Barjag
07-16-2007, 12:15 PM
Knodel, John; Low, Bobbi; Lucas, Rachel; Saengtienchai, Chanpen, 1997
Qualitative data on Thai views of male and female sexuality and sexual behavior are examined in light of hypotheses that have emerged from an evolutionary perspective. The data were derived through focus group discussions and individual in-depth interviews. In particular, we examined how Thai married adults consider men's and women's sexual natures to differ, what men and women seek in a long-term mate, and views of spouse's extramarital sexual activities. In a number of key respects Thai views conform to standard evolutionary predictions. The analysis also illustrates how qualitative research techniques can generate useful data for assessing these predictions. ...
All living organisms have evolved through processes of natural and sexual selection that favor behaviors and traits that are most likely to leave a genetic legacy. These in turn operate through mechanisms such as striving for matings, investing in offspring, or helping other genetic relatives. There is growing evidence that humans are not immune from this principle; to survive and persist, humans must solve the same adaptive problems as all other species. Evolutionists argue that people have evolved to behave in ways that do, or did, contribute to their reproductive success (e.g., Alexander & Tinkle, 1981; Boyd & Richerson, 1985; Chagnon & Irons, 1979; Daly & Wilson, 1983; Durham, 1991; Lumsden & Wilson, 1981).
Evolutionarily, in most species and under most conditions, individuals who specialize in either mating (i.e., seeking sexual partners) or parental effort (i.e., caring for offspring) tend to leave more descendents. In part, this is because the behaviors that make one successful in mating are often mutually exclusive of the behaviors that promote parental success (reviewed by Low, 1993; also Daly & Wilson, 1983). For example, searching or fighting for a mate may involve risk taking, which is antithetical to surviving to nurse a dependent offspring. Thus, the reproductive "return curves" (reproductive success per unit of effort expended and risks taken) differ for mating and parental effort. Mating effort is not only typically risky but has a high fixed cost that must be paid before any reproductive return is possible (getting established, gaining status); parental effort, in contrast, has a per capita cost that must be expended for each offspring. As a result, if one sex (males in most species) specializes in getting mates, and the other (usually females) in investing in offspring, the two sexes will behave very differently (e.g., Diamond, 1992; Low, 1993).
Despite all cultural variation, this underlying difference sets the scene for widespread, predictable sex differences among humans in what they seek in a mate and what they think about sexual matters. Women have typically lost more investment than men if they failed to rear a child successfully, for they provide the bulk of energetic investment during pregnancy and lactation. However, in most societies, from hunter-gatherers to modern industrial nations, children survive and enter society more successfully when their mothers are assisted by an investing spouse. Thus, women who were indifferent to a man's ability and willingness to contribute parental investment suffered in most evolutionary environments. As a result, whenever conditions are such that men can and do invest significantly, women should have evolved to be less interested in short-term pairings; more interested in attracting a wealthy, willing-to-invest mate for the long term; and more risk averse than men. Women's attitudes about men's infidelity are likely to be shaped by the cost to themselves and their children. We expect women to be less tolerant of their mate's long-term relationships with other women if they might divert resources to those women and those women's children and to be more tolerant of their spouse's short-term encounters, which involve little commitment on the part of either partner (e.g., Betzig, 1986).
Men, in contrast, have likely always profited from a dual strategy. On the one hand, like other male mammals, a mating itself takes little effort for a man, and when low-cost, temporary (free of subsequent commitment) liaisons are available, men are likely to be little concerned with the subtleties of child health and survival. In evolutionary history, men have been able to profit from short-term trysts (especially when women have been able to raise children successfully alone) far more than women; men also have lost less than women in time and effort when children died. Because resources are central to children's success in most societies, as men accumulate the resources that make marriage and successful rearing of well-invested, highly competitive legitimate children possible, they will seek wives. Thus, we expect men to be interested in both long-term and short-term relations, with somewhat different preferences in the women they seek for the two types of partnerships (e.g., Buss, 1994; Buss & Schmitt, 1993).
