During the Paleolithic era, humans lived in hordes or bands. The size of these bands was determined by the access they had to food. Plants were generally the domain of women, who supplied the nutritional needs and determined the camp’s emplacement. Meat was provided by hunting, traditionally in men's hands, while fishing was usually done by both sexes, these last two activities contributing less regularly to the group's diet. It was a life of predation, the organization of which was dictated by the environment and was defined by the following features:
1) Humans, like all other species, obtained their means of subsistence out of what nature produced
2) Food abundance or shortage determined the degree of nomadism of these populations that had to move according to nutritional resources, animal migrations, and the degree of maturity of seasonal plants
3) Caves and other natural shelters offered the only alternative to life in the open air
4) The possessions of the group were strictly limited to what every individual could carry when changing location (material and tools necessary for the camp, for picking, fishing, hunting, etc.), making trade by barter very limited, and the creation of an exchange economy impossible
Living in an unforeseeable and dangerous nature, humans were prey to illness and accidents, to wild beasts and unknown plants, to the inclemency of the weather, as well as to internal struggles and to conflicts among hordes.
This Stone age will last a very long time during which humans will develop specific techniques and tools, and accumulate observations on their environment. With the passing of time, they will build up a tradition that will form a cultural heritage specific to each group.
Observing nature around them, these populations tried to understand its manifestations, and to relate them logically to their knowledge, to the way they understood the world. However, many of these manifestations seemed to occur without any reason, regardless of any logic that could justify their occurrence. Where did the clouds, the rain, the storm, or lightening come from? Why was the sky sprinkled with small lights, not always the same, and why did some of them move? Why did cataclysms destroy their food? Why did epidemics decimate so many of them?
Among all those mysteries, death certainly was the greatest of them all, with its incomprehensible rules, yet everywhere present. Irremediably anchoring humans into nature, death was not only the most important event occurring in an individual’s life, but was also a very prominent event within the group, especially when its size was modest.
Another most incomprehensible mystery to the people of those faraway times was pregnancy. They did not know how children were conceived, why the belly of women suddenly began to grow, and why, after a few months, women gave birth to one, and sometimes several children. They could not explain why one gave birth to a boy, the other to a girl, a third one to twins, and a fourth to a stillborn baby [6].
Of course, they had observed an identical phenomenon in the animal world where females deliver and nurse their offspring just as women do. Even so, one thing humans could not understand, could not even imagine, was the role that men played in this process. How could they have established a link between the sexual act, in which man seems to be the main actor, and the physiological conditions characterizing pregnant women?
Let us put into context a few aspects of this relationship.
First, the discontinuity of menses, a primary indication of a possible pregnancy, occurs weeks after the sexual act. Furthermore, women who breast-feed their baby are not submitted to the menstrual cycle, which does not mean they are pregnant. Besides, the menstrual cycle lacks regularity, especially for women who are often on the move or are subject to a rough life: “The menses commence to flow among the native females at an earlier age than among Europeans, frequently beginning at about twelve; they are also subject to many irregularities in their periodical return, arising probably from the kind of life they lead and the nature of the diet upon which they live. I have known cases where this irregularity has extended to three months. Child-bearing does not commence often before the age of sixteen, nor have I ever noticed pregnant women under that age.” [Eyre, 1845]
We will further see that, even though humans had certainly noticed that pregnancy does not occur before the first menstruation, the function of menstruation has only very recently been understood. Second, the frequency of sexual intercourse exceeding by far that of pregnancies, and pregnancy becoming visible a few months after the sexual act, it was practically impossible, for men as well as for women, to establish a cause-and-effect relationship between the two events.
Finally, the important number of sterile and crippled women, and the frequent miscarriages made establishing such a connection even more difficult.
In addition, two elements that would have simplified the observation of this relationship were missing. Domesticated animals, with their shorter procreative cycle, were only integrated into human society during the Neolithic era, around 8,000, except for the dog who sporadically appears a few millennia earlier. More significantly, the monogamous relationship between men and women, with its strict copulating discipline, was not characteristic of these populations’ sexual practices. On the contrary, promiscuity was the rule, which made observing the potential consequences of sex practically impossible.
