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[分享]Scientific American Mind 文章:弯动物
Posted: 2008-06-01 10:16
by Jun
Posted: 2008-06-01 16:14
by 火星狗
弯动物还挺纯朴的哦,一起中规中据的settle down下来。弯人类光犹豫着我要不要服从社会规则就会磨蹭很长时间吧。
Posted: 2008-06-01 16:41
by Jun
讨厌,Scientific American Mind 杂志不让直接从网站上复制文章。挑几段抄一抄:
Researchers are finding that same-sex couplings are surprisingly widespread in the animal kingdom. Roy and SIlo belong to one of as many as 1500 species of wild and captive animals that have been observed engaging in homosexual activity. Researchers have been such same-sex goings-on in both male and female, old and young, and social and solitary creatures and on branches of the evolutionary tree ranging from insects to mammals.
Unlike most humans, however, individual animals generally cannot be classified as gay or straight: an animal that engages in a same-sex flirtation or partnership does not necessarily shun heterosexual encounters. Rather than many species seem to have ingrained homosexual tendencies that are a regular part of their society. That is, there are probably no strictly gay critters, just bisexual ones. "Animals don't do sexual identify. They just do sex," says sociologist Eric Anderson of the University of Bath in England.
...Researchers are now revealing, for example, that animals may engage in same-sex couplings to diffuse social tensions, to better protect their young, or to maintain fecundity when opposite-sex partners are unavailable---or simply because it's fun. These observations suggest to some that bisexuality is a natural state among animals, perhaps Homo sapiens included, despite the sexual-orientation boundaries most people take for granted. "In humans the categories of gay and straight are socially constructed," Anderson said.
后面有讲,当动物们被关在动物园时,可选择的异性伙伴少了,有一些动物就会“宁缺勿滥”,干脆跟同性的交配。让我想起大熊猫,被一对一对地送出去,结果很多并不因为对方是眼前唯一的异性就一定同TA发生爱情和肉体关系。For all they know,明年发情期山里可能来好几个对象供自己选择,现在就不必凑合了。但是显然很多人,不,动物,keep themselves fit by practicing their skills on their same sex. 人类其实也类似,当关在监狱或者军队了,同性恋行为比平时猛增很多倍。
在一种叫做bonobos 的灵长类中(据说跟黑猩猩是近亲,我们跟黑猩猩也是近亲),"bonobos are highly promiscuous, and about half their sexual activity involves same-sex partners." 他们是母系社会,而女bonobos 的社会关系和地位很依赖取悦女上司的性趣。。。"The more homosexuality, the more peaceful the species," one specialist says. "Bonobos are peaceful." 过去我也读到过,bonobos 非常非常的乱搞,很多很多的free love。相反,大猩猩就很忠贞(一夫多妻,妻子很忠贞),不过大猩猩没那么peaceful,不同家族之间经常打仗。
In some birds, same-sex unions, particularly between males, might have evolved as a parenting strategy to increase the survival of their young. "In black swans, if two males find each other and make a nest, they'll be very successful at net making because they are bigger and stronger than a male and a female," Bockman says. "Having same-sex partner will actually pay off as a sensible life strategy."
让我觉得最好笑的是,如果世界是上帝创造的,那么“上帝反对同性恋”的说法肯定不成立了。
如果动物的同性恋行为其实是bisexual,那么人的也是喽? 哇,还不得吓倒一大批人?
Posted: 2008-06-01 17:33
by 火星狗
有个很有趣的observation。动物就算是have sex,也是为了reproduction,不是为了have pleasure,据说动物里面为了pleasure而sex的只有人类和海豚(我有点小怀疑撒)。这些弯动物倒还真验证了这个理论,找不到同性别的?找个异性的,怎么也得把养育后代这件事情搞成。你觉得弯动物的存在能安慰一些弯人类的guilty的心吗?特别是弯人类的养育后代被目前的社会规则给差点逼成了mission impossible,如果他们也能像弯动物这么肆无忌惮的养孩子,他们才不管直人类怎么想呢。弯人类仍旧需要和清教徒的社会风气作斗争。人类的故事总是比动物的故事复杂一些。
Posted: 2008-06-01 17:57
by Jun
实际上,这篇文章里后面还提到,科学家认为有些动物的同性恋行为其实也是for pleasure 的。
"Protection of progeny, social bonding, and conflict avoidance may not be the only reasons animals naturally come to same-sex relationships. Many animals do it simply "because they want to," Bockman says. "People view animals as robots who behave as their genes say, but animals have feelings, and they react to those feelings." He adds that "as long as they feel the urge for sex, they'll go for it."
A recent finding indicates that homosexual behavior may be so common because it is rooted in an animals brain wiring---at least in the case of fruit flies. [Yes, fruit flies do it too.] In a study appearing earlier this year in Nature Neuroscience, neuroscientist David E. Featherstone of Univ of Illinois at Chicago and colleagues foudn they coud switch on homosexual leanings in fruit flies by manipulating a gene for a protein they call "genderblind."
值得注意的是,其实上面关于动物的话也适用于人类。Pleasure 是什么?是自私基因引诱生物(包括人类)繁殖后代的甜头而已。婴儿为什么可爱?
过去当人们发现动物也搞同性恋时,曾经采取过手段“治疗”哦,例如把它们给
Posted: 2008-06-01 18:23
by 火星狗
其实我也怀疑,如果没有pleasure(换而言之,化学分子),这世界早灭绝的鬼影子都不剩了,大概还剩植物和细菌吧。
群众这么不喜欢同性恋主要还是气愤他们不用承担繁重的负担吧。老处女老光棍也被这个世界嘲笑了很多年呢。但是群众又不肯把养育后代的权利放给TA们,那就只好继续不爽了。
这类文章啊,本来相信的人觉得真有趣,本来反对的人会想把sick的动物阉掉

,大概主要就是满足我们这些过分好奇的人求知欲望用的。
我好奇另一个结果,如果公牛和公牛搞,这时候给TA一头母牛,能把TA掰直吗?这个应该是更strong的evidence吧。