In the context of long-term mating, in which men provide significant paternal investment, they are predicted to be intolerant of any infidelity (short or long term) on the part of their wives, because it places the paternity of the offspring in question and thus produces a risk of investing in the children of another man (e.g., Buss, 1987, 1989, 1994; Cronk, 1991; Low, 1993). Mate-guarding tactics, i.e., practices that prevent their mate from having sexual contact with other males and thereby ensuring their confidence of paternity, should be common (see Buss, 1994; Buss & Schmitt, 1993). ....
Thai views of male and female sexuality are consistent with the evolutionary view of general evolved sex differences. In Thailand, women are typically viewed as having weaker and less urgent sexual desires than men. Men are widely seen as having a natural "need" for sex that requires frequent outlet. This opinion was expressed repeatedly in the focus group discussions and the focused in-depth interviews, both spontaneously and as part of discussions about related characteristics (e.g., ideal spouse). Consistent with our findings are results of a 1990 survey of urban Thais by the Deemar Company, in which 80% of adult men and 75% of adult women agree that "it is natural for a man to pursue sex at every opportunity" (Deemar, 1990, Table 84b).
The male urge for sexual intercourse is seen by our informants as a basic physiological need, and as such, requiring an outlet in the form of intercourse. A man's need to release innate sexual tension resembles his need to relieve hunger by eating food. This view of men's sexual craving was contrasted to that for women, who are typically seen both as having considerably less need and desire for sex as well as being in much greater control of their sex urges. Several informants went so far as to assert sex in itself was of little importance to women. More commonly, informants acknowledged that women also had a desire for sex, but there was universal agreement that unlike many men, women could control their sexual feelings and leave them; unexpressed, as illustrated by the following quotations from a group of male factory workers in Bangkok and a group of provincial urban women:
Mr. A: Men feel it (sexual desire) all the time. Men are like that but only few women feel it that way.
Mr. B: If women feel it, they can keep it better than men. They are reserved.
Mr. C: Women would keep it to themselves but men would not. If men feel the desire, they must find ways out.
Moderator: Isn't it strange that men visit prostitutes while they are single?
Mrs. A: No, it's not strange.
Mrs. B: Like when we meet a man, nothing happens. But when men see women, this one's pretty, that one's pretty, they start thinking further.
In the views of a number of our informants, the sexual needs of men, married or not, include the desire for a variety of sexual partners. Men are seen as becoming bored with having sex with the same woman and thus in need of at least an occasional variation in their partner. This included the need for a married man to have at least an occasional change from his wife, although our informants also recognized that not all men are the same in this respect. Such comments arose most frequently when discussing the reason some married men continue to patronize commercial sex workers or have casual affairs after marriage. As a rural male respondent said when asked why men visit prostitutes even after getting married: "They are probably bored with their wives. It is like you have the same type of food with the same flavor every day. It is boring." A provincial urban woman echoed the same idea: "I think it's in their nature ... Men naturally want to try something new." Indeed, the analogy between men's sexual appetite and appetite for food was often made and is most succinctly embodied in the common expression that married men require a "change of flavor."
No informant suggested that women needed sexual variety; in fact, rarely did women say that sexual satisfaction was important for themselves. In virtually all the women's focus groups and in many in-depth interviews, women stressed that it was important for wives to please their husbands sexually, but almost no mention was made of their own needs. In the discussion of marital sex, women often pointed out that sex was more important for men than for women. ...
Although an evolutionary perspective can be useful in identifying and interpreting common themes in human sexual behavior and thinking, the limitations of such a framework also need to be kept in mind. It cannot be expected to predict particular intrasexual and intersexual differences in mating practices and outcomes. Rather than implying specific mating configurations an patterns (e.g., number of sexual partners a man is likely to have), these perspectives suggest that there are evolved tendencies in mating strategy behavior and that these tendencies will diverge between the sexes. The particular ways these tendencies are expressed, however, will differ in particular environments. Thus, the social context in which mating strategies occur will greatly influence the behavior and practice by both men and women.
With that said, it is nevertheless fair to conclude that our findings concerning Thai sexual attitudes and behavior conform to evolutionary predictions reasonably well in the three major areas we examined: conceptions of sexuality, desirable characteristics of a spouse, and marital fidelity. ...
