[Fis] Emergence of Human Sexual Behaviour. Anxiety management

Thu Feb 19 13:48:46 CET 2026

Dear Rainer,

silence is a moment when everything is possible. Thank you anyway.

Francesco,

Caro Rainer,

il silenzio è un momento in cui tutto è possibile. Grazie lo stesso.

Francesco.

Il giorno gio 19 feb 2026 alle ore 12:53 Christophe Menant <
christophe.menant en hotmail.fr> ha scritto:

> Dear Rainer,
> Thanks for your support. Our evolutionary frameworks look indeed close.
> More precisely, how would you support the specific and important
> development of sexual pleasure by our pre-human ancestors to limit anxiety
> as a key part of our phylum evolution?
> Anxiety limitation with its various feedback (see drawing) is for me part
> of an evolutionary engine that brought us from LCAncestor to today humans.
> That engine is still active. I feel that the better we understand its
> nature, the better we can address human possible future (ex: vs
> de-identification fueling some of our evil trends).
> A lot remains to be done, and it is interesting (and a bit surprising) to
> note that philosophy of mind has had so far little interest for our
> pre-human evolution.
>
> ------------------------------
> *De :* Rainer Feistel (IOW) <rainer.feistel en iow.de>
> *Envoyé :* mercredi 18 février 2026 18:24
> *À :* Christophe Menant <christophe.menant en hotmail.fr>
> *Cc :* fis en listas.unizar.es <fis en listas.unizar.es>;
> pedroc.marijuan en gmail.com <pedroc.marijuan en gmail.com>
> *Objet :* [Fis] Emergence of Human Sexual Behaviour. Anxiety management
>
>
> Dear Christophe,
>
> Thank you for your support and additional suggestions.
> It seems to me that your description is perfectly consistent with my
> scenario, and a possible fruitful extension.
>
> In my fictitious narrative, the transition to bipedal gait lowered the
> reproduction rate to a subcritical level.
> Only a series of severe transitions in sexual behaviour could keep
> hominins away from the brink of extinction.
> Among those have likely been the concealed oestrus of females and the
> resulting permanent sexual interest of males.
> The consecutive instabilities and innovations in this chain ended with the
> grandmother effect that ensured survival
> in a final stable sexual regime. This is actually the end of my narrative.
>
> This process had established frequent mating activities in excess of just
> a few required for siring offspring.
> As you say "it was possible for our ancestors to extend sexual pleasure by
> developing its occurrence independently of reproduction concerns".
> Sexual interaction, consequently, became a relevant part of the social
> life of hominins, to serve for emotional
> comfort, individual bindings, friendship and mutual assistance in feeding
> or personal hygiene, etc.
> Your list of sex-based relations and behaviours fits very well to this.
>
> Thank you for your contribution,
> Rainer
>
>
> Betreff:     [Fis] Emergence of Human Sexual Behaviour. Anxiety management
> Datum:     Wed, 18 Feb 2026 13:25:37 +0000
> Von:     Christophe Menant <christophe.menant en hotmail.fr>
> <christophe.menant en hotmail.fr>
> An:     rainer.feistel en iow.de <rainer.feistel en iow.de>
> <rainer.feistel en iow.de>
> Kopie (CC):     fis en listas.unizar.es <fis en listas.unizar.es>
> <fis en listas.unizar.es>, pedroc.marijuan en gmail.com
> <pedroc.marijuan en gmail.com> <pedroc.marijuan en gmail.com>
>
>
> Dear Rainer,
> Your focus on the transition to bipedal gait as supporting pre-human
> sexual evolution is original and interesting. It highlights a complex
> subject that may be influencing our human behavior much more than assumed.
> Regarding this last perspective, let me propose a possible development of
> human sexuality based on sexual related pleasures that our pre-human
> ancestors may have been looking for in order to limit a specific pre-human
> anxiety.
> You may know the hypothesis about evolution of our ancestors toward
> self-consciousness bringing them to face new anxieties coming from
> identifications with suffering conspecifics (
> https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://philpapers.org/archive/MENEOS-5.pdf__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!UHkCSCQRpn7Nt0wuusVHsP5XD4Q8KjSkIdXtypW0CKcV8GqKi8pLOqsWG-VHdWH3K9L-BEsMCkbXPhKQyOpNHcxcetE9$ 
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://philpapers.org/archive/MENEOS-5.pdf__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!SQF2gHWYFh9njsByOMSr4m7Rpm7tYEHM72nyYRS0HFa68DSPokEWZ2hNyAsYeKVnQaxdpRJWmWLt525MCIANDwgjZhYsPOix$>).
> To limit that mental suffering our ancestors may have been obliged to look
> for new anxiety limitation processes. Pleasure, as naturally limiting
