Actually such things have always been pretty rare. Even in ancient times random promiscuous sex with multiple partners in most societies was frowned upon. Even in places that allowed polygamy you where still expected to marry before you started banging.
This is probably very nearly a hardwired instinct in us. It may well go back to when we were cavemen, back then going around knocking up a dozen women when you had no way of knowing if you'd have enough food even for yourselves, never mind a dozen kids, next week wasn't such a great idea. Idiots that did and then had all offspring or even themselves starve to death obviously did not pass on their gene or customs.
This is ignoring the extreme risk of disease and unwanted pregnancy, both of which can be disastrous and both of which have only very recently started to be controlled. Really up until about a few decades ago there were very good practical reasons to preach against random sex.
Robert3186 said: Actually such things have always been pretty rare. Even in ancient times random promiscuous sex with multiple partners in most societies was frowned upon. Even in places that allowed polygamy you where still expected to marry before you started banging.
This is probably very nearly a hardwired instinct in us. It may well go back to when we were cavemen, back then going around knocking up a dozen women when you had no way of knowing if you'd have enough food even for yourselves, never mind a dozen kids, next week wasn't such a great idea. Idiots that did and then had all offspring or even themselves starve to death obviously did not pass on their gene or customs.
This is ignoring the extreme risk of disease and unwanted pregnancy, both of which can be disastrous and both of which have only very recently started to be controlled. Really up until about a few decades ago there were very good practical reasons to preach against random sex.
I have to disagree one thing that was supposed to have been hard wired in is the need to pass on ones genes. Its mainly places tainted by Christianity that has the marriage to one, there are place where you have a multitude of wives and even more in the past than in present day. As for the feeding one and the family well there will always be those that do that especially in a time where there really isn't a whole lot else to do, besides survive. Heck people still do it now.
If it was hardwired in us well I am yet to meet someone who has not wanted an orgy and after having one there is no person i know that doesn't want another. The only reason it is looked down upon is dependent on the society that it is in.
Robert3186 said: Actually such things have always been pretty rare. Even in ancient times random promiscuous sex with multiple partners in most societies was frowned upon. Even in places that allowed polygamy you where still expected to marry before you started banging.
This is probably very nearly a hardwired instinct in us. It may well go back to when we were cavemen, back then going around knocking up a dozen women when you had no way of knowing if you'd have enough food even for yourselves, never mind a dozen kids, next week wasn't such a great idea. Idiots that did and then had all offspring or even themselves starve to death obviously did not pass on their gene or customs.
This is ignoring the extreme risk of disease and unwanted pregnancy, both of which can be disastrous and both of which have only very recently started to be controlled. Really up until about a few decades ago there were very good practical reasons to preach against random sex.
Three things.
1. Infant mortality rates during many periods of human history have been so high that excessive breeding has been actively encouraged in order to ensure a reasonable amount of children survive into adulthood. This practice, of course, still takes place today in certain cultures, but in the West it can be seen as recently as Victorian Britain. Considering HOW many children you are able to feed, under the assumption that they all survive, is a modern concept, and I can't help but feel that your application of the concept to (potentially) "cavemen" is a bit of a faux pas.
2. Be careful when talking about human history in such general terms. Especially when talking about monogamistic heterosexual marriage being a common concept. Three examples spring to mind immediately: The ancient Greek practice (albeit not universally adopted among the whole civilization, or for its entire lifespan) of having "a man for conversation, a woman for company, and a boy for sex"; the ancient British practice of allowing the man of the household to have sex with all of its women, including his own daughters (Julius Ceasar, if I'm not mistaken, wrote of this practice) and the Canaanite practice (which seems to be mentioned variously in different versions of the Bible, so should perhaps be taken with a pinch of salt) for holding orgies in their places of worship. Which pertains to exactly what I'm talking about.
3. Bear in mind also that we're dealing only with civilizations that had the convenient habit of writing everything down. Hell, not even that: we're dealing only with civilizations whose writings weren't lost or intentionally destroyed, or whose legacy wasn't intentionally manipulated and hijacked by their conquerors.
