Sex and the Single Cro-Magnon

I have long thought that when comes to sex humans were much more like bonobos than our other close evolutionary relative, regular chimps. Paleo-anthropological evidence for ancestral behaviors is largely in the realm of the highly speculative, but a news story about Bradford University archaeologist Timothy Taylor's research on prehistoric sexual practices is interesting (if not dispositive). To wit:

He may have come down from the trees, but prehistoric man did not stop swinging. New research into Stone Age humans has argued that, far from having intercourse simply to reproduce, they had sex for fun.

Practices ranging from bondage to group sex, transvestism and the use of sex toys were widespread in primitive societies as a way of building up cultural ties.

Transvestism? In bear skins? 

News story here.  

Comments

ed | April 30, 2007, 11:16am | #

the use of sex toys were widespread

So easy even a caveman can do it.

joe | April 30, 2007, 11:17am | #

I TOLD you the "Clan of the Cave Bear" books were scholarly work.

Pro Libertate | April 30, 2007, 11:18am | #

joe,

Or Quest for Fire.

thoreau | April 30, 2007, 11:21am | #

Pro Libertate-

Your services are needed over at "Unqualified Offerings", in a thread titled "If I were an evil overlord with WMD..."

It involves fortresses. And bumbling henchmen. And sweet, sweet revenge. As well as maniacal laughter.

I think you'd have fun in this thread.

http://highclearing.com/index.php/archives/2007/04/29/6316

Pro Libertate | April 30, 2007, 11:24am | #

thoreau,

I'll take a look!

The Wine Commonsewer | April 30, 2007, 11:30am | #

....sex for fun...

Pretty sure that's a given. Might because it feels good. God wanted to make sure y'all keep goin' forth, bein' fruitful, and multiplying.

en passant | April 30, 2007, 11:36am | #

I can just see it.. Fred Flintstone pleases Wilma with a vibrating bamboo tube. A gopher crawls out, gives a camera take with his paws outstretched and says "it's a living'

Mr. F. Le Mur | April 30, 2007, 11:37am | #

Experts believe research such as Taylor’s may help overturn false assumptions that sex for the purposes of reproduction is the form closest to nature.

'Experts' haven't made that 'assumption' for many years, or at least not since Darwin: look up "cryptic ovulation" and "sperm competition," for example.

Petra Boynton, a relationship counselor and health lecturer at University College, London, found the study “refreshing.”

A "relationship counselor" was ignorant. Wow.

ktc2 | April 30, 2007, 11:50am | #

LOL.

Only a bible thumper could think otherwise.

lunchstealer | April 30, 2007, 11:59am | #

Petra Boynton, a relationship counselor and health lecturer at University College, London, found the study “refreshing.”

The full Boynton quote is interesting. "Crisp and clean, with just a hint of Limon, this study is just refreshing. Imagination is nothing. Thirst is everything. Obey your thirst - for paleosexual research."

Miggs | April 30, 2007, 11:59am | #

So easy a caveman could do it.

MooseProductions | April 30, 2007, 12:04pm | #

On request of joe and ProGLib, Rae Dawn Chong and Daryl Hannah will square off in a jello rasslin match - against joe and ProGLib.

Bruce Campbell will perform the national anthem.

Mr. Crane is guest referee.

A Stevo "Threadkiller" Darkly Production. Featuring music by Ice 9 and Lisa Lisa.

(p.s., en passant - hilarious!)

Alan Vanneman | April 30, 2007, 12:17pm | #

No, no, it's all true. Cavedudes also used to smoke dope, play air guitar, and consume vast quantities of oreos while watching reruns of "Gilligan's Island." They were a lot like us.

Captain Holly | April 30, 2007, 1:06pm | #

Practices ranging from bondage to group sex, transvestism and the use of sex toys were widespread in primitive societies as a way of building up cultural ties.

Wow. They had the internet back then. Who knew?

Eric the .5b | April 30, 2007, 1:12pm | #

So...how exactly do researchers know that prehistoric people were engaging in anything analogous to modern bondage play, as opposed to just raping bound captives?

