Human Sexuality
Human sexual behavior is just one of the many things anthropologist study when it comes to humans. Humans are highly complex and social beings. We often wonder why we do the things we do. Why do some people cheat, while others stay monogamous? Behavior is not an easy thing to study because it is subject to change and is continuously changing. There is no clear-cut reason for human behaviors, unlike mammals, humans can reject or override genetics. We are not under the control of our hormones or genes. We can resist our biology and it is for this reason that human behavior is so puzzling and complicated. Anthropologists solve this problem by looking at our closest living ancestors, the non-human primates. By observing and theorizing their behavior anthropologist believe it will give them some insight into human behavior. One of the reasons anthropologist study non-human primates is to clue us in on our early ancestors to which we can better understand human behavior today as it pertains to sex. If we take a close look at some non-human primate sexuality we see that they almost always have stragedies when it comes to picking a mate. The males normally seek out females in heat, to ensu
First and foremost sex, is a behavior to produce offspring. It is a necessary to mix up the gene pool to create stronger more viable generations. Although this is the case, recreational sex is not unheard of in primates; as Meredith Small points out in article 6. The Bonobo chimps separate sex from reproduction and seem to thoroughly enjoy their recreational pass time. Their sexual activities are very open and have many ways and positions to enjoy sex, very much like humans. "They seem more like humans then chimps" says Small, using the example of face to face copulation which is very uncommon in non-human primates. Just as humans enjoy sex and receive great pleasure, so do the Bonobo chimps. These displays of sexual behavior are prime clues to the origins of human sexual behavior, which is one of the rewards for anthropological studies. These sex strategies are important part of non human and human behavior, but are they so cut and dry as females do just this and males do just that? For example, most female non-human primate have a tendency to choose quality over quantity, however this is not always the case. Apparently not, as Anthropologist Meredith Small found out. She did a study of female Barbary macaques, and found out that females are very fickle, sometimes they choose mates who are familiar or high ranking or sometimes they go for new comers or sometimes they go for all of the above. There does not seem to be any reasoning behind their choice. This however comes to no surprise to Barbara Smuts who concludes that non-human primates are just as complex and subtle on a social level as we are. Non-human prim
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Approximate Word count = 1105
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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