>
> Mystic, schmystic. Since the field is open, everything we come up with by
> way of definition of human nature has to be taken with a grain of salt,
> whether we call it essence or not.
>
> Same goes for finding an evolutionary (biological) basis for rape. What do
> WE know? There certainly is a biological basis for rape in the chicken
> house -- the rooster that hops on the most hens gets his genes in the pool
> and the hens don't have a whole lot to say about it.
Do hens go into heat? Does the rooster mount hens at random, or just those who are in their fertile state?
When dealing with animals who have states such as 'in heat', the term 'voluntary' is tricky.
> When it comes to there being a biological basis for men's preference for
> younger women and women's willingness to couple with older men, in view of
> the fact that for purposes of procreation and gene-pool improvement this
> scenario makes all kinds of sense whereas the reverse does not, the burden
> is surely on anyone who denies it to come up with reasons why that wouldn't
> be the case, not the other way 'round.
I remember hearing that, when married women have affairs, they almost always choose younger men. Which would suggest that the *biological* choice is younger men. The *social* choice is older men, due to their increased probability of having better resources than younger men. Of course, this postulates enough of a society to talk about significant resources. In a pre-hunter, gathering/scavenging society, the age of peak male resource production could easily have been the early 20's.
Somebody on another list once used the term 'just-so stories' to describe sociobiology (which is what evolutionary psych was, until they decided that perhaps they should change their name - I always get suspicious when a group decides that it's self-selected name is an encumbrance).
'Just-so stories', for those who haven't encountered them, are stories like 'how did the elephant get it's trunk', or 'how did the giraffe get a long neck'. The implication was that these people look more for justification of present circumstances, rather than to make objective inquiries.
Barry