Yesterday I started a series of diaries reviewing a recent book by Dorion Sagan:Everything you wanted to know about sex and more: Review of Dorion Sagan's book "Sex" Background information is there so I won't repeat it here. This installment will focus on the introduction "A Brief History of the Dirty Deed" and Part 1 of the book: "Humans and Other Chimps." Just to set things straight, Sagan does say that the title was meant to be an attention getter. He does a detailed analysis of possible scenarios that relate us through common ancestors. I am taking liberties calling this a review for I also want to relate Sagan's thoughts to the politics we are here for. That will be my responsibility, not his. But this is why we are here. Read on below for this installment.
The introduction starts with a story reminding us of how central sex is in all we do, whether we admit it or not. He does not mention how central it is to politics, but can we deny that it is? He says:
Other than making a living, and dying*, few subjects wax as huge over the human psyche as sex. Questions of attraction, power, abuse, dating, self-image, family, and the vicarious immortality of having children and grandchildren all hinge on the sexual relation.
So there are many facets to this subject, the human part is actually only one. For us, as political animals, it may be more central, but the relationships to sex in other organisms is not irrelevant.
This is a sticky subject because we are into evolutionary biology in a big way and we know that Dorion, like his father is a crusader for the refutation of the superstitious claims of the Creationists and Intelligent Design proponents.
The question raised in yesterday's overview comes up again in the introduction:
When we ask, " Why sex?" the answer seems obvious: "To reproduce."
But the serious mind presses on: "Why reproduce?"
There's the question. There are obvious answers but also some less obvious ones. One key answer is entwined with an understanding of the part the biosphere plays in maintaining the Earth System. Humans are a special part of that and I assert that a major reason for that is out technology, its seemingly uncontrolled growth, and its increasing effect on the Earth System.
Here's a bit of perspective:
Like most things on this planet, sex started long before we did.
He then explains this in detail. He also talks about the many forms of sex in the living world. He also refers to a statement attributed to Lord Chesterfield in Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman.:
"The expense is damnable, the pleasure momentary and the position ludicrous.
Understanding this requires that:
we must look at other organisms, from the apes whose behaviors illuminate our own to the ameba-like cells in which two-parent sex evolved.
The first Part has five chapters, the first "Forbidden Fruit" is an interesting critique of the Biblical myth of our origins and the role sex was given. The discussion reminds me of God is Red by Vine Deloria Jr. In fact Deloria goes much further in pinpointing the damage done by the way these Christian creation myths debase both humans and the natural world in general. Sagan ends the chapter with:
If we are to be punished for Eve's congress with the twisting reptile of the Tree of Knowledge, we should at least relish each morsel of wisdom that her sinking her incisors into the ripened red ovary of the flowering Malus domestica - the fruit of the apple tree - has made possible for us.
Chapter 2 "The naked truth" starts by contrasting nakedness with nudity:
Nakedness is pretty straightforward. It is exposure. What you see is what you get.
The allure of nudity is subtler. What is still concealed is equal to or greater than what is revealed. What you see is not what you get.
AS a painter of nudes, this has special meaning to me. I hope it is as clear to others.
The chapter discusses our nakedness and its relation to what we have become through evolution. It speaks of the special meaning of our ability to alter our appearance by wearing clothes and other adornments. He then says:
Of all the estimated thirty million species on planet earth, we have the greatest overlap with of DNA with chimpanzees, Pan troglodytes. They are our closest relatives.
He also discusses our relationship to the larger group, the hominoids (man-like beings). It is not the similarity, but the difference between us and them that leads to chapters 3 and 4 : "Monkey Traits" and "Affair of the Hair." For space considerations I'll gloss over them in this installment except to mention a very interesting discussion of how a single mutation may be responsible for our loss of hair relative to these other species. The sexual significance of this hair loss is very important. Lots can be attributed to it. But we leave that to you to enjoy in the book.
Chapter 5 " Secret Races" is fantastic! In this chapter Sagan develops a thesis that has enormous significance in helping us understand the things that we do and see. That thesis is simple yet deeply complex at the same time. The whole issue of evolution and selection happens on many levels. Attraction between potential mates, strength to ward off competitors and the success of the winner in impregnating the female. Many variations on this theme. The distinction between the "macho" approach of the great apes and the promiscuity of females in other species. Then at the more nitty gritty biological level the myriad ways sperm have developed ability to win the race to fertilize the egg. Human society is structured around this competition. Politics is a result in many ways.
The studies that show that many times when females are promiscuous and provoke jealousy the male sperm production is increased and the sperm become more "competitive" as well. interesting stuff.He ends the chapter on this note:
Such scenarios, in which female promiscuity is expressly permitted, are no doubt psychologically disturbing, but physiologically they can lead to greater male passion and sperm volume. Under conditions of female promiscuity, the gates go up on races more ancient than man or monogamy. And if jealousy can incite anger and violence, it can also be an aphrodisiac.
The 6th and final chapter of Part 1 is entitled "Blue Light My Baby." It discusses the many ways we are what we are because of the sexual race explained in the previous chapter. It might be described as a short semiotics of sexuality. Among the many things included are language, appearances and special symbols. He ends it with :
Chimp males have been recorded offering females meat in return for sex...They call prostitution the oldest profession for a reason. Women don't have estrus, the vulvae flushing and swelling that is an external sign of being in heat....But experiments show a peak in sexual desire and attractiveness at the time of ovulation. Striptease artists receive more tips when they are ovulating, studies show. ...If a street walker walks by in pink hot pants she will attract even more attention. The color is no accident, I wager, any more than is the shape of the textured heart inside the fold of a perfumed Valentine's day card. Such symbols resurrect estrus, long gone from the body, but ever open for business in the red light district of the mind.
Need it be said that the link between political power and sex is not only manifest in the frequent sex scandals we read about? So it goes...
*I need to mention that Sagan's is but half the book. The other half, starting on the back cover upside down is Death by Tyler Volk. Their relationship will be addressed later