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With the chicken, dog and cat populations the male plays no role in raising the young except in procreation. It is the mother of most species who raises the young. Thus while buried deeply in the genetics of the female of our species is this ferocious maternal love, there is no such phenomenon for the male. Because of the short time of infant dependency for most animals, the male was not a factor in the rearing of the infant.
With the growing time of pregnancy and infant dependency necessary for cultural transmission, the homo mother quickly found out that she needed help. Being a single mother then was even less fun than it is today. Besides being difficult it was also quite dangerous. Besides the hazards of a long pregnancy there was also the difficulties with the long period of infant dependency. The love of the mother for her child motivated her to find assistance in child rearing. The most logical choice for assistance were the males of the species. They were stronger and so could protect the mother and child from other wild animals. Hence those mothers that sought and found assistance in child rearing were selected for evolutionarily.
How was the mother to get help from the male who had no genetic propensity for assistance? How was she to bind the male to her mother-child unit for longer periods of time? Sex was quite disassociated from the procreation process for these early humans by the long gestation period. Hence the female needed some glue to bond the male to her for extended periods of time. The glue was recreational sex.
For most animals the only time they have sex is when the female is in heat. For humans they can have sex any time. While many animals only participate in seasonal sex, humans can participate in non-seasonal, i.e. recreational sex.
Why did humans, specifically the female[1], develop the capacity for recreational sex? Perhaps non-seasonal sex developed because of the unpredictability of childbirth and duration of gestation. With many animals the period of gestation is so short and the number of offspring is so great that seasonal sex makes a lot of sense. With the human it takes nine months and normally there is only one child. An evolutionary advantage of yearlong recreational sex is that the number of potential moments for procreation is maximized. One does not wait for the season instead the woman is ready at any time to have children instead. Thus women were selected for who had this capacity. The development of non-seasonal sex could have been driven by this mechanism. Hence the possibility of recreational sex would bind the males to the tribe to maximize their opportunities for genetic transmission.
A secondary feature of recreational sex was the binding of the males to the female to provide a variety of services. For most animals the period of pregnancy and child rearing is so short that the female can operate independently. If sex only occurs when the female is in heat then the males would just move from one female to the next with no sense of obligation or responsibility. This type of male is still quite prevalent. Thus the homo female developed the capacity for non-seasonal recreational sex in order to entice the male to stay with her during the extended child bearing and rearing process to protect and provide for her and her child. Thus women with the capacity for recreational sex, unassociated with the seasonal sex of most animals, were selected for.
As a modern aside: Although originally the female used sex to bind the male to her during child bearing and rearing, this relationship has fractalized in modern times due to the breakdown of the traditional roles.
On the highest levels, however, sex is used to create a type of spiritual bond that transcends children, status, money, power, or even friendship. On the ideal level, partners in sex participate together in a private spiritual experience. The dropping of personal ego and merger of two into one, and then the one into the all differentiates a spiritual experience from common sex. This is only achieved by extreme interpersonal sensitivity and is thwarted by any type of selfishness. Holding onto self blocks the process while selflessness furthers it.
[1]With many animals the male sex drive is dependent on the female, i.e. when she goes into heat he becomes aroused.