I don't know Pete. It sounds a little like herding porcupines to me. REH
----- Original Message ----- From: "pete" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, April 10, 2002 8:25 PM Subject: Re: Cause of homosexuality? (was Women, men and stress) > > On Wed, 10 Apr 2002, Ray Evans Harrell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > >Keith, > > > >This is a very interesting thought. Is it possible that there is a > >mutation that happens when the species feels itself under attack? > > No, not a mutation - there is no alteration of the genome. It > is just as he has written, a change in the hormone balance which > alters the brain development of the foetus. I heard of this at least > twenty years ago, but as far as I know, it is not conclusively > demonstated as operating in humans. However, there does seem to be > an observable tendency towards a correlation between high-strung mothers > and homosexual male offspring, but I don't think it is so strong as > to account for anywhere near all, or even half (how female homosexuality > is supposed to be generated under this model I don't know - if it isn't > covered at all, that also suggests there can be other pathways). > > >That it produces heterosexuals when things are safe and homosexuals > >when you need people who can be warriors or people who are without > >the family ties that normal work brings? That would explain the high > >number of Gays in the work where the society doesn't make it easy to have > families for example. > > Ah, this is another speculation that has been proposed before. However, > Some of the ancilliary traits often associated with homosexuality in males > make them less than ideal candidates for warriors, so, unless it is > a mechanism which is held over from a truly ancient ancestor, say > 40-50My ago, where those traits were not an issue, or were not expressed > for some reason, it appears this line of argument is weak. It may simply > be (if indeed it is true) an accident of the complexity of our > biological systems. > > I didn't notice it mentioned here (may have missed it), but one of > the types of stress which affected the rats, if I recall, was > overpopulation. Some researchers then of course proposed that the > purpose of the whole mechanism was to limit population levels. > I believe the (darwinian) selectability of such a mechanism was then > hotly debated, and I don't recall the outcome. > > -Pete Vincent >