The Journal of Sex Research (http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-20444911.html)
Qualitative data on Thai views of male and female sexuality and sexual behavior are examined in light of hypotheses that have emerged from an evolutionary perspective. The data were derived through focus group discussions and individual in-depth interviews. In particular, we examined how Thai married adults consider men's and women's sexual natures to differ, what men and women seek in a long-term mate, and views of spouse's extramarital sexual activities. In a number of key respects Thai views conform to standard evolutionary predictions. The analysis also illustrates how qualitative research techniques can generate useful data for assessing these predictions. ...
All living organisms have evolved through processes of natural and sexual selection that favor behaviors and traits that are most likely to leave a genetic legacy. These in turn operate through mechanisms such as striving for matings, investing in offspring, or helping other genetic relatives. There is growing evidence that humans are not immune from this principle; to survive and persist, humans must solve the same adaptive problems as all other species. Evolutionists argue that people have evolved to behave in ways that do, or did, contribute to their reproductive success (e.g., Alexander & Tinkle, 1981; Boyd & Richerson, 1985; Chagnon & Irons, 1979; Daly & Wilson, 1983; Durham, 1991; Lumsden & Wilson, 1981).
Evolutionarily, in most species and under most conditions, individuals who specialize in either mating (i.e., seeking sexual partners) or parental effort (i.e., caring for offspring) tend to leave more descendents. In part, this is because the behaviors that make one successful in mating are often mutually exclusive of the behaviors that promote parental success (reviewed by Low, 1993; also Daly & Wilson, 1983). For example, searching or fighting for a mate may involve risk taking, which is antithetical to surviving to nurse a dependent offspring. Thus, the reproductive "return curves" (reproductive success per unit of effort expended and risks taken) differ for mating and parental effort. Mating effort is not only typically risky but has a high fixed cost that must be paid before any reproductive return is possible (getting established, gaining status); parental effort, in contrast, has a per capita cost that must be expended for each offspring. As a result, if one sex (males in most species) specializes in getting mates, and the other (usually females) in investing in offspring, the two sexes will behave very differently (e.g., Diamond, 1992; Low, 1993).
Despite all cultural variation, this underlying difference sets the scene for widespread, predictable sex differences among humans in what they seek in a mate and what they think about sexual matters. Women have typically lost more investment than men if they failed to rear a child successfully, for they provide the bulk of energetic investment during pregnancy and lactation. However, in most societies, from hunter-gatherers to modern industrial nations, children survive and enter society more successfully when their mothers are assisted by an investing spouse. Thus, women who were indifferent to a man's ability and willingness to contribute parental investment suffered in most evolutionary environments. As a result, whenever conditions are such that men can and do invest significantly, women should have evolved to be less interested in short-term pairings; more interested in attracting a wealthy, willing-to-invest mate for the long term; and more risk averse than men. Women's attitudes about men's infidelity are likely to be shaped by the cost to themselves and their children. We expect women to be less tolerant of their mate's long-term relationships with other women if they might divert resources to those women and those women's children and to be more tolerant of their spouse's short-term encounters, which involve little commitment on the part of either partner (e.g., Betzig, 1986).
Men, in contrast, have likely always profited from a dual strategy. On the one hand, like other male mammals, a mating itself takes little effort for a man, and when low-cost, temporary (free of subsequent commitment) liaisons are available, men are likely to be little concerned with the subtleties of child health and survival. In evolutionary history, men have been able to profit from short-term trysts (especially when women have been able to raise children successfully alone) far more than women; men also have lost less than women in time and effort when children died. Because resources are central to children's success in most societies, as men accumulate the resources that make marriage and successful rearing of well-invested, highly competitive legitimate children possible, they will seek wives. Thus, we expect men to be interested in both long-term and short-term relations, with somewhat different preferences in the women they seek for the two types of partnerships (e.g., Buss, 1994; Buss & Schmitt, 1993).
