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From: g-rh@cca.CCA.COM (Richard Harter)
Newsgroups: sci.bio,soc.men,soc.women,sci.misc
Subject: Re: Rape a reproductive advantage?
Message-ID: <23162@cca.CCA.COM>
Date: 12 Jan 88 00:14:06 GMT
References: <517@gtx.com> <5129@cit-vax.Caltech.Edu> <520@gtx.com>
Reply-To: g-rh@CCA.CCA.COM.UUCP (Richard Harter)
Distribution: na
Organization: Computer Corp. of America, Cambridge, MA
Lines: 47

Sue Miller writes:

>   So, now I ask --- can anyone give me a documented example of rape 
>(other than by a human) in the animal kingdom.  I am looking for an
>example where the sexual act is intended solely for the infliction of
>pain, harassment, to terrorize the victim, etc.  Note that it would be
>extremely interesting if said act was perpetrated on an individual that
>was not capable of reproduction (eg. infant, small child, individual past
>reproductive age).   Something like that might help convince me that 
>rape exists elsewhere besides among members of H. sapiens.

	Let me first praise your articles, which I think have been
well written and well informed.  Having done that ...

The language " where the sexual act is intended solely for the
infliction of pain, harassment, to terrorize the victim, etc."
is loaded.  (1) Rape, in humans, is not necessarily for the purpose
of... Rape (from the rapists side) can be socially sanctioned and
principally sexual --  the conqueror takes his pleasure in the women
of his enemies because he can, because it is pleasant, and because it
is his right to do so.  (2) The use of the word "intended" is dubious
when applied to animals.  Whether any of the other animals (including
primates) can be said to have intents and purposes is debatable.
(3) Few species even have the sexual act available for these malign
purposes, even supposing they had intents.  (4) No species that I
know of is anywhere as nasty to its own species as humans -- intraspecies
violence is usually carefully limited, although chimpanzees (our
closest relative) can be quite human like (read, not nearly as nice
as lower animals) in their behaviour.  Torture, war, genocide, gas
chambers, rape and pillage, and the like are uniquely human. 

Essentially what you have done is defined rape in a way that can only
be applied to human beings and implicitly excluded classes of forced
copulation that I, and I think you, would count as rape.  The glib
formulation, "rape is not a sexual act, it is an act of violence"
is political and misleading.

As to your request, I believe baboons use anal mounting and copulation
for dominance and that this mounting may be forced.  Both males and
females may be mounted.  I don't think that this really meets your
requirements -- what it does indicate is that the higher primates
display in potential the social behaviour of humans, such as it is.
-- 

In the fields of Hell where the grass grows high
Are the graves of dreams allowed to die.
	Richard Harter, SMDS  Inc.