Re: Japanese Monkey Pulls Darwin 's Leg

From: Sabrina Marr (cocochanel@redshift.com)
Date: Mon 24 Feb 2003 - 15:32:35 GMT

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        There are several groups of monkeys in Africa, I believe, who group together and rub eachother's genitals, regardless of the gender of the partner, for purposes many have deducted to be purely altruistic. Cats will rub up against their owners in exchange for a pat. Dogs will do just about anything to have their stomachs rubbed, and most animals have something physical that brings them either pleasure.
        Now, with the monkeys, it makes sense that a "lesbian" population might exist. If, for the female of the species, sex is painful or otherwise unpleasant, but simply touching each other was entertaining, "lesbianism" would be a fun activity to pass your boring monkey life away. If a gene for
    "lesbianism" were actually to arise, the monkey population would suffer severely until the gene percentage was lowered. The genetic balance would wobble like this until a liveable percentage of "lesbian" monkeys was to arise, say 25 percent of females were lesbian so "lesbian" monkeys could survive in a gene pool. Unless these monkeys were still reproducing, though, this gene would be eliminated.
        The lesbianism could even be a form of genetic population control, say, a gene that says "if there are too many of your brothers and sisters around, opt for same-sex monkeys." Lesbian monkeys that had less children than
    "straight" monkeys would keep the population under control, meaning more food and men for other monkeys. (This isn't group selecetion, howerever, since the relationship between two monkeys in a group can be anywhere from 1/2 to 1/10, good chances that one's gene is inside another monkey and thus that monkey's life is worth preserving so long as you can save a lot of your genes.)
        Chew on that.

    Sabrina Marr

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