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Details on human sexuality
Introduction of human sexuality
Introduction of human sexuality
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Why It Matters
Sexual selection occurs across all species and is a key part of evolution. It allows animals to increase their fitness. Here are several interesting examples of cryptic female choice and male competition:
1) Males may perform courtship dances to show off their good genes. One species in which courtship dances can be observed are jumping spiders. Male spiders of this species wave their legs and arms to show females their abilities. Females choose a mate after seeing the dances.
2) One way for females to find a suitable mate is based on the resources a male will be able to provide. For instance, in the case of elephant seals, males fight over territories to win over a female. The “winner” of the fight shows the female that he has a territory and that he will be able to defend the offspring.
3) Additionally, in peacocks, the males have elaborate tails that attract females. Females choose a mate based on the ability of a male to show off his tail. The tail indicates to a female that a male has “good” genes to contribute to offspring.
4) In some animals, the roles of the genders may be switched. In seahorses, the males are responsible for giving birth and raising the offspring. In this case, males have more at stake and so the males are the “choosier” mate. They choose a female mate based on the female’s characteristics.
5) These ideas of sexual selection and cryptic female choice can be applied to humans. Women choose mates based on career perspectives, attractiveness, and resources. All these allow her to ensure her children will be healthy and successful.
As you can see, it is important to research sexual selection across various species’. Similar mechanisms of selection are present in all animals. By learning how these mechanisms act in one species, it is possible to gain insight into the behavior of all animals, including human beings.
Introduction
Male Competition Versus Female Choice…
The sexual “arms race” is constantly going on within members of a species. While both male and female are trying to pass on their genes to the next generation, they both try to do this in a different way. Females are attempting to obtain genetic material from the best possible male in order to produce the fittest offspring, while males are trying solely to pass their own genes on to the next generation.
...n necessary would be for the survival of its species, such as, the hunting and gathering societies where the female, having the ability to reproduce and lack of physical strength, was the gatherer and the male, having the advantage of physical strength, was the hunter.
"Persistent female choice for a particular male trait values should erode genitive variance in male traits and thereby remove the benefits of choice, yet choice persists” (Miller, Christine and Allen Moore). This phenomenon is know as the Lek Paradox and has puzzled scientists for many years. Throughout all species there has been abundant evidence showing continuous female choice of male traits, yet there is still no definite answer as to what allows for genetic variance to be maintained, and why a specific trait never becomes fixed. Many hypotheses have been theorized and researched, all providing some explanation as to how this variance in species is maintained, from traits signaling resistance to parasites, according to Hamilton and Zuk, to the hypothesis of mutational and environmental affects. Condition-dependence can also provide information as to how the lek paradox is able to exist; this hypothesis will be looked at in this paper.
...socially directed hormonal instructions which specify that females will want to have children and will therefore find themselves relatively helpless and dependent on males for support and protection. The schema claims that males are innately aggressive and competitive and therefore will dominate over females. The social hegemony of this ideology ensures that we are all raised to practice gender roles which will confirm this vision of the nature of the sexes. Fortunately, our training to gender roles is neither complete nor uniform. As a result, it is possible to point to multitudinous exceptions to, and variations on, these themes. Biological evidence is equivocal about the source of gender roles; psychological androgyny is a widely accepted concept. It seems most likely that gender roles are the result of systematic power imbalances based on gender discrimination.9
Some individuals have developed different traits to help them in the process of intra-sexual competition. The organisms with more distinctive traits have greater reproductive success. More genes of those traits are then ‘selected’ and are passed onto the offspring of the organisms. Throughout time variability in these traits becomes
Darwin's theory of sexual selection is an intriguing one because it offers an explanation of human striving and cultural value systems. The theory is that humans who are more sexually desirable will have more offspring and thus their traits will be passed on to future generations to a greater extent than those of less sexually desirable humans. As opposed to Darwin's other theory, natural selection, those who are the best adapted to their environment will be more likely to pass on their genes, or, "survival of the fittest", you might call sexual selection "survival of the sexiest." The theory is intended to in part explain why, when humans diverged from other primates, the human brain tripled in size in just two million years. At first glance, this theory also seems to explain much of the motivation behind human culture and achievement. Upon closer inspection, there are some fairly conspicuous problems with it, especially when it is extended to describe not only human evolution in the distant past but it the present, but it may still be the most plausible explanation available to explain why humans mental capacities have expanded so far beyond those of our primate relatives.