Many factors influence the procreative behavior of primates, the most important being the demographics and the way food is harvested and distributed. The sexual life of primates is organized around one of three forms of relationship.
Serialized monogamous relationship, the most infrequent of the three, is found among gibbons and some lemurs, and takes place when females gather food on their own: the males divide the isolated females among themselves and mate with them.
Single polygynous relationship, practiced by baboons and gorillas, is a sort of polygamy in which one male establishes a relationship with a small group of females when they collect food and search for protection. The male has to prove his strength and aggressiveness by chasing other males from the territory where females are harvesting. Having to compete to get access to the best male, sexual rivalry among females is rife.
Multiple polygynous relationships are practiced by macaques, chimpanzees, some lemurs and some baboons. In this organization, females form an important group (ten individuals or more), and several males make an alliance to get exclusive access to them. Inside the male group, competition is intense and appears at different levels: hierarchy, domination, violence, but also strategic partnerships and group tactics. Females’ preferences and the need for variety add a supplementary degree of complexity to this structure of highly politicized relationships.
Female primates play a dominant role in the sexual organization within the group, as among chimpanzees where a female motivated for sex attracts all the males. In a multiple polygynous relationship, she indicates her preference for a particular male by joining the group in which he is, by having sexual intercourse with him during her fertile period, by displaying her support at times of conflicts with other males, and by developing social relationships with him. In the same way, she rejects a male who displeases her by refusing to mate with him, by trying to expel him from her group, or by leaving the group in which he is.
Females encourage males who best assure their protection and that of their offspring. Males with whom they develop a social relationship can win their favor as well. However, sexual intercourse does not limit itself to males they know: newcomers into the group are also accepted by them, not only for the renewal they represent, but also to make sure that they will not attack their young.
Moreover, adding a supplementary layer of complexity to these relationships, males display a marked preference for mature females who possess an extended network, and who have, time and again, proven their fertility and their capacity to survive, all these aspects exercising an obvious influence on their social status. A relationship with a teenage female who has no experience and who has not proven her fertility is exceptional.
For humans, the conditions of life during the Paleolithic era plead in favor of relationships based on promiscuity rather than on serialized monogamy. First, Paleolithic bands were composed of twenty to fifty individuals on average, which made serialized monogamy not viable [7]. Secondly, the clear distribution of tasks between men and women predisposed them to an organization of their sexual life similar to the one existing among chimpanzees. Furthermore, a multiple polygynous structure encourages the development of a social organization on two levels: it favors a wealth of nuances in the relationship between the sexes, and it increases politicization inside each group.
Other demographic data reinforce this idea. Skeletons excavated by archaeologists reveal a considerable disparity in the adult population of the Paleolithic bands, generally indicating that there were two women for three men. In addition, women lived on average eight years less than men did. The shortage of women made monogamous relationships impossible. What's more, such a demographic imbalance between the sexes must have deeply influenced the way sexuality was experienced, especially for men: placed in a chronic state of shortage and insecurity, they were obliged to adapt their aggressiveness and their capacities for socialization for the sole purpose of securing their sexual survival. The anthropologist Napoleon Chagnon who studied the Yanomamö (Brazil) noted that the wars this people waged almost always had women for object. Raids were organized to kidnap the women of another village, the rest of its inhabitants being simply slaughtered. The captured women were first raped by all the members of the expedition, then by all the men who had remained at the village, before finally ending up being incorporated into the community and taken as wives.
It does not belong to our present scientific capacities to reconstruct the daily life of a period that has only left us bones, sets of teeth, and a few usual objects for inheritance. Closer to us, however, within reach of contemporary scrutiny, communities have lived, and for a few, still live today isolated from the civilizing current, throwing a more direct bridge between our time and our distant prehistory. The lifestyles, traditions and beliefs they have maintained throughout time give us a potential picture of the world of humans before history, before civilization erased most of its traces.