Pro Libertate | April 30, 2007, 1:23pm | #

Eric the .5b,

That sounds more like the cavemen that I know.

Homo sapiens pro libertatensis | April 30, 2007, 2:41pm | #

I wanna live
With a Cro-Magnon girl.
I could be happy
The rest of my life
With a Cro-Magnon girl.

A drawer of pictures,
I run in the night.
You see us together,
chasing the moonlight,
My Cro-Magnon girl.

Ten silver axes,
A mace and a bow.
The caveman relaxes
And waits with his bros
For his Cro-Magnon girl.

A drawer of pictures,
I run in the night.
You see us together,
Chasing the moonlight,
My Cro-Magnon girl.

Pa send me honey now,
I'm gonna make it somehow.
I need another chance.
You see your baby loves to dance.
Yeah. . .yeah. . .yeah.

Not that surprised | April 30, 2007, 2:54pm | #

I always thought Neil Young was a shaved caveman.

Pro Libertate | April 30, 2007, 3:01pm | #

And not that well shaved, either.

R C Dean | April 30, 2007, 3:02pm | #

So...how exactly do researchers know that prehistoric people were engaging in anything analogous to modern bondage play, as opposed to just raping bound captives?

I'm guessing the padding on the Cro-Magnon handcuffs gave it away.

uncle sam | April 30, 2007, 3:13pm | #

Sex purely for reproduction describes the behavior of dogs pretty well. Male dogs may always be "ready", but they need the scent of an ovulating female before they will act.

Mad Scientist | April 30, 2007, 3:23pm | #

Uncle Sam, you don't actually own any male dogs, do you?

Ethan | April 30, 2007, 3:46pm | #

the use of sex toys [was] widespread in primitive societies

Um, so they've found some of these, have they? Or are they merely depicted in cave paintings?

Brings new meaning to the phrase "stone tool."

Pro Libertate | April 30, 2007, 3:50pm | #

Sex toys, spaceships, whatever. Apparently, anthropology is an observer-based system. Heck, I could swear I saw a cell phone on some Greek pottery.

David Ross | April 30, 2007, 3:55pm | #

My impression is that Stone Age societies did draw crude depictions of ooga-ooga. There's certainly stone sculptures a-plenty of voluptuous "goddesses" (which the article mentions).

The article doesn't cite the BDSM etc; for that you'd have to go for the Handbook of the Evolution of Human Sexuality, "published by Haworth Press".

R C Dean | April 30, 2007, 6:08pm | #

Male dogs may always be "ready", but they need the scent of an ovulating female before they will act.

My leg must smell like ovulating bitch, then.

Urkobold® | April 30, 2007, 6:49pm | #

WE'VE BEEN MEANING TO TALK TO YOU ABOUT THAT, R C.

Ron Hardin | April 30, 2007, 7:23pm | #

Even today, corporate mergers are sealed by an exchange of women.

crimethink | April 30, 2007, 9:46pm | #

far from having intercourse simply to reproduce, they had sex for fun.

Well, this presumes an intentionality among the Cro's that I'm not sure is there. Obviously, from the POV of a walrus, it's not thinking "I'd better mount Olga here so we can have a litter next spring"; it's mating to satisfy an urge and to experience the attendant pleasure. That doesn't mean that sex isn't intended for reproduction in the grand scheme of things; the pleasure and urges are there to encourage walruses to do what's necessary to continue the species.

So, I have no doubt that Cro-Magnons had sex for fun. I don't see how that contradicts the idea that sex is meant for reproduction in the big picture, though.

Plasma screen, that be? | April 30, 2007, 10:49pm | #

sex is meant for reproduction in the big picture, though.

R C Dean | May 1, 2007, 1:15pm | #

Even today, corporate mergers are sealed by an exchange of women.

Dang, Ron, I wanna work in your industry.

caveman | May 2, 2007, 4:07pm | #

SEX HELL YA!!! lol cavemen rule! if cavemen invented sex then they r really smart. CAVE SEX