Abstract
Reproduction in the vast majority of higher organisms, including humans, is sexual. Humans are unique, though, in the way we have disentangled sexuality from reproduction.
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Notes
- 1.
Partial decoupling of sexual and reproductive behaviors is detectable among bonobos, where sexual intercourse is possible beyond the estrus and appears to play a role in sociability; moreover, both males and females have been observed to engage in non-reproductive sexual activities, including masturbation and homosexuality (de Waal and Lanting 1997). Some may point out also that in certain single cell organisms (e.g., paramecium) “sex” (in the sense of genetic recombination) is decoupled from reproduction (meiosis) as they occur separately (see e.g. Ridley 2004). None of these special cases however are anywhere close to detracting from the human exceptionalism in terms of the way sexuality is decoupled from reproduction.
- 2.
While building on Freud, Foucault criticized what he called the “repressive hypothesis” (Foucault 1978), arguing that the relationship between sex, power, and knowledge is shaped not only by repressive mechanisms but also by discourse, culture, and social interaction.
- 3.
Foucault must have been familiar also with some of the later interpreters of Freud who disputed that repression of sexuality and other instincts is a prerequisite for progress, linking it instead to capitalist societies (Marcuse 1955; Brown 1959).
- 4.
Duschinsky and Rocha (2012) argue that this topic is more present in Foucault’s work than commonly appreciated, pointing out that in addition to the first volume of History of Sexuality it is addressed in some of Foucault’s Collège de France lectures, especially the ones delivered in 1973–74 and 1974–75 (Foucault 2006, 2004).
- 5.
The developmental state at birth is normally linked to litter size, as altricial species tend to produce many young who are normally born helpless and require care for a length of time (dogs, where an average litter consists of about six functionally deaf, blind, and toothless puppies, are a classic example), while precocial ones produce few offspring who are relatively mature and mobile from the moment of birth or hatching (horses are an example, as mares usually give birth to one foal who can stand and run within a short time after parturition). Humans deviate from this pattern, thus our altriciality is sometimes referred to as “secondary”.
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Botev, N. (2020). Introduction. In: The Sexuality-Reproduction Nexus and the Three Demographic Transitions. SpringerBriefs in Population Studies. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-37555-3_1
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