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Ranty Day.
Jun. 17th, 2008 07:09 pmI wasn't going to bother with this, but ![[info]](https://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif)
snapesbabe who's blog I dearly love, has "inspired" this. (Its in aid of Snap! day, so please don't take this personally).
Humans are primates.
Humans are placentals.
Humans are mammals.
Humans are tetrapods.
Humans are vertebrates.
Humans are deuterostomes.
Humans are animals.
The fact that about half the population are capable of carrying a fetus inside them has had some major implications for their biology. Their pelvis is wider than that of a male for instance.
At a more fundamental level the female is defined as the sex which produces eggs, large sex cells which provide a food source for the growing zygote, and are not produced in relatively large numbers. Males however are characterised by producing large numbers of very tiny and thus fairly cheap sex cells.
Because of this, and because in mammals females carry the developing offspring within their bodies, means that females- generally- will not have more children by having sex with more men. Varying their sexual partners might give them better children, but they aren't going to have any more than those who are "faithful".
Males however are the opposite. In theory the more sexual partners they have, the more offspring they can produce. (In practice this is not always the case as we shall see). We therefore have a conflict. The methods by which this conflict is resolved is a major preoccupation with behavioural ecology. Depending on their ecology and environment all sorts of weird things happen. Some males are utterly faithful (Deep-Sea Angler Fish are a familiar, if extreme example), some males' sole purpose is to mate with their sisters and die before they're born. Female Lily-Trotters keep harems, and the Bdelloid rotifers have done without sex for about 100 million years.
Given that the only reason you and I are here is because all our ancestors successfully reproduced, what makes humans so special that we think none of this has any effect on our behaviour?
I thoroughly recommend reading "The Red Queen" by Matt Ridley, (just forget about the Northern Rock fiasco), and "Dr Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation", by Olivia Judson (There's even a musical TV series to go with this one).
snapesbabe who's blog I dearly love, has "inspired" this. (Its in aid of Snap! day, so please don't take this personally).Humans are primates.
Humans are placentals.
Humans are mammals.
Humans are tetrapods.
Humans are vertebrates.
Humans are deuterostomes.
Humans are animals.
The fact that about half the population are capable of carrying a fetus inside them has had some major implications for their biology. Their pelvis is wider than that of a male for instance.
At a more fundamental level the female is defined as the sex which produces eggs, large sex cells which provide a food source for the growing zygote, and are not produced in relatively large numbers. Males however are characterised by producing large numbers of very tiny and thus fairly cheap sex cells.
Because of this, and because in mammals females carry the developing offspring within their bodies, means that females- generally- will not have more children by having sex with more men. Varying their sexual partners might give them better children, but they aren't going to have any more than those who are "faithful".
Males however are the opposite. In theory the more sexual partners they have, the more offspring they can produce. (In practice this is not always the case as we shall see). We therefore have a conflict. The methods by which this conflict is resolved is a major preoccupation with behavioural ecology. Depending on their ecology and environment all sorts of weird things happen. Some males are utterly faithful (Deep-Sea Angler Fish are a familiar, if extreme example), some males' sole purpose is to mate with their sisters and die before they're born. Female Lily-Trotters keep harems, and the Bdelloid rotifers have done without sex for about 100 million years.
Given that the only reason you and I are here is because all our ancestors successfully reproduced, what makes humans so special that we think none of this has any effect on our behaviour?
I thoroughly recommend reading "The Red Queen" by Matt Ridley, (just forget about the Northern Rock fiasco), and "Dr Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation", by Olivia Judson (There's even a musical TV series to go with this one).