Sexual freedom – certainly applied in different degrees and forms – is one aspect that has been observed by many travelers all over the world, allowing us to say that casual and indiscriminate sexual relationships were still the general rule, and not the exception, for most indigenous people a few centuries ago.
The Caledonian (New Caledonia) shared their women, and each child belonged to the whole clan. The Nayar (India) also lived in complete promiscuity. The Boschisman (South Africa), as well as most Indians of California, had no word for marriage, and jealousy arose only when a woman gave herself to someone from another tribe. For the Massagetean (Iran), marriage did exist but to have sex with someone else was possible. Herodotus [1850] writes that if a man desired a woman, he hung his quiver before her wagon and had intercourse with her “without fear.” Free sexual access was also an institution for the Nasamon (North Africa) and the Agathyrsi (Romania), whose men wanted to share like brothers and avoid all sources of envy or hate. The Ausean (Libya) practiced promiscuous sexuality publicly: “they do not cohabit but have intercourse like cattle.” [Herodotus, 1850] When a child reached three months of age, it was declared the son of the man to whom he most resembled.
In the Andaman Islands (as well as in California), a woman who resists a man who makes a pass at her is considered to be offensive. As for the Cafres of Madagascar, they do not have any word to express virginity. When a girl becomes pubescent, it is publicly announced and a feast is organized during which everybody can possess her. In Darfur (Sudan), the girl gets a separated hut where everyone can spend the night with her. In Central Australia as well as by the Inuit (Arctic), a woman whose husband is absent can give herself to whoever she wants.
Gindane women (Libya) carried around their ankles as many ornaments as the number of men with whom they had sex. Similarly, Egyptian women carried distinctive signs that showed the number of men they had: the one with the most lovers possessed the highest status. In Tibet, it is a ring around their neck that girls get from their lovers: the more rings a girl has, the more famous her wedding will be.
In Taiwan, Ami girls went on board European ships and gave themselves to the sailors. When leaving, they said they would come back the following day, to the delight of the crew. The same custom has been observed in the Marianne Islands and in the Philippines by the men of Otto von Kotzebue, and in Mauna (Hawaii) by the slave on board La Perouse.
Indigenous women of Panama would consider themselves unworthy if they refused a demand to have sex. A Nandowessie Indian woman (United States) who organized a feast and gave herself to forty of her tribe's main warriors received much consideration.
The very common practice allowing women to offer themselves (or to be offered) to their host has been observed in many different places such as Sri Lanka, Greenland, the Canary Islands, and Tahiti. Refusing a woman was considered an offense by the indigenous people, while European travelers falsely called it “hospitable prostitution.” In Nukuhiva (French Polynesia), a missionary who did not accept the traditional offer was surprised in his sleep by a group of women who came to verify if he really was a man. In Assinise (Ivory Coast), the family's chief sent his daughter to his host. In the 1870s CE in Japan, Georges Bousquet who was drafting the civil code was offered a woman by her father in presence of her husband.
The British consul John Petherick wrote over the Hassaneyeh of Ethiopia that “their habits are certainly most peculiar, for they consider the marriage-tie binding but for four days in every week, namely, from Monday to Thursday inclusive, while during the remaining three, both husband and wife are independent of each other, and sans reproche.” [Petherick, 1861]
Reading testimonies from explorers, ethnologists and other travelers who have observed various populations living outside modern society, one can only be impressed by the diversity and wealth of interpretations that these people have attributed to the sexual function, and by the way they have explained the principles of procreation. The examples that follow illustrate to which point sexuality and procreation have rarely been associated.
During a journey in the Trobriand Islands (New Guinea) in the 1910s, the anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski asked a man who just came back home after two years of absence why he was not annoyed to find out that his wife had had a child while he was away. But the man did not answer the question, for this question made no sense to a people that had not established physiological paternity. Indeed, for the Trobrianders, children are introduced in the mother's belly in the shape of very tiny spirits, generally through the intermediary of the spirit of a deceased maternal parent. The husband's role consists of receiving the child into his arms when it is being born, protecting it and pampering it. But the child is not his; he did not play any role in its conception.
