Subject:
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Re: Responsible Hunting (was Re: We are what we eat. Or is that "whom we eat?")
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Sun, 6 Aug 2000 13:59:22 GMT
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Viewed:
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2641 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Tom Stangl writes:
> > > Deer don't have recreational sex,
> >
> > Cite.
>
> Show me a deer copulating outside of the hormone driven mating season. You • won't
> find one, unless some researcher is playing with deer hormones (which points • back
> to deer not having the control humans do).
OK, I guess I have two comments to this, but I want them to come after first
noting that I agree with the general gist of this.
One thing, is that we may have lucked into not being hormonally ruled WRT our
mating habits. I remain unconvinced that this has to be the case for us to be
the intelligent species. Anyone know how it is for the monkeys that most
resemble the species from which we evolved? Or with primates in general? Do
they have cycles of estrus, or do they mate whenever?
The other is that I wasn't sure of your definition of recreational sex. I
still see things from another side. I think that the deer do have recreational
sex. I think that they have sex because it feels good and that's the only
reason that the do it. I also think that hormones tell them certain times that
it will feel good. So it's kind of both.
> > > humans do. While hormones CAN affect humans,
> >
> > And do. All the time. Every second of every day of every year of your • life.
> > Period.
>
> Nowhere near the same way as with deer - we can ignore the urges easily
enough.
But I think that we tend to underestimate how much impact those chemicals have
on us. I have a friend who used to be male and in the process of transitioning
to being a female has gone through many stages of various hormone levels. She
and I have talked at length about the changes in the way basic perception takes
place based on (presumably) hormones.
> > > humans can generally have/not have sex whenever they feel like it.
> >
> > I won't argue this because I beleive it to be fruitless. But I will say • that I
> > don't think it's quite that clear cut.
>
> What's fuzzy about it? If YOU have no control over your sex drive, I feel • sorry
> for you.
No, once again, that's not what I said. There is a long space between having
NO control and complete control. I think that hormones convince people
regularly to make bad decisions.
> > > and changing the environment to suit the
> > > organism, rather than the other way around.
> >
> > Like beavers?
>
> Beavers change it the same way every time, it's hardwired into them. Humans • change
> the environment to suit them in much more self-deterministic ways.
So this difference isn't based on the ability to change the environment, it is
based on the ability to change the environment in a certain variety of ways.
Seems pretty fuzzy. But I do realize that we're the primary (by far) tool
user.
Chris
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