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<p>Dear Christophe,<br>
<br>
Thank you for your support and additional suggestions.<br>
It seems to me that your description is perfectly consistent with
my scenario, and a possible fruitful extension.<br>
<br>
In my fictitious narrative, the transition to bipedal gait lowered
the reproduction rate to a subcritical level.<br>
Only a series of severe transitions in sexual behaviour could keep
hominins away from the brink of extinction.<br>
Among those have likely been the concealed oestrus of females and
the resulting permanent sexual interest of males.<br>
The consecutive instabilities and innovations in this chain ended
with the grandmother effect that ensured survival<br>
in a final stable sexual regime. This is actually the end of my
narrative.<br>
<br>
This process had established frequent mating activities in excess
of just a few required for siring offspring.<br>
As you say "it was possible for our ancestors to extend sexual
pleasure by developing its occurrence independently of
reproduction concerns".<br>
Sexual interaction, consequently, became a relevant part of the
social life of hominins, to serve for emotional<br>
comfort, individual bindings, friendship and mutual assistance in
feeding or personal hygiene, etc.<br>
Your list of sex-based relations and behaviours fits very well to
this.<br>
<br>
Thank you for your contribution,<br>
Rainer<br>
<br>
<br>
Betreff: [Fis] Emergence of Human Sexual Behaviour. Anxiety
management<br>
Datum: Wed, 18 Feb 2026 13:25:37 +0000<br>
Von: Christophe Menant <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:christophe.menant@hotmail.fr"><christophe.menant@hotmail.fr></a><br>
An: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:rainer.feistel@iow.de">rainer.feistel@iow.de</a> <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:rainer.feistel@iow.de"><rainer.feistel@iow.de></a><br>
Kopie (CC): <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:fis@listas.unizar.es">fis@listas.unizar.es</a> <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:fis@listas.unizar.es"><fis@listas.unizar.es></a>,
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:pedroc.marijuan@gmail.com">pedroc.marijuan@gmail.com</a> <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:pedroc.marijuan@gmail.com"><pedroc.marijuan@gmail.com></a><br>
<br>
<br>
Dear Rainer,<br>
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.<br>
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
(<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://philpapers.org/archive/MENEOS-5.pdf__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!QXxzbqXW085SQucIFw1M1-rAZAzPmNqM_9vnKmXLibvAWGv1Z1wEkf0SzcY6P0SHy0E_a9BeNBWPj_LWkOv8PkB9aW4$">https://philpapers.org/archive/MENEOS-5.pdf</a>). 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.<br>
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.<br>
For instance, here are some human sexual specificities the
implementation of which could illustrate the search for more
pleasure by our pre-human ancestors:<br>
- No mating season, sexual pleasure possible at any time.
Permanent breast as signal.<br>
- Sexual behaviors embedded in symbolic, emotional, and cultural
systems. More emotional sharing by face mating.<br>
- Sexual pleasure layered with self-consciousness, fantasy,
attachment, anxiety, and meaning.<br>
- Sexual pleasure more intense as psychologically deeper, more
elaborated and more cognitively amplified.<br>
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.<br>
Thanks again Rainer for having introduced it.<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Am 18.02.2026 um 14:25 schrieb
Christophe Menant:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:FRWP189MB329059078689E630A2A15FD08C6AA@FRWP189MB3290.EURP189.PROD.OUTLOOK.COM">
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<style type="text/css" style="display:none;">P {margin-top:0;margin-bottom:0;}</style>
<div
style="margin: 0cm; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"
class="elementToProof">
<span class="elementToProof">Dear Rainer,</span><br>
<span class="elementToProof">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.</span><br>
<span class="elementToProof">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 (</span><span style="color: blue;"
class="elementToProof"><u><a style="color: blue; margin: 0px;" data-auth="NotApplicable" data-linkindex="2" originalsrc="https://philpapers.org/archive/MENEOS-5.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" title="Protégé par Outlook : https://philpapers.org/archive/MENEOS-5.pdf. Cliquez ou appuyez pour suivre le lien." class="x_OWAAutoLink moz-txt-link-freetext" id="OWA4549a4e5-43fc-cf0f-9d30-7ad6665feba3" target="_blank" href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://philpapers.org/archive/MENEOS-5.pdf__;!!D9dNQwwGXtA!QXxzbqXW085SQucIFw1M1-rAZAzPmNqM_9vnKmXLibvAWGv1Z1wEkf0SzcY6P0SHy0E_a9BeNBWPj_LWkOv8PkB9aW4$" moz-do-not-send="true">https://philpapers.org/archive/MENEOS-5.pdf</a></u></span><span
class="elementToProof">). 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.</span></div>
<div
style="margin: 0cm; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"
class="elementToProof">
<span class="elementToProof">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.</span><br>
<span class="elementToProof">For instance, here are some human
sexual specificities the implementation of which could
illustrate the search for more pleasure by our pre-human
ancestors:</span><br>
<span class="elementToProof">- No mating season, sexual pleasure
possible at any time. Permanent breast as signal.</span><br>
<span class="elementToProof">- Sexual behaviors embedded in
symbolic, emotional, and cultural systems. More emotional
sharing by face mating.</span><br>
<span class="elementToProof">- Sexual pleasure layered with
self-consciousness, fantasy, attachment, anxiety, and meaning.</span><br>
<span class="elementToProof">- Sexual pleasure more intense as
psychologically deeper, more elaborated and more cognitively
amplified.</span><br>
<span class="elementToProof">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.</span><br>
<span class="elementToProof">Thanks again Rainer for having
introduced it.</span></div>
<div
style="margin: 0px; font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"
class="elementToProof">
<br>
</div>
<div
style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"
class="elementToProof">
<br>
</div>
<div
style="font-family: Calibri, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"
class="elementToProof">
<br>
</div>
</blockquote>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Note: New Email Address: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:rainer.feistel@iow.de">rainer.feistel@iow.de</a>
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</pre>
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