From: CurtAdams@aol.com
Date: Fri Apr 05 2002 - 13:09:54 MST
In a message dated 4/5/02 11:06:04, weidai@eskimo.com writes:
>On Thu, Apr 04, 2002 at 09:44:34PM -0500, CurtAdams@aol.com wrote:
>> If low wealth and power eventually blocked reproduction then, yes,
>> your restriction would take hold. And, through most of history, that
>> *has* been true, but today it's been nixed.
>
>Maybe it's nixed for females, but males still face sexual selection and
>low wealth and power do block reproduction for males today.
True, for reproduction outside of committed relationships. If that kind
of reproduction became dominant we'd see women evolve to become
baby machines and men evolve to be more appealing for babymaking
flings. That's still not very nice. I suspect that would select more
for sports stars and entertainers rather than professors and CEOs.
At present most reproduction takes place in the context of a relationship
and the main pressure on men will be becoming more accepting and
encouraging of large families.
>In the environment of evolutionary adaptation, the only way to delay
>reproduction was to not have sex. People don't experience a lower sexual
>drive when they encounter somebody more knowledgeable or new fun things to
>do, so I don't think your hypothesis is correct.
People always have seemed able to control their reproduction rates,
judging by the enormous variation in birth spacing in "primitive"
society (1 to 5 years). There's extending lactation and non-reproductive
sexual encounters, plus the possibility of some unconcious biological
manipulations. The demographic revolution antedates modern contraception
by almost a century; it started in mid-century France. Granted, 19th
century Frenchwomen had access to vast amounts of knowledge denied
to a Amerindiam tribeswomen, but I think people have always been fairly
sharp about reproduction.
In the wild speculation deparment, I recall studies indicate female
homosexuality is very labile. Perhaps that provides one way for women
to control reproduction?
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