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Why Do Humans Prefer to Mate in Private?

posted by chromas on Thursday August 06 2020, @05:35PM   
from the go-away,-batin'! dept.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission:

Why do humans prefer to mate in private?

Anecdotal evidence suggests that human beings generally prefer to mate in private—but why? And why is it so rare? Other than humans, only one other species has demonstrated a preference for privacy during mating: Arabian babblers. To learn more, [anthropologist Yitzchak] Ben Mocha retrieved data from 4,572 accounts of cultural studies—ethnographies—and studied them looking for what he describes as normal sexual practices. Those involved were not trying to shock or avoid punishment for engaging in taboo practices such as incest—and were also not in the pornography business. He found that virtually every known culture practices private mating—even in places where privacy is difficult to find. He also looked for examples of other animals mating in private, and found none, except for the babblers. He also found that there were no explanations for it, and in fact, there were very few other people wondering why humans have such a proclivity. And, not surprisingly, he was unable to find any evolutionary theories on the topic.

Journal Reference:
Yitzchak Ben Mocha. Why do human and non-human species conceal mating? The cooperation maintenance hypothesis, Proceedings of the Royal Society B (DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2020.1330)

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Original Submission

• All cultures already tainted by missionaries All cultures already tainted by missionaries (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 06 2020, @08:03PM (1 child)

  by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 06 2020, @08:03PM (#1032458)

  The accounts of people who happened to contact whatever tribe before missionaries' setting up shop there, as often as not demonstrate no such thing. It was rather impossible, for example, to do anything in private in a cramped communal dwelling such as Inuit winter one, and going outside for sex, even less possible when it is -40 degrees Celsius out there.

  In addition, for some cultures the author stretches the observed reality beyond the breaking point, to "support" his idea. See the supplementary material for details:
  https://rs.figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Appendices_1_3_6-8_11_from_Why_do_human_and_non-human_species_conceal_mating_The_cooperation_maintenance_hypothesis/12746782 [figshare.com]
  One example:

  Badaga (South Asia)
  Yes(survey)
  “If sharing the bed with children a couple will have intercourse while lying on their sides so as to be less visible and turbulent. Yet in practice anyone who wants to watch his relatives in coitus has simply to pretend to be asleep” (Hockings, 1980, p. 47)

  If this is a "Yes" for him, one can imagine the quality of his numerous "Only indirect evidence for concealment" datapoints.

• Re:All cultures already tainted by missionaries (Score: 2) by choose another one on Thursday August 06 2020, @11:40PM

  by choose another one (515) on Thursday August 06 2020, @11:40PM (#1032591)

  Yeah, and also accounts of pre-christian Roman civilization too...

  Parent