Sperm War
Sperm Wars : Why We Love and Suffer, Connect, Separate and Cheat (English original title: Sperm Wars ) is a book on evolutionary biology published in 1996 by Robin Baker , a British population ecologist .
content
In his book, Baker suggests evolutionary functions for various sexual habits, which he highlights in the context of brief examples: He traces many connections back to the principle of competition between the sperm of different men for the zygote:
Killer sperm
Baker formulates the hypothesis that the ejaculate of great apes contains so-called blocking sperm. These were used to emerge victorious from the competitive situation of several males competing for a promiscuous female.
In addition to sperm capable of fertilization, the semen also contains sperm that are unable to move and thus block the subsequent sperm of a competitor or even kill them chemically with special substances.
The female orgasm
Sperm War contains several chapters on female orgasm and an evolutionary approach to explaining it.
Testicle size
Baker explains the variance in testicle size between people as saying that men, on average, have the same reproductive success, regardless of the size of their genitals.
homosexuality
Baker explains the fact that many people perceive homosexuality as controversial and also offensive as follows: 6% of men and 3% of women in Western countries say they are homosexual in surveys, and 80% each of those who said so, also have bisexual contacts.
This is probably the reason why this behavior is beneficial for the reproductive success of the individual: Compared with exclusively heterosexuals, bisexuals have fewer children, but they have them at a younger age and therefore have a shorter generation interval. Baker explains this by saying that bisexual people can gain sexual experience faster because they have more potential partners available so they can father children sooner.
He attributes homophobia to a defensive reaction of heterosexual persons to this selective advantage.
expenditure
- Sperm Wars . Fourth Estate 1996 , ISBN 978-1-85702-356-5