The Evolution of Sexual Pleasure

Abstract

Sexual pleasure is an innate component of human sexuality. Although disdained throughout history by religious groups and variably explained by theories, philosophers, and societies, sexual pleasure permeates human experience. Traditional evolutionists explain this preoccupation via the development of sexual mating strategies and the human desire to propagate one's genes; however, here I will argue that the saturation of sexual pleasure suggests that sexual activity is no longer pursued solely to ensure reproductive success. Rather, humans engage in sexual behavior to achieve sexual pleasure—a proposition supported by widespread non-procreative sex in mammals, divergent cultural norms, and humans' evolved capacity to experience heightened sexual pleasure. I will address the nature and evolution of sexual pleasure with a cross-cultural findings culled from ethology, anthropology, primatology, and evolutionary theories.     

城市演进与城市灾害

城市是自然灾害与人为灾害的巨大承载体,城市兴衰存亡与城市灾害息息相关。城市不同发展阶段使城市灾害有不同表现形式和特点,其趋势是危害越来越大,同时城市发展对城市灾害又有着缩小效应。     

Evolution of human mate choice

This article provides a review of evolutionary theory and empirical research on mate choices in nonhuman species and uses it as a frame for understanding the how and why of human mate choices. The basic principle is that the preferred mate choices and attendant social cognitions and behaviors of both women and men, and those of other species, have evolved to focus on and exploit the reproductive potential and reproductive investment of members of the opposite sex. Reproductive potential is defined as the genetic, material, and/or social resources an individual can invest in offspring, and reproductive investment is the actual use of these resources to enhance the physical and social well- being of offspring. Similarities and differences in the mate preferences and choices of women and men are reviewed and can be understood in terms of similarities and differences in the form of reproductive potential that women and men have to offer and their tendency to use this potential for the well-being of children.     

创新型城市理论研究的发展

创新型城市是创新型国家建设的重要支柱。近年来,国内许多城市积极提出构建创新型城市的计划,以期通过引进创新战略提高城市综合竞争力。理论界对什么是创新型城市和怎样建设创新型城市展开了广泛的讨论和研究。本文从创新型城市的研究对象、基本内涵、类型划分和发展模式等几个方面,梳理归纳了理论界研究的最新进展。希望通过对已有文献的梳理,有助于深化创新型城市的理论研究,并指导创新型城市的建设实践。     

Evolution of the professional contingent workforce

The market for professional contingent workers (PCW) has evolved into one of the fastest growing segments of the temporary labor force in the socalled “new economy.” To better understand the evolution and success of the professional contingent market, I utilize a new paradigm. Three dimensions are added: First, supplyside characteristics among PCW are analyzed in aggregation. Second, the role and market contribution of intermediaries, such as staffing groups, are stipulated. Finally, interaction among the parties—PCW, staffing groups, and client firms—is viewed as symbiotic. Within the structural framework established by client firms and staffing groups, PCW create value and scale economies for all parties. Empirical results confirm the hypothesis that PCW professionalism assures the vitality of the market.     

The Historical Evolution of World-Systems*

This article synthesizes a new account of world-system evolution from contending cultural materialist, Marxist, and Weberian theories of very long-run social change. We explain the increasing size of world-systems, the rise of more and more hierarchical and larger empires, and the creation of a single global capitalist political economy in terms of iterations of a basic model of population growth, intensification of production, transformation of modes of accumulation, and uneven development in which semiperipheral actors construct transformational innovations. Our theory spans the twelve thousand years since the mesolithic establishment of sedentary societies. We comparatively analyze chiefdom formation, state formation, empire formation, and the rise and fall of hegemonic core powers in the modern world-system.     

The Evolution of the One-Way Screen

Technology can both reflect and contribute to new theoretical formulations and new methods. This phenomenon is examined in relation to one-way screens. While the screen itself has undergone only modest physical transformation, there have been several important changes in ways of thinking about its therapeutic significance. These changes are identified.     

The Evolution of Culture and Sociology

Orthodox neo-Darwinians have typically sought to explain human pro-social behavior by invoking kin altruism and reciprocal altruism, principles that explain the pro-social behavior of non-human species. These principles, however, do not account for those features of our species that are most unique and of greatest importance to sociologists—our group identities and behavior, our cognitive and behavioral plasticity, our capacity for social learning and cumulative culture, among other things. This article describes the efforts of “dual inheritance” theorists to overcome the deficiencies of orthodox neo-Darwinism by developing an evolutionary theory of culture, a theory that also seeks to account for human “groupishness,” intelligence, language use, empathy, morality and religion. The article asserts that dual inheritance theory accommodates most of the traditional research interests of sociologists while proving a robust explanatory framework and that sociologists are positioned especially well to contribute to the study of the evolution of culture.     

A Cultural Challenge: Understanding Evolution

Abstract

To what extent can what we know from science about the origins of the universe and of life in the universe influence our basic human quest for understanding? From modern science we know that the birth and death of stars is very important. If it were not happening, you and I would not be here. In order to get the chemical elements to make the human body, we had to have three generations of stars. Did we happen by chance or by necessity in this evolving universe? There is a third element here that is very important. It is what I call @opportunity.@ What this means is that the universe is so prolific in offering the opportunity for the success of both chance and necessary processes that such a character of the universe must be included in the discussion. Within such a universe all living things came to be through Neo-Darwinian evolution and the so-called Intelligent Design Movement is not a valid alternative.

