Is Human Species Wed-Lodked?

Is Human Species Wed-locked?

Scientists lead by Allan Pacey, the secretary of the British Fertility Society, in a recent study, have found that wild and energetic sex can, at the time of ejaculation, produce up to 50% more sperm cells and accordingly increase the chances of conception. For females also, says Pacey, more the orgasms better is the fertility. ( ToI, March 23 ) It is not unlikely that scientists will soon discover that the children born as a result of wild and energetic sex are healthier and more virile.

This raises a question: is the human species degenerating as a result of the existing practice of sex in bondage, which is what our marital system is? Are not the children born out of wedlock substandard? Consider this boast of a bastard brandishing his superiority over the legitimate children:

… (I)Who in the lusty stealth of nature take

More composition and fierce quality

Than doth, within a dull, stale, tired bed,

Go to the creating a whole tribe of flops,

Got 't ween asleep and wake?

– Shakespeare's King Lear

Has not the human race been producing only 'tribe of flops', generation after generation, in the last eight millennia? After all, the human children born out of dull, stale and tired beds where the parents were, at the time of copulation, half asleep and half awake, might not be as virile and agile as those born in the wild.

Among most of our sister mammal species the bliss of parenthood is not easily achievable. It is not available by casual sex or as a matter of course or as the practice of chalo-ho-jaye. The mating in those species has to be won by hard and fierce competition and by sheer strength of body and grit of mind. In the wild, females are cautious and choosey and males are recklessly aggressive. A female, when in heat, often makes a horde of male suitors chase her for miles before she yields to one who outpaces and outsmarts other contestants. The resulting copulation is virtually a rape. Therefore, you have to be super fit and you have to struggle very hard before you have the opportunity to mate. The weak and unfit males must remain issueless. But then it is this cut-throat competition that produces quality offspring.
It is reasonable to presume that when our hunter-gatherer ancestors lived in the wild they had sexual and social practices similar to those of apes of today. Like chimpanzees of today, for example, our ancestors then lived in groups of 50-60 individuals. The fatherhood was then anonymous. Mothers carried the burden of child bearing and child rearing single handedly. The children also rightfully belonged only to them (mothers).
A human infant is half-ripe at birth and it needs lot of care to bring it up. Mothers also need assistance. In this onerous duty the mothers were, in those by-gone days, affectionately assisted by the aunts and elder sisters of the babies. Male members of the group also offered general protection and generous care to the newly born. This life style drastically changed about eight thousand years ago when humans learnt to domesticate animals and plants, developed the science of animal husbandry and understood the role that males played in the business of reproduction. The economy changed and so did the human relations.
With the abundance of meat, dairy and agricultural products in the new economy and with the development of politics of grabbing and possessing the valuable resources and means of living, new modes of human relations also grew and replaced the old ones. Fathers laid claim on the children they had fathered. They would now help bring up only their own children. They started monitoring the movements of their children's mothers. They established exclusive rights over their females and vigourously guarded against all trespassers. They treated their wives as pieces of farmland wherein they could sow their seeds and reap the crops. Females were also treated as cattle to be captured, held, sold, purchased, gifted and kanya-daaned etc. The fathers and brothers were charged with the sacred duty of protecting the virginity of their daughters and sisters so that they could be delivered to the would-be husbands unmolested. It became easier for the rich, powerful and high status males to keep as many wives and father as many children as they could afford. Woman lost the power to select a suitable mate. She lost the possession of her children and the motivation to produce. Man lost the fitness and the strength that come with fierce competition. Hence the production of 'tribe of flops' and consequent degeneration of human species, in course of time.
Moreover, the freedom of sex is lost. The sense of that loss and the pain of that loss are buried deep in human psyche. We still pine for the lost wildness. Perhaps it is because of this that in the mythologies created by various human cultures gods, heroes and idols are often fatherless - born outside wedlock, of virgins, or niyog, or adultery or outright rape.
Well, there is no scientific proof. In the absence of a study under controlled conditions it is difficult to determine whether degeneration of the sort is indeed taking place or not. We must, therefore, and for the time being, rely on Shakespeare's intuitive reasoning, which is, no doubt, unassailable.

- Baldev Raj Dawar