Circumventing Parental Choice and the Evolution of Rape

Abstract

The female invests greatly in her offspring (i.e., through the nine months gestation period, breast-feeding, etc.) which turns her into the scarce reproductive resource to which men strive to gain access (Trivers, 1972). Having the ability to exercise choice, women choose mates who increase their fitness. In particular, they tend to prefer men with beneficial qualities, including industriousness, high social status, wealth, good genetic quality (with beauty as a proxy), and so on (Buss, 2003). Men with these qualities are highly successful at mating while those who lack them are excluded from reproduction. Thornhill and Palmer (2000) proposed that men are likely to have evolved a forced-sex strategy which, in the event that they find themselves in the latter category, prevents them from being excluded from mating. Thishypothesisassumes thatduringhumanevolution,where this strategy evolved, women were able to exercise choice. However, anthropological and historical evidence suggests that, in ancestral times, women were not free and their mate choices were controlled by their parents (Apostolou, 2010b; Stephens, 1963). Consequently, it is unlikely that rape has evolved to circumvent female choice because this had been a weak selection force. In more detail, parents and children have conflicting interests when it comes to mating (Trivers, 1972). That is, when mate choice is exercised, children tend to place emphasis on traits such as beauty and personality while parents tend to emphasize traits such as good family background (Apostolou, 2008; Buunk, Park, & Dubbs, 2008; Perilloux, Fleischman, & Buss, 2011). This means that if children are left to exercise choice on their own, parents are likely to find themselves with in-laws who lack the qualities they desire (Apostolou, 2008; Buunk et al., 2008). Consequently, free mate choice is costly for parents, which results in evolutionary pressure being exercised on them to place the mating decisions of their children under their control and choose in-laws who best fit their preferences. By means of their greater physical strength and control of resources, parents are able to do so (Apostolou, 2007). To go into more detail, in the vast majority of societies which base their subsistence on hunting and gathering, arranged marriage (i.e., parents choosing spouses for their children) is the primary mode of long-term mating (Apostolou, 2007). This is also the case for societies which base their subsistence on agriculture and animal husbandry (Apostolou, 2010b). Across all types of societies, parents are primarily interested in controlling the mate choices of their daughters rather than of their sons andmaleparentshavemoredecision-makingpower inmarriage arrangements than female parents (Apostolou, 2010b). This evidence is informative about the patterns of mating prevalent during human evolution. More specifically, the genus homo appeared on earth approximately 2 million years ago and until about 10,000 years ago all humans were living as hunters and gatherers (Lee & DeVore, 1968). Although these ancestral foragers did not leave behind any written records, their way of life was most likely similar to the way of life of their modern counterparts (Lee & DeVore, 1968). On this basis, it can be argued that the patterns of mating found among modern foragers (i.e., arranged marriage, control of women, etc.) have beenprevalent throughoutmostofhumanevolution(Apostolou, 2007). This is corroborated by research based on phylogenetic analysis which attempts to reconstruct the conditions in ancestral societies (Walker, Hill, Flinn, & Ellsworth, 2011). Similarly, the patterns of mating found in contemporary agropastoral societies are likely to have also been prevalent in ancestral agropastoral societies (Apostolou, 2010b).However, many of these societies have invented writing so we do not M. Apostolou (&) Department of Social Sciences, University of Nicosia, 1700 Nicosia, Cyprus e-mail: m.apostolou@gmail.com