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From: potency@violet.berkeley.edu (Tom Slone)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,soc.men,soc.women,sci.misc
Subject: Re: Rape a reproductive advantage?
Message-ID: <6514@jade.BERKELEY.EDU>
Date: 10 Jan 88 08:19:12 GMT
References: <517@gtx.com> <5129@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu> <2201@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> <616@PT.CS.CMU.EDU> <23111@cca.CCA.COM>
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In article <23111@cca.CCA.COM> g-rh@CCA.CCA.COM.UUCP (Richard Harter) writes:
>In article <616@PT.CS.CMU.EDU> lindsay@K.GP.CS.CMU.EDU (Donald Lindsay) writes:
>>In article <2201@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> joe@athena.mit.edu (Joseph C Wang) writes:
>>>Forced copulation in humans and ducks are completely different phenomenon.
>>This simply isn't correct.
>>Monogamy is a reasonable strategy for living and for child raising. Its wide
>>presence in both birds and mammals demonstrates that it has a fundamental
>>advantage. But, this implies the existence of bachelors, who will not
>>reproduce at all, unless they rape. Now that we have this insight, field
>>researchers have reexamined notes, and made new observations, and sure
>>enough, rape is seen. It would be presumptous of us to think that we stand
>>apart from this pattern: "we aren't animals, after all!".
>	This, and the entire line of [deleted] reasoning is dubious.  It is
>true that some animals "rape".  And it is equally true that there are good
>biological reasons for this.  However the analogy is faulty.
>(1)	Human females are almost unique among animals in not having estrus.
>They can and do breed at any time, regardless of whether they are fertile at
>the time.  "Rape" in ducks, et al, has the immediate advantage of passing
>on the genes, if it is successful.  The reproductive advantage of rape, in
>humans, is marginal because the chance that the female is fertile at the
>time is low.

Subadult male orangutans have been know to force copulation on adult female
orangutans.  It is thought that the chance of pregnancy with one of these
forced copulations is low (perhaps because off the male's immaturity), but
useful to the species nonetheless, since the female may be travelling
with an adult male that is infertile.  Thus, since the subadult is an
inferior choice of mate to the female (since he has not "proven"
himself by fully reaching adulthood), the female usually resists
copulation.

>(2)	Copulation, in humans, is a social activity.  This is not confined
>to humans; the higher primates also use copulation as a social activity,
>albeit not to the extent that humans do.  The higher primates tend to
>use copulation to confirm dominance relationships.

Although orangutans are generally a-social, I believe that there have also been
isolated reports of forced copulations between the chimpanzees to which I
presume you are referring.

>(3)	Humans, to an extent far beyond that of any other animal, act
>under conscious control, in the context of a learned and shared culture.
>A bachelor duck is, so to speak, operating on autopilot -- a human is not.

For anyone who still has any doubts that the great apes are capable of having
a complex social structure, or that they have a conscience, I recommend any of
the books by Jane Goodall, Francine Patterson, or (the shocking) "Chimpanzee
Politics" by Frans de Waal.  This last book is about a study of a large colony
of chimpanzees in a semi-natural setting at a European zoo.  I was told that
the author self-censored the ending to the book which was the end to one of the
main power struggles in the colony.  Two of the males were in competition for
dominance of the colony and would not separate from each other for all of one
day.  When the zookeeper found them in the sleeping quarters the next day,
blood was splattered all over the quarters, and one of the chimps had its
testicles ripped out.

potency@violet.berkeley.edu
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