> anxiety, could have been a candidate for various developments in that
> perspective. More precisely, it was possible for our ancestors to extend
> sexual pleasure by developing its occurrence independently of reproduction
> concerns. Developing and amplifying sexual relations could have been an
> easy, and quite natural,  way for our ancestors to limit the anxiety
> increase they were facing.
> What is proposed here is that our ancestors have capitalized on sexual
> pleasures to develop sources of anxiety limitation. This could have led
> pre-human sexuality to become highly ritualized and very different from
> chimpanzee’s sexual behaviours.
> For instance, here are some human sexual specificities the implementation
> of which could illustrate the search for more pleasure by our pre-human
> ancestors:
> - No mating season, sexual pleasure possible at any time. Permanent breast
> as signal.
> - Sexual behaviors embedded in symbolic, emotional, and cultural systems.
> More emotional sharing by face mating.
> - Sexual pleasure layered with self-consciousness, fantasy, attachment,
> anxiety, and meaning.
> - Sexual pleasure more intense as psychologically deeper, more elaborated
> and more cognitively amplified.
> The above hypothesis brings sexuality and anxiety limitation to be at the
> forefront of human motivations. This subject is not new but deserves being
> developed a bit more, I feel.
> Thanks again Rainer for having introduced it.
>
>
>
> Am 18.02.2026 um 14:25 schrieb Christophe Menant:
>
> Dear Rainer,
> Your focus on the transition to bipedal gait as supporting pre-human
> sexual evolution is original and interesting. It highlights a complex
> subject that may be influencing our human behavior much more than assumed.
> Regarding this last perspective, let me propose a possible development of
> human sexuality based on sexual related pleasures that our pre-human
> ancestors may have been looking for in order to limit a specific pre-human
> anxiety.
> You may know the hypothesis about evolution of our ancestors toward
> self-consciousness bringing them to face new anxieties coming from
> identifications with suffering conspecifics (*https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://philpapers.org/archive/MENEOS-5.pdf__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!UHkCSCQRpn7Nt0wuusVHsP5XD4Q8KjSkIdXtypW0CKcV8GqKi8pLOqsWG-VHdWH3K9L-BEsMCkbXPhKQyOpNHcxcetE9$ 
> <https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://philpapers.org/archive/MENEOS-5.pdf__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!SQF2gHWYFh9njsByOMSr4m7Rpm7tYEHM72nyYRS0HFa68DSPokEWZ2hNyAsYeKVnQaxdpRJWmWLt525MCIANDwgjZhYsPOix$>*).
> To limit that mental suffering our ancestors may have been obliged to look
> for new anxiety limitation processes. Pleasure, as naturally limiting
> anxiety, could have been a candidate for various developments in that
> perspective. More precisely, it was possible for our ancestors to extend
> sexual pleasure by developing its occurrence independently of reproduction
> concerns. Developing and amplifying sexual relations could have been an
> easy, and quite natural,  way for our ancestors to limit the anxiety
> increase they were facing.
> What is proposed here is that our ancestors have capitalized on sexual
> pleasures to develop sources of anxiety limitation. This could have led
> pre-human sexuality to become highly ritualized and very different from
> chimpanzee’s sexual behaviours.
> For instance, here are some human sexual specificities the implementation
> of which could illustrate the search for more pleasure by our pre-human
> ancestors:
> - No mating season, sexual pleasure possible at any time. Permanent breast
> as signal.
> - Sexual behaviors embedded in symbolic, emotional, and cultural systems.
> More emotional sharing by face mating.
> - Sexual pleasure layered with self-consciousness, fantasy, attachment,
> anxiety, and meaning.
> - Sexual pleasure more intense as psychologically deeper, more elaborated
> and more cognitively amplified.
> The above hypothesis brings sexuality and anxiety limitation to be at the
> forefront of human motivations. This subject is not new but deserves being
> developed a bit more, I feel.
> Thanks again Rainer for having introduced it.
>
>
>
> --
> Note: New Email Address: rainer.feistel en iow.de
> Dr. rer. nat. habil. Rainer Feistel
> Physicist (emeritus)
> PS Gustav Hertz Prize, Berlin 1981
> CITAC Best Paper Award, Paris 2011
> IAPWS Honorary Fellow, London 2013
> BIPM Metrologia Highlight Articles, Paris 2016
> EGU Fridtjof Nansen Medal, Vienna 2018
> LS Daniel Ernst Jablonski Medal, Berlin 2021
> IAPWS Gibbs Award, Boulder, Co., 2024
>
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