Maurice Godelier summarizes this vision of procreation in the following terms: “For the Trobrianders indeed, the fetus is formed in a woman's belly by the meeting and conjunction of a child-spirit and this woman's menstrual blood. Child-spirits are spirits of the deceased (Baloma) that want to be born again in the body of one of their descendants. The dead live in Tuma, a small island off the shores of Kiriwina, under the authority of the divinity Tupileta who reigns over the world of the dead. When someone deceased wants to be born again, it then changes into a child-spirit (Wai Waya) and gets carried by the sea to the island of Kiriwina. There, it finds its way into the body of a woman of its clan. But it can get there only if guided by the spirit of a living member of the woman's clan. All deceased children, therefore, are reincarnated spirits, but they keep no memory of the life led by the ancestor who is reincarnated in them. For the Trobrianders, the woman must be pierced before getting pregnant. For that reason, she must mate, and young people practice sexual intercourse at a very early age and have an intense sexual life before getting married. But to make love is not sufficient to make a child, because a woman doesn't get pregnant by the semen that a man deposits in her, she becomes mother through the intervention of spirits that discover she has been opened and give her a child-spirit. Mingled with her menstrual blood, it becomes a fetus, a liquid and formless mass that is not yet a child. The woman's blood then produces the flesh, the bones and the skin of the fetus. The woman is the only genitor of the child. As soon as the woman has announced that she is pregnant, her man multiplies sexual intercourse. This repeated coital activity has three effects: it creates a plug that will stop the woman's blood from flowing out; it then coagulates the formless mass of the fetus; it imprints a shape that will later make it look like its father. Besides, the supply of semen regularly feeds the fetus during pregnancy. The man pierces and plugs the woman, he models and feeds the fetus.” [Godelier, 2003] “Trobriand children receive two contributions from their mothers, one substantive (blood), the other non-substantive (spirit), and from their fathers they similarly receive two procreative contributions, one substantive (feeding) and one non-substantive (forming).” [Mosko, 1998]
In 1937, a few thousand kilometers south of Kiriwina, Ashley Montagu observed identical ideas in several aboriginal communities of Australia. Not having established the link between sexuality and pregnancy, these populations considered all sexual activity as playful and allowed their children to participate in it: sexual intercourse between adults and children was socially integrated. Baldwin Spencer already mentioned some expression of this ignorance when talking to mothers of half-caste children: “the chief difference that they recognized between their life before and after they came into contact with white men was not the fact that they had intercourse with white men, instead of or side by side with blacks, but that they ate white flour, and that this naturally affected the color of their offspring. I have seen old natives in Central Australia accept, without question, their wives' half-caste children, making no difference whatever between them and the pure bred ones.” [Spencer, 1914]
Just like the Trobrianders, numerous aboriginal communities think that pregnancy is due to the introduction of a child-spirit in the woman's body. The child-spirit is associated with the spirits of the forebears of the totem to which the woman belongs. The man does not participate in the child's conception in any way.
Charles Mountford and Alison Harvey recount that the Adnjamatana of South Australia “appear to have had no knowledge of physical paternity before the coming of the white man, and certain features of Adnjamatana theory... suggest also the non-recognition of physiological maternity.” [Mountford & Harvey, 1941] The conception and the formation of a child are thus entirely due to the convergence of totemic powers: “neither male nor female parent contributes anything whatsoever of a physical or spiritual nature to the being of the child.” [Montagu, 1937] [8]
For most aboriginal communities, the child-spirit exists as an independent being, mainly found around ancestral places like the well of the clan: “the child is not the direct result of intercourse, that it may come without this, which merely, as it were, prepares the mother for the reception and birth of an already-formed spirit child who inhabits one of the local totem centers.” [Spencer & Gillen, 1899] A woman who does not want to become pregnant avoids these places, or on the contrary, frequents them if she wants to have a child. She will be seen hitting a tree that shelters child-spirits in order to scatter its fertilizing power. Another one will bathe in a river, or eat fish, snakes, or other animals or plants. Some communities have even established a link between eating human flesh and pregnancy.
