are considered, as I recall, to be Caucasian in race.

[bvw]

That was a bastard cutting up and ignoring of the whole of my post where I addressed your silly strawman objection before you brought it up. Do you always dive in the mud to achieve such low expectations?

[Cultural Jihad]

"The Joys of Cannibalism" coming to a non-judgmental village near you.

[Revelation 911]

The best evidence of the truth of this article are the large black communities in American cities. Promiscuity is the rule and the blacks have wonderful lives filled with the goodness produced by successful and prosperous life style. They also feel good about it all. The crack they smoke enhances rather than obscure the wonders of happy life.

I think that while the case can be made for the decline of the urban black family, I think it over the top to say this issue is solely an inner city "black" problem. Spend some time with young adults and you will find ALL of them with markedly different social mores than previous generations. I dont think it is an exclusively black issue, rather a societal one.

[bvw]

Also, many other fine replies on this thread have already made mincemeat of the claim you make that the article or the stody it is based on were merely presenting material in a unbiased way. Do you have some mental disorder that allows you to see only convenient parts? That's not an uncommon disorder, in small doses and some circumstance it is healthy even. But in instant case it makes you look ridiculous!

[ArrogantBustard]

the most degenerated and animal-like culture

would be the one which produced the "music" (I use the term loosely) group which calls itself the "Bloodhound Gang". I submit, for your consideration, the chorus to their "song" (loose terminology again) "The Bad Touch".

You and me baby ain't nothin' but mammals
So let''s do it like they do on the Discovery Channel
Do it again now
You and me baby ain't nothin' but mammals
So let's do it like they do on the Discovery Channel
Gettin' horny now

I consider the complete lyrics unfit for FR, but your can find them HERE. I have had tne unsettling experience of witnessing the participants of a high school prom (dance) "dancing" to this "song" by dry-humping each other.

AB

[mhking]

I think that while the case can be made for the decline of the urban black family, I think it over the top to say this issue is solely an inner city "black" problem.

I'd go one better - a case can be made for the urban family as opposed to suburban family; without regard for race.

Bert's comments were completely out-of-line generalizations that had no basis in fact at all.

[Dimensio]

That was a bastard cutting up and ignoring of the whole of my post where I addressed your silly strawman objection before you brought it up

You didn't address a strawman objection. The fact is that your comparison was completely inane. You presented instruction for a potentially dangerous procedure filled with completley inappropriate emotives ("Fun!") as though that were somehow similar to an anthropology report where description of tribal attitudes would be completely relevant. Emotives are not appropriate or relevant in procedural instructions; I would not expect the manual for my telelvision to be filled with words like "fun" or "happy" in its setup procedures.

Also, many other fine replies on this thread have already made mincemeat of the claim you make that the article or the stody it is based on were merely presenting material in a unbiased way.

I don't see how it is endorsing or promoting anything. What I see is people who read the report that suggests that promiscuity might provide for a survival advantage amongst a species and somehow deriving from that an endorsement of promiscuity in society. The article is not a sociology report, it is an anthropology report. The article speculates on how promiscuity might possibly provide a species survival advantage, but that is not the same as saying that promiscuity is good for society or that it should be encouraged and endorsed. No, the article does not 'condemn' the promiscious lifestyle amonsgt the tribe, but it's an anthropology report -- such a condemnation would be as inappropriate as an endorsement (which despite the hemming and hawing, I haven't seen pointed out except for one misinterpreted statement where Crocker commented on the tribe's attitude toward such practices).

[Billthedrill]

Well, make allowances - this is pop anthropology, roughly as akin to the real thing as pop psychology or pop physics is to their parent fields. I'm tempted to label this the self-serving pap it very well may be, but after all, what we're really talking about here is two survival strategies between sexes within the extended family that seems to be the most common human species survival strategy. There are, IMHO, both advantages and drawbacks to multiple fatherhood - the article points out the multiplicity of protectors for the vulnerable pregnant female, which is certainly an advantage.

There are two disadvantages I can think of off the top of my head - one, alluded to by others on this thread, is that the sex act is inherently dangerous in terms of disease communicability, the more so among primitive peoples with limited medical capabilities. As long as these are isolated from other family groups the problem is minimized, but as soon as there is interbreeding between groups (lack of which has its own genetic disadvantages) we get an immediate disease gradient. Promiscuity kills - anyone who has followed the dynamics of the AIDS epidemic (or any other venereal disease arc) knows that the math involved dictates that multiple partners makes risk increase exponentially.

The other disadvantage might be described as a political one in terms of paternity - for better or worse, succession of leadership within family groups governed by a patriachical structure tends to depend on paternity, within matriarchical structured groups somewhat less so. One might think that within the latter promiscuity might allow a survival advantage for the group as a whole, and perhaps it does, but observation tells us that the patriarchical form seems to be the more successful survival strategy, due possibly to the dynamics of aggression between family groups. One might take the history of the Zulu nation as an example: originally matriarchical, its accession to nationhood resulted from, or in, depending on one's point of view, the changeover to a patriarchical structure.

Why identity of paternity seems more important in patriarchical societies (if indeed it is; I might be entirely wrong in this hypothesis) may be linked to differences in the psychology of mortality between the two sexes: a woman knows she has reproduced, a man must always doubt in the absence of some other form of societally-sanctioned reassurance.

Thrown out for consideration - if, on the microscopic chance that I might be wrong about this stuff (snicker!) I'm sure my fellow FReepers will let me know in their usual diplomatic fashion...

[Campion]

Inquiring minds like MurryMom

oxymoron alert!

[TC Rider]

"This model of the death-do-us-part, missionary-position couple is just a tiny part of human history," says anthropologist Kristen Hawkes, who has spent years studying the Ach, a Paraguayan people, and the North Tanzanian tribe Hadza.

Uh yeah, a tiny part, the Western Civilization part. Kristen may not have noticed, but the Ach are not exactly masters of the universe and the Hadza are not revered around the world for their culture.

[strider44]

I guess this is what Hillary means by "it takes a village"

It takes a village to find one guy willing to mate with the Hill-da-beast

[PhilipFreneau]

On a serious note, check out these Walter Williams columns:
(1) Tragedy in black neighborhoods
(2) Demoralizing young blacks
(3) Slavery reparations
(4) An evil racist plot to protect racists and in the process frame, jail and execute innocent black men
(5) An ugly conspiracy of silence

[LiteKeeper]

evolutionary psychology rejecting bump for later read

[Semaphore Heathcliffe]

...Canela women, who live in Amazonian Brazil, enjoyed the delights of as many as 40 men one after another in festive rituals.

"Gangbang Canelas III" hitting the shelves soon...