SEX
IN HISTORY
LOVE
AT THE TIME OF THE GORILLAS
Love
is a wonderful thing. But sometimes it isn't easy.
A few million years ago things went more smoothly. Men knew
only the law of instinct.
During the mating season, the males and females wooed and
coupled with each other.
Women played at being chased by the men for days, who often
fought each other. The female yielded only when she was fertile.
She coupled first with the male who had been able to catch
her, chasing her non-stop and beating the other suitors. The
winner mounted her for as long as hecould. When he then collapsed,
she continued the game with the weaker suitors. The female
continued to be 'available' for the whole fertile period,
which lasted a few days. In this way nature ensured that she
would become pregnant and guaranteed the strongest male greater
likelihood of having offspring. At the same time, the period
in "heat" avoided energy being wasted in copulations
in non-fertile moments.
The selection of lovers, through the competition of courtship,
also sanctioned the formation of couples. In fact, the first-chosen
male maintained a preferential relationship with that particular
female and her children.
I say her children because, to ensure that the female became
pregnant, nature had arranged it, as I said, so that after
the first copulations, she would also give herself to the
other males in the pack. And seening that all the females
were in heat roughly at the same time, this didn't displease
the 'husband' who right away went to look for pleasure elsewhere.
'Jealousy' in fact concerned only the right to be first. For
this privilege, the males fought each other. But when they
were with another female, it didn't bother them in the least.
This form of courtship was the only one known for millions
of years and is still practised by most warm-blooded animals.
When did things change? No one can say exactly. Certainly
primitive societies simplyfollowed the instinct for sex and
food without bringing about much change.
Fertility was the fulcrum of the whole rituality. The Goddess
worshipped was 'the Great Mother', to eat and to make love
was the way to commune with the 'creative force'. Enormous
images of penises and vaginas were worshipped everywhere.
Even today we find evidence of these ancient matriarchal religions
in many rites. In Japan and India gigantic depictions of penises
still dominate Shintoist and Hindu temples, whereas among
Christians and Muslims these images still survive but have
been stylized in the less readable form of candles, stems,
columns and sacred stones.
What remained unchanged in these prehistoric cultures was
the complete sexual freedom, aimed at enriching the genetic
heritage of the group. For example, a stranger who came to
a village was made to lie with the women of fertile age, in
order to supply the group with new "lymph".
This custom survived for a long time. Even in the time of
Herodotus, for example, in some cities of the Middle East,
the women, before marrying, had to copulate with a stranger
before marrying. Similar customs still exist perhaps even
today among the Eskimos (When contact was first made, it seems
that a few missionaries were killed because they had refused
to copulate with some of their women).
In primitive (matriarchal) societies sexual pleasure was considered
a miracle. Even in recorded history, in Egypt, the fulcrum
of the religious myth was the resurrection of Osiris by Isis,
his sister and wife, by way of an intimate kiss. In the same
way as we today worship the image of the crucified Christ,
so then paintings and bas-reliefs of Isis kneeling at Osiris'
feet and intently sucking his virile member dominated the
temples. Despite the enormous sexual freedom of these primitive
societies, things were already beginning to be more complicated
than when we were great apes.
We no longer moved on all fours but on two legs and this had
changed the meeting point of the sexual organs the new inclination
of the pelvis and the pubes made it more difficult for the
femel to reach an orgasm. Moreover,
the period in 'heat' was different: instead of being fertile
roughly once a year, women becames fertile every month and
this made sure that the females was willing to make love more
often, even after the 2-3 days when she was fertile.
Only in late matriarchal age did the necessity to draw up
alliances between groups and so guarantee agreements and trade
give rise to the incest taboo. That is, it was decided that
the members of a group would not marry among themselves anymore.
Mature males left their clan and went to live with their wives'
clan. Each man practically married all the females in the
group.
Only afterwards did the problem with mothers-in-law arise
and the young husbands were forbidden to have relations with
thei wives' mothers.
I believe this was done initially to impose a bit of order
on society.
In fact, trying to work in the midst of a pack of sexually
frenzied people, with everybody fucking everybody else, must
have been a problem. "It damaged productivity".
However, the rigidity of these new taboos was mitigated by
the annual fertility feast, three days during which the taboos
fell and everything was allowed. Today we no longer succumb
to unrestrained sex, but we still celebrate Carnival, the
day on which any joke is allowed.
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