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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)
(Score: 3, Interesting) by HiThere on Thursday August 06 2020, @11:03PM (3 children)
It's not an absurd argument, merely a useless one. Solipsism is one of the valid philosophical positions. There's absolutely no was to disprove it. Similar arguments apply to "because some god willed it so". Your car may only run by favor of Pele (Hawaiian goddess of fire). There's no way to disprove this, but it's not a useful position to take. And there are few reasons to prefer some particular god over any others except "Well, I'm familiar with that one".
FWIW, when properly understood I *do* believe that everything that happens is due to the action of the gods, but I wouldn't say will, because they're not anthropomorphic. They're distributed fragments of DNA that are commonly shared among people and cause them to feel certain things and react in certain ways...though *do* realize that that's an externalized description, and not the way it looks/feels to the person who experiences their actions. Generally one "is just moved to act that way", or "is just attracted to ?". Occasionally they can erupt into consciousness, but if it's more than a very brief eruption you're crazy, or "ridden by a loa". From within the mind it looks/feels like the actions historically attributed to gods. From outside it looks like ... well, Jung called them archetypes, but he misunderstood them because he didn't understand evolution, genetics, or computer programming. Think of them as a built-in ROM library of routines that are activated by the lower levels of the brain's OS, and that consciousness is the very top layer, where the brain is talking to itself about itself.
OTOH, that's just my model of what I've seen and understood. I can think of no way to prove it. But it seems to me to fit historical usage of the word.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by ChrisMaple on Friday August 07 2020, @03:46AM (1 child)
If you believe solipsism is correct, you cannot have any objection to my bashing your head in.
(Score: 2) by Immerman on Friday August 07 2020, @12:25PM
There's a world of difference between "correct" and "a valid philosophical position"
The latter only implies that the position isn't logically inconsistent or somehow disproven (often a very difficult thing to do in philosophy)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 07 2020, @04:29PM
I don't think you're answering the same question. The parent post author, EJ, was indicating that 'god' is an explanation for why things work and more importantly that humans can't understand it.
I don't mind if Pele is the reason my car works, provided I can understand what Pele is doing. It's when you insist I shouldn't even inquire that I have an issue.