SYNOPSIS OF CHAPTER II:
THE EVOLUTIONARY BACKGROUND OF HUMAN SEX-SCRIPTS
We human beings have descended from other sexy
animals.
But our sexuality is no longer controlled by genes and hormones,
as is the case with all the other animals.
Altho we still have an impetus for sex that all animals share,
we are aroused by abstract images, stories, & objects
—in contrast to the genetically-given sexual responses of other animals.
Animal sexual behavior is often quite complex,
but it is stereotyped.
The scientific study of animal sex can provide valuable information
about the sexual anatomy and hormones we share with other animals,
but human sexual behavior has now moved beyond
the genetically-given patterns of sex found in the animal kingdom.
We have inherited the fact of sex-files from
our animal forebears.
But none of the content of ape sex-files was passed down to us.
Animal sexual responses are ‘hard-wired’ in their brains from birth.
(And their hormones control just when these responses become active.)
In contrast, our human sex-files are empty at birth;
they will be filled by sexual imprinting during our first 20 years of
life.
Animals do not have sex-scripts as we have
because they do not speak and have developed no abstract languages.
But human sex-scripts are completely dominated by abstract symbols,
even when some of our imprinted sexual fantasies imitate animal
sexuality.
We human beings are the narrative animals.
Our behavior is largely organized around the stories we try to fulfill.
And our sex-lives are also dominated by our sex-scripts
—imprinted images, symbols, & scenarios that ‘turn us on’
and the sexual experiences we dream of having.
Our early human ancestors probably had rather
simple sex-scripts.
Their imprinted fantasies came from their everyday experience.
But we modern human beings find ourselves imprinted
with many fantasies that could only emerge in advanced cultures.
And because our culture is more secretive and repressed
about sexuality than most primitive cultures were,
our imprinted sexual fantasies adopt little from the natural world
and incorporate more images and ideas from human culture.
The sexual imprinting we received before we
turned 20 years of age
stays with us for the rest of our lives because biological evolution
had no reason to develop ‘mature’ sexuality for later life.
Thus whatever sex-scripts we had at age 20
probably will influence our sexual behavior thru-out our adult lives.
Chapter II THE EVOLUTIONARY BACKGROUND OF HUMAN
SEX-SCRIPTS by James Park 17
Created
3-16-2008; Revised