Interesting article. But I dunno. They use two Central African tribes as their examples. I recall reading anthropology articles (good ol' liberal arts education pays off in trivia) of African tribes where the teen males jacked off. No examples (either way) from other areas of the world. Another thing is cultural. Up until the 20th century, people tended to marry in their teens--if you made it well into your 20s w/o marrying, particularly if you were a woman, there was something wrong with you. It's not until the 20th century that you really get a push to delay marriage until you're mature enough to make a better decision--one that isn't just about wanting to get laid. In many cultures you're supposed to avoid having sex outside of marriage, so if you have males (especially) who are at their sexual peak in their teens and they're denied a sexual outlet, it's going to come out in other ways. No comment on the article about when the Central African tribes mentioned's boys are getting pussy on a regular basis. My guess would be age 14-15. Of course the internet gets a good share of the blame. Write it 20 years ago and it would be television. Write it prior to WW2 and it would be movies and radio. Prior to that it would have been pressure of secular entertainments--popular magazines and "trash" books, stage entertainment, dancing and card playing, etc. I want more data.
I don't think so - see this. If memory serves, things were much the same in Europe. Teenage males didn't have legal status as adults, for one thing. Nor did they have the means to support a family. Of course, if you were nobility it was different, but most people weren't.
Certainly the comparison only to the two tribes is an inadequate sample. However, it's thought-provoking. We can't really know how human sexual response has changed with various influences, as we don't have anything much to compare to.
That starts in 1890. Do you have the stats for 1800-1900? 1700-1800? Prior?
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David Cop-a-feel Deactivated User
Trust me, honey, it gets better 323 Posts 10/10
Posted - Apr 1 2012 : 10:04PM
Well, we've got urban culture and practices to compare these rural ones to.And fairly well-documented histories and representations of sexual behaviour. The two samples may be small but if,even linguistically, they have no concept of masturbation or homosexuality, that suggests that these things might be the constructs of certain cultures and not others (ie,not innate).
"In England between 1500 and 1700 the median age of first marriage for women was twenty-six."- Marriage: A History, by Stephanie Coontz. Let's just agree that marriage is driven by culture and economics. That being the case, it will vary from one society to the next, and from one age to the next.
Is it just me or does this just sound plain creepy? Yeah. We're supposed to reeducate ourselves about "normal" human behavior by going to the Congo. These people never cease to find a new way to creep me out. Why don't we go to North Korea for our next lesson in how normal people behave? Edited by - randomprecision on 4/2/2012 11:27:48 AM
You can't be serious. A male adult figuring out how to get himself off is not something that is basically inevitable? Give me a fucking break. We all know that most men will still masturbate even if they are with a female who gives them as much sex as they want. You can't seriously believe these men in other parts of the world never had an orgasm from self stimulation in their lives. I don't know about you but I figured out how to masturbate on my own when I was about 12. It seems that certain things just plain felt too good to ignore. Maybe being honest with people asking creepy questions about your sex life is a construct of certain cultures.
To be honest, I can't see how this has anything to do with your fears of the government forcing re-education/brainwashing on anyone, which I presume is the reason for your reaction. I wouldn't consider reading/studying a topic more in depth to be re-education, but rather education.
^ To be honest, you're just not trying. That's not my problem. Try harder. Or try learning that buttinskies can be quite creative at this level. All I need to know is they're a little too interested in what I do with my wiener when I'm by myself. From there, I deduce they are up to no good and that's all she wrote. Edited by - randomprecision on 4/4/2012 12:14:19 AM
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Rubberhole Deactivated User
256 Posts 2/10
Posted - Apr 4 2012 : 10:19AM
lindi: "human sexual response has changed with various influences, as we don't have anything much to compare to..." Actually we do. The article stated that western males are now maturbating at a rate of 50 to 500% more with the advent of internet porn. I can assume that easier access is the reason for this drastic increase. Also the porn watching is effecting the males with their sexuality . They are not relating to 'real' women in the bedroom. So a fair analysis would be that without the exposure to internet porn, most western males would masurbate less, and relate to 'real' ( on the sexaul level) more.