The Kakadu (Australia) believe in a double spirit: Iwaiyu, who enters the woman as a child-spirit, and Yalmuru, who appears at night to the “father” and tells him that his wife is pregnant, naming the ancestor whom the child-spirit reincarnates and saying to which totem it belongs. In his notes on North Queensland Ethnography, Walter Roth inventoried the main reasons of pregnancy according to the Tully River Blacks (Australia). A woman gets pregnant a) when she sits down on a fire on which she has grilled a fish offered by the man who is going to become the father of the child; b) when she goes hunting and catches a particular sort of frog; c) when a man tells her that she is in an “interesting condition;” d) when she dreams that a child has been placed in her. A woman having dreamt of being told to be in an “interesting condition” by two different persons will have twins, while a child's congenital deformity is due to the wrong man having told the woman that she was expecting, or to the forbidden food she has eaten.
The child-spirit can enter the mother by her mouth, by her vagina, or by any wound. It can also slip under the nail of her big toe. Most of the time, a man will announce the pregnancy, saying that a child has been “found.” It allows the introduction of the social father, but does not imply it necessarily: besides the fact that the child's “discovery” can be announced by the mother, it also happens that a man “finds” a child without becoming its father.
The intervention of spirits in the procreation process has been repeatedly observed. For the Asmat, a people of New Guinea that has lived isolated until 1950, pregnancy occurs when a frog (the green tree frog) lands on a woman's shoulder. This frog represents an ancestor's spirit that tries to be reincarnated and wants to find a good mother. The newborn will have the same sex as the ancestor who impregnated the mother. Sometimes, to come close to a whirlpool formed at the junction of several rivers, or to drink water from one of those whirlpools is enough to get pregnant, because it is there that the spirits live. The spirits are therefore at the origin of procreation and maintain the primordial balance that must reign between the world of the living and their own world, an extremely important feature in Asmat cosmology. It is also the interaction between those two worlds that explains infantile mortality, which is particularly elevated but not surprisingly so when one considers the hostility of the environment in which these cannibal headhunters live: marshes, dangerous animals, hostile tribes, etc. As a result, the Asmat think that the child who has been mistreated, or who is not satisfied with what it has seen or experienced in the world of the living, decides to return to the world of the spirits. On average, only 4 out of 10 children think that life is worth living and decide to stay.
The Asmat, however, have established a link between the sexual act and procreation, since they think that it is the male semen that feeds the embryo, while the penis gives it its human shape. After childbirth, the mother has to wait until her child can walk before having sexual intercourse again. The purpose is not to limit the number of pregnancies – which would not fit this people’s vision on procreation – but to protect the newborn baby from the energy liberated by the sexual act.
An identical line of thought is found in other communities in New Guinea. Elisabeth Badinter recounts that the Sambia or the Baruya father must avoid mother and child for two reasons: first, because the contaminants of the mother could pollute him (we will see later why), but foremost because the excitation provoked by seeing the mother breastfeeding her child could make him infringe sexual taboos and provoke the death of the baby.
Let us finally note that the Washkuk (Papua New Guinea) do not make any difference between boys and girls during childhood. It is only through secret rituals and ceremonies of initiation practiced during puberty that the child's sexual identity is revealed. As for the Tswana (Botswana), all children are born girls. They are, therefore, incomplete, and only boys will reach completion by becoming men, whereas girls will remain “unfinished” all their life [9].
Identical conceptions about sexuality and procreation are found in other parts of the world. The inhabitants of Bellona (Solomon Islands) thought that children were sent by the ancestors of their social father: sexual intercourse was uniquely considered as a source of pleasure. Remarkably, the manner that the child is introduced in the mother's womb was of absolutely no concern to them. Having spent several years among them, Torben Monberg conducted numerous investigations to understand their vision of procreation, very suspicious of the fact that they did not know its cause while their society was organized around patrilineal filiation. To the question