Anonymous. If you are still out there, maybe we can conclude our discussion. A lot has happened in 1998 and 1999 regarding the origins of homosexuality--nothing truly definitive on the biological side, however. I have thought long and hard about this question of "adaptive advantage" of sexual orientation. I'm afraid my best conclusion it that the evolution of sexual orientation is a subject of fantasy not worthy of intellectual debate. The selective advantage of inheriting a sexual orientation is a mute point since this would be a form of "Lamarkian" inheritance (the inheritance of acquired characteristics, of things learned), which as been disproven for well over a century. On another side of the coin, any theory of Thus, it seems useless and counterproductive to attempt to rationalize or explain some selective advantage (in the genetic sense) to a behavior that is a combination of many biological and environmental "characteristics", and thus to some as yet unidentified degree, a matter of (conscious and subconsious) choice, as are all human behaviors. End of discussion...
biological determinism of sexual orientation is idealistic, because such theories are grounded on the premise that heterosexual reproductive sexuality is the mode of transmission of inherited traits, not a genetic trait in and of itself. That is, the theory that homosexuality is genetic converges with the theory that homosexuality is "environmental" at the nodal point where human reproductive sexuality is constituted as a biological given. And this is exactly the source of the difficulties.
Replies:
|
| Behavior OnLine Home Page | Disclaimer |
Copyright © 1996-2004 Behavior OnLine, Inc. All rights reserved.