In the context of long-term mating, in which men provide significant paternal investment, they are predicted to be intolerant of any infidelity (short or long term) on the part of their wives, because it places the paternity of the offspring in question and thus produces a risk of investing in the children of another man (e.g., Buss, 1987, 1989, 1994; Cronk, 1991; Low, 1993). Mate-guarding tactics, i.e., practices that prevent their mate from having sexual contact with other males and thereby ensuring their confidence of paternity, should be common (see Buss, 1994; Buss & Schmitt, 1993). ....
Thai views of male and female sexuality are consistent with the evolutionary view of general evolved sex differences. In Thailand, women are typically viewed as having weaker and less urgent sexual desires than men. Men are widely seen as having a natural "need" for sex that requires frequent outlet. This opinion was expressed repeatedly in the focus group discussions and the focused in-depth interviews, both spontaneously and as part of discussions about related characteristics (e.g., ideal spouse). Consistent with our findings are results of a 1990 survey of urban Thais by the Deemar Company, in which 80% of adult men and 75% of adult women agree that "it is natural for a man to pursue sex at every opportunity" (Deemar, 1990, Table 84b).
The male urge for sexual intercourse is seen by our informants as a basic physiological need, and as such, requiring an outlet in the form of intercourse. A man's need to release innate sexual tension resembles his need to relieve hunger by eating food. This view of men's sexual craving was contrasted to that for women, who are typically seen both as having considerably less need and desire for sex as well as being in much greater control of their sex urges. Several informants went so far as to assert sex in itself was of little importance to women. More commonly, informants acknowledged that women also had a desire for sex, but there was universal agreement that unlike many men, women could control their sexual feelings and leave them; unexpressed, as illustrated by the following quotations from a group of male factory workers in Bangkok and a group of provincial urban women:
Mr. A: Men feel it (sexual desire) all the time. Men are like that but only few women feel it that way.
Mr. B: If women feel it, they can keep it better than men. They are reserved.
Mr. C: Women would keep it to themselves but men would not. If men feel the desire, they must find ways out.
Moderator: Isn't it strange that men visit prostitutes while they are single?
Mrs. A: No, it's not strange.
Mrs. B: Like when we meet a man, nothing happens. But when men see women, this one's pretty, that one's pretty, they start thinking further.
In the views of a number of our informants, the sexual needs of men, married or not, include the desire for a variety of sexual partners. Men are seen as becoming bored with having sex with the same woman and thus in need of at least an occasional variation in their partner. This included the need for a married man to have at least an occasional change from his wife, although our informants also recognized that not all men are the same in this respect. Such comments arose most frequently when discussing the reason some married men continue to patronize commercial sex workers or have casual affairs after marriage. As a rural male respondent said when asked why men visit prostitutes even after getting married: "They are probably bored with their wives. It is like you have the same type of food with the same flavor every day. It is boring." A provincial urban woman echoed the same idea: "I think it's in their nature ... Men naturally want to try something new." Indeed, the analogy between men's sexual appetite and appetite for food was often made and is most succinctly embodied in the common expression that married men require a "change of flavor."
No informant suggested that women needed sexual variety; in fact, rarely did women say that sexual satisfaction was important for themselves. In virtually all the women's focus groups and in many in-depth interviews, women stressed that it was important for wives to please their husbands sexually, but almost no mention was made of their own needs. In the discussion of marital sex, women often pointed out that sex was more important for men than for women. ...
Although an evolutionary perspective can be useful in identifying and interpreting common themes in human sexual behavior and thinking, the limitations of such a framework also need to be kept in mind. It cannot be expected to predict particular intrasexual and intersexual differences in mating practices and outcomes. Rather than implying specific mating configurations an patterns (e.g., number of sexual partners a man is likely to have), these perspectives suggest that there are evolved tendencies in mating strategy behavior and that these tendencies will diverge between the sexes. The particular ways these tendencies are expressed, however, will differ in particular environments. Thus, the social context in which mating strategies occur will greatly influence the behavior and practice by both men and women.
With that said, it is nevertheless fair to conclude that our findings concerning Thai sexual attitudes and behavior conform to evolutionary predictions reasonably well in the three major areas we examined: conceptions of sexuality, desirable characteristics of a spouse, and marital fidelity. ...
The Journal of Sex Research (http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-20444911.html)