From: BMSDGATH <BMSDGATH@livjm.ac.uk>
To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
Subject: Re: memetics-digest V1 #106
Date: Wed, 25 Nov 1998 16:11:15 -0500 (EST)
On Wed, 25 Nov 1998 15:57:15 GMT Soclab2 <A.Rousso@uea.ac.uk> wrote:
> >
> If we accept the two premises that (1) nowadays, most people have sex
in the missionary position; (2) and we
> evolved from animals that have sex in the, ahem, "animal" position,
we reach an interesting point. If you think about
> it (ooh, go on), topologically speaking the two abovementioned
positions are the only possible ones. Now, there
> cannot have been a smooth evolution from one position to the other -
there has to be a discrete jump. Assuming we
> disregard the unlikelihood that one couple "invented" this meme and
all examples of it since have evolved by
> imitation from them - it means that there has been a great deal of
creation of the "missionary position" meme over
> the world (before it spread like wildfire memetically, presumably by
dint of Victoriana [does anyone know?])
I seem to remember that Elaine Morgan has a theory about this in 'The
Ascent of Woman' (or was it the 'Aquatic Ape', one or the other), but I
read it years ago and I can't remember what it was.
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