Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!usc!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!bloom-beacon!eru!hagbard!sunic!dkuug!rcbal!cube!dino
From: dino@cube.rci.dk (Hans Dinsen-Hansen)
Newsgroups: sci.bio
Subject: Re: Evolution & female orgasm
Message-ID: <2487@cube.rci.dk>
Date: 24 Jan 91 12:54:37 GMT
References: <14868@milton.u.washington.edu>
Organization: RC International, Copenhagen, Denmark
Lines: 57

In <14868@milton.u.washington.edu> jespah@milton.u.washington.edu (Kathleen Hunt) writes:

>From: throop@cs.utexas.edu (David Throop)
>*     Has women's sexual responsiveness changed since prehistoric times?
>*Have our sexual practices?
>*     I think of cunnilingus and manual stimulation of one's partner as
>*civilized acts.  I find it hard to believe that stone age people
>*practiced them -- at least, I've heard no reports of these practices
>*among chimpanzees.
>*...
> 
>Just a few notes:  female orgasm does occur in many other mammalian species.
>...
>Also, you might be interested to know that the bonobo ("pygmy chimpanzee",
>_Pan paniscus_) does quite commonly do mutual masturbation, female-female
>clitoral stimulation (known as "genital-genital rubbing" or "G-G rubbing")
>and various other means of stimulating the clitoris.  I haven't read 
>descriptions of cunnilingus in this species ...
>go out of their way to enjoy sex, though.
>Just some more things to consider.
>Kathleen
>jespah@milton.u.washington.edu

  Thanks for hearing a woman' opinion. May I, a male, add some more to
  this discussion.
>From: throop@cs.utexas.edu (David Throop) I quote further:
>* ...   I don't know that anthropoligist have enquired
>*about these practices (cunnilingus) among primitive cultures.
>*     Has women's sexual responsiveness changed since prehistoric times?
>*Have our sexual practices?

  The anthropologist and explorer Knud Rasmussen, who spoke and wrote the
  Innuit (Eskimo) language, has collected many Innuit myths and sagas. Some
  can be found in his "collected works", others were - after his death -
  classified by his wife because of their immoral nature. However, in KR's
  "collected works" one can find a myth from North Canada. I do not have
  the reference by hand, but I quote from memory:
  - Some Great Hunter came to a settlement, where all or most adult males
  had been killed by some kind of beast. This Great Hunter killed the
  beast and thus saved the settlement. As a reward for his great deed the
  women of the settlement ordered him lie on his back, after which the
  women would stand in a line, and the Great Hunter was granted the favor
  of sniffing to their secret parts. (!)

  The way I understand the myth as re-told by KR, cunnilingus in
  "primitive cultures" is a favor granted by the woman to the man. In
  some, perhaps most, sub-cultures of modern civilization cunnilingus is
  regarded the other way around. The reason for that I could only guess
  about. It might be that most "primitive cultures" comprise cleanliness,
  whereas public baths and touching oneself down there has been fought by
  the churches for a long period in Western European civilization. Perhaps
  soap and various perfumes, as opposed to the primitive washing in plain
  water may also be guilty.
              /                                             | My opinion! |
             / Hans Dinsen-Hansen (The local Dino-saur)     |  Probably   |
            /  RCI, Hovedvejen 9, Glostrup, DK-2600 Denmark | not shared  |
           /          (+45) 4297 5366 X 292                 |by my company|