If we confront what we know of origins scientifically with religious faith in God the Creator, in the senses described above, what results? I would claim that the detailed scientific understanding of origins has no bearing whatsoever on whether God exists or not. It has a great deal to do with my knowledge of God, should I happen to believe he exists.     

Cyclical Evolution of the Global Right

An understanding of the current right‐wing national and transnational social movements can benefit from comparing them to the global and national conditions operating during their last appearance in the first half of the twentieth century and by carefully comparing twentieth‐century fascism with the neofascist and right‐wing populist movements that have been emerging in the twenty‐first century. This allows us to assess the similarities and differences, and to gain insights about what could be the consequences of the reemergence of populist nationalism and fascist movements. Our study uses the comparative evolutionary world‐systems perspective to study the Global Right from 1800 to the present. We see fascism as a form of capitalism that emerges when the capitalist project is in crisis. World historical waves of right‐wing populism and fascism are caused by the cycles of globalization and deglobalization, the rise and fall of hegemonic core powers, long business cycles (the Kondratieff wave), and interactions with both Centrist Liberalism and the Global Left. We consider how crises of the global capitalist system have produced right‐wing backlashes in the past, and how a future terminal crisis of capitalism could lead to a reemergence of a new form of authoritarian global governance or a reorganized global democracy in the future.     

后现代主义思潮与大学生价值观嬗变

进入新时期以来,在西方后现代主义思潮的浸染下,我国大学生的价值观发生了嬗变:由单一向多元转变、集体向个人位移、理想向世俗变动,甚至呈现出与我国社会主义核心价值观相背离的风险。后现代主义语境下的这一嬗变,因循于社会结构的变迁和大学生思维的非真实化变动,并深刻地受到大众传媒低俗化的影响。面对大学生价值观取向的变迁,引导大学生正确认识后现代主义思潮、强化大学生价值观再培育、发挥社会主义核心价值观的整合作用显得尤为重要。     

Religion in Social Change and Social Evolution

It is now time to try to pull together some of the themes and questions raised by the contributors to this book. My comments are not intended to settle controversies but merely to offer one more or less coherent opinion. My purpose is to help some readers to see the book as a whole. Other readers will need no help and may find my comments either wrong or nearly self-evident.     

The Evolution of Plasticity in Female-Female Desire

Abstract

Previous psychological and anthropological research suggests that female-female desires show greater variability and plasticity than do male-male desires. I argue that plasticity in female-female desire has its origins in the evolved independence between female proceptivity (i.e., motivation to initiate sexual activity) and female arousability (i.e., capacity to become aroused to sexual stimuli), which evolved in concert with the loss of a circumscribed and observable period of estrus in higher primates. Proceptivity is an intrinsically cyclical system, peaking during ovulationwhen estrogen levels are highest, whereas arousability is continuous and hormone-independent. Because female proceptivity peaks only a few days per month, a relatively greater proportion of women's day-to-day desires is governed by arousability. The opposite is true for males, who experience continuously high proceptivity mediated by their continuously high androgen levels. Moreover, because arousability is a responsive rather than an initiatory system, there would have been little evolutionary benefit to “orienting” this system exclusively toward other-sex partners. Therefore, arousability likely permits sexual desires for both sexes. Women will consequently have more opportunities than men to experience situationally-triggered same-sex desires, regardless of their underlying sexual orientation. The implications of this perspective for understanding different manifestations of same-sex sexuality are discussed. doi:10.1300/J056v18n04_01     

Puberty and the Evolution of Developmental Science

In recent decades, theoretical and methodological advances have operated synergistically to advance understanding of puberty and prompt increasingly comprehensive models that engage with the temporal, psychosocial, and biological dimensions of this maturational milepost. This integrative overview discusses these theoretical and methodological advances and their implications for research and intervention to promote human development in the context of changing maturational schedules and massive ongoing social transformations.     

Evolution of nonunion employee representation in Canada

Canadians have greater latitude in operating nonunion plans without fear of unfair labor practice challenges, while Americans are constrained by the National Labor Relations Act. The reasons for Canada’s divergence from the U.S. approach are described. The details of Canadian statutes pertaining to nonunion representation are discussed. The article then explores the nonunion terrain that developed in Canada in the face of the continued legality of nonunion representation. The fates of a number of historically significant nonunion plans are presented. New data from a 1996 survey by Lipset and Meltz indicate that despite significant public policy differences, penetration of nonunion forms is remarkably similar in the two countries.     

临空经济发展的关键要素、模式及演进机制分析

在以经济全球一体化和速度经济为外在加速器的知识经济时代,许多国家和地区已经从战略高度上把临空经济作为全球资源配置的重要平台,本文在辨析了几个容易混淆的基本概念的基础上,深入总结了临空经济发展的6大关键要素,提出了临空经济的5大发展模式,最后分析了临空经济发展历程中的演进机制。