Homosexuality

[paulpablo]

Evolution doesn't mess around.  If something is detrimental to a specie's continuance it disappears within a few generations.  At least that's how natural selection works.  Cultural selection, which seems to take precedence in human reproduction, is too new - it's conceivable that we might select ourselves out of existence.  That's doubtful though.

Homosexuality shows up in many species.  This makes sense in a way as there are usually a batch of surplus males hanging around.  Yes I know there aren't usually batches of surplus females waiting around, except in wolves and hyenas, but brain wiring is brain wiring.  Baboons have a matriarchal culture, with, I imagine, the grooming getting a little heavy on occasion.  I don't however, remember reading of female homosexuality in other species.  This might be because guys do most of the writing.  Neanderthals might have split into groups based on sex and only interacted on rare and all too brief occasions.  There is some evidence of this.  If they did it homo Sapiens might have lived in a similar fashion until recent times.  This allows room for all kinds of sexual variation to be hardwired into the gene pool and persist.

I like the Rich Uncle Hypothesis.  An extra spear chucker on the old homestead - available for relatively low overhead - would be very handy.  One would think a small desert tribe would see the economic and survival benefit of such an arrangement.  Just imagine how the book might read if they had.

I think sexual traits as deep as sexual attraction would have formed before humans.  Since sexual reproduction is about 1.2 billion years old, and asexual reproduction was around before that. What I mean is , I don't think anything humans could do culturally could prevent homosexuality occurring whether homosexuals would have been seen as useful or not in the spear chucking days.