Social groups of primates closely relate to sexual dimorphism, because how each of their communities interact with one another plays a large role in sexual selection. Sexual selection, as Darwin stated, is a key factor and cause in the morphological dimorphism between sexes of a species. Additionally, sexual selection comes from male competition, which directly correlates to primate’s social structures. For example, genus gorilla is a part of a polygynous mating system, which consists of one male and multiple female. This creates an environment where males must compete with one another to reproduce and create offspring. Due to this competition, males must prove to be strong and attract themselves to females to ensure reproductive success. These strong male traits are favored in sexual selection, because the females are highly particular about the male they mate with, so there become specific male traits that are most desirable. Therefore, in polygynous groups, sexual dimorphism is the greatest (Frayer, Wolpoff, 1985). In comparison, a monogamous primate such as genus hylobate or gibbons has a social structure that consists of a more nuclear based family. There is a lot less male competition because males do not mate with multiple females. Therefore, primates are less dimorphic in monogamous social structures (Frayer, Wolpoff,
The structure of this essay is based on animals and humans mate choice strategies and gender differences and similarities. These factors are intertwined with males and females reproduction success for choosing the right mate and bearing the parental cost involved in the offspring upbringing. (Trivers, 1972, 1985).Animal males from the evolutionary perspectives seek fertile, strong, females as a security for their offspring reproduction. These males’ strategize for their mate choice by advertising their masculinity as men ready for a mate. (Buss & Barnes, 1986; Buss, 1987).The female animals chooses mate base on their sense of security so they prefer males capable to protect and bear the cost of parenting with them.(Trivers,1972).In humans, females prefer wealthy men with high status as mate (Bjorklund & shackleford, 1999; Buss, 1992) whereas males prefer to date young attractive females who considers as fertile with the ability for genes reproduction.
The two ways that sexual selection occurs is through intersexual competition and intersexual selection. Intersexual competition is competition between members of the same sex for mates. The victor in the competition is allowed to mate with the opposite sex either directly or through control of territory and resources desired by the opposite sex. Intersexual selection is when members of one sex consensually agree upon desired traits for the opposite sex. The greatest example of intersexual selection is the male peacock’s large bright feathers. The large feathers of the peacock hinder its ability to survive in its natural habitat. However, the large bright feathers are desired by the female peacock. So although the feathers negatively affect its ability to survive, the male peacock’s bright feathers positively affect its chances of
Infanticide is a frequent event among non-human primates, and is a phenomenon that has been interpreted in various different ways (Borries et al., 1999). Although it is a fact adult male primates frequently try to commit infanticide, the question of why they commit it is frequently debated (Borries et al., 1999). One of the most generally accepted theories for infanticide is the sexual selection hypothesis, which claims infanticide is a reproductive strategy to improve one’s fitness, or have more offspring (Borries et al., 1999). As producing more offspring means a higher chance of the father’s genetics passing on to future generations, the presence of other males and the offspring of those males can be a threat to one’s dominance (Borries
“The peacocks or technically, the pea fowls (the collective name for the peacock and peahen), belong to the pheasant family.”2 They are large birds that weigh approximately 8-13 lbs. and have a body length, including its tail, up to 5 feet. Peacocks and peahens, like us, have specific features and characteristics that base their sexual selection. Male peacocks express complex courtships during the process of finding their peahen. Multiple traits may express information on the genetic and characteristic quality of male peacocks. “In particular, fixed characters, such as feather ornaments might convey information about past male condition; whereas flexible traits such as behavioral displays should be sensitive to present condition.”3 Because the peacocks feathers present information of their past condition, they are very important in th...
The evolution of sex is important to understanding mating choices and mating strategies because it explains not only what individuals look for in a specific partner but also why. Possibly because they think they are healthy in terms of the pathogen resistance theory or why a certain species has so many offspring like turtles for example. Turtles produce large amounts of offspring maybe because they know there is competition to survive and producing a greater amount of offspring heightens the chance
Promiscuity is the cultural norm because it assists in reaching a high reproductive fitness level, can be seen throughout primate behavior and the human pair bond are closely examined. Works Cited Birkhead, T. R., & Mller, A. P. (1998). Sperm competition and sexual selection. San Diego: Academic Press, 2004. Birkhead, T. (2007).
Life on Earth is all about sex. But sex is far more attributable to our animalistic instincts than many humans even realize. Animals and human beings, alike, go through unimaginable things to ensure their genes are passed on for another generation. The one goal in most species’ lives is to reproduce so that some parts of their DNA or genes get handed down. Clearly without reproduction and sex, which are distinctly different terms, the species would become extinct. Because of this inescapable fact, the evolution of sex is a very important topic. One may say that sex drives evolution and evolution drives nature, which in turn makes sex the center of existence.
Conclusion In conclusion, mate selection is influenced by both nature and nurture. While biology and genetics predispose humans to look for certain traits in a mate, socialization and upbringing play a significant role in shaping cultural and personal mate ideals. By understanding the history and diversity of mate selection, the biology of mate selection, and the influence of socialization, we can gain a
Mating is the most fundamental and vital process for animals to select their best partners. In the view of biology, mating refers to the pairing of opposite-sex for copulation (the union of the sex organs of two sexually reproducing animals for insemination and subsequent internal fertilization) in social animals to breed for their offspring. In general, different animals may mate in different manners, but in most cases the main purpose is to transfer sperm from the male to the female. The mating process always involves the struggle of one sex (often the male) to win the mating with the female. The failure of this process is normally a few or no offspring to sustain the generation of their own species.