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from the am-I-going-to-regret-releasing-this? dept.
EurekAlert have just published an article: Yale researchers shed light on evolutionary mystery: Origins of the female orgasm
The role of female orgasm, which plays no obvious role in human reproduction, has intrigued scholars as far back as Aristotle. Numerous theories have tried to explain the origins of the trait, but most have concentrated on its role in human and primate biology.
[...] Since there is no apparent association between orgasm and number of offspring or successful reproduction in humans, the scientists focused on a specific physiological trait that accompanies human female orgasm -- the neuro-endocrine discharge of prolactin and oxytocin -- and looked for this activity in other placental mammals. They found that in many mammals this reflex plays a role in ovulation.
(Score: 4, Informative) by mendax on Monday August 01 2016, @07:43PM
Hypergamy is the strategy used by the bonobos, believed to be our closest ancestors. Normal chimp males will kill babies of which they are not the father. They know because the males know who they've had sex with. Bonobos, in contrast, use sex as a way to maintain social harmony. The males have sex with whoever offers it, and all females offer it. As a result, no one knows who fathered which baby, requiring the community to act more for the benefit of all.
It's not a bad way of arranging a society. Imagine a world in which every time you meet a woman she invites you to have sex with her. Not only will sex become commonplace, it will lose its mystique and any moral value applied to it. It becomes as common as a handshake or a slap on the back.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday August 01 2016, @07:49PM
I wouldn't argue for any social arrangement per se.
Just pointing out there are multitudes of ways to explain the presence/absence of female orgasm as it relates to reproduction, including not at all.
(Score: 2) by krishnoid on Monday August 01 2016, @08:23PM
And how and where would it be a/symmetric if it were the men offering?
(Score: 2) by VLM on Monday August 01 2016, @09:20PM
"If"? Unless she's utterly hideous or obviously dripping with disease, all guys are always offering.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 02 2016, @03:15AM
Except the corollary isn't true.
Even with effective birth control, sex is tightly regulated and more often than not bartered for something else.
Apparently even a chance at orgasm isn't enough to convince women to have more sex when they are probably more free than at any other time in history to do so.
So what purpose does orgasm serve again?
(Score: 2) by LoRdTAW on Monday August 01 2016, @08:46PM
Finally! Jerry Seinfeld's vision of the "intercourse hello" can become a reality. - http://www.pkmeco.com/seinfeld/kiss.htm [pkmeco.com]
(Score: 2) by jdavidb on Tuesday August 02 2016, @12:33AM
Imagine a world in which ... sex ... will lose its mystique
No, thanks.
How about commonplace but not losing its mystique?
ⓋⒶ☮✝🕊 Secession is the right of all sentient beings
(Score: 2) by mendax on Tuesday August 02 2016, @01:42AM
You can't have one without the other.
It's really quite a simple choice: Life, Death, or Los Angeles.
(Score: 2) by jdavidb on Tuesday August 02 2016, @02:39AM
ⓋⒶ☮✝🕊 Secession is the right of all sentient beings