THE NAKED APE

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ody odours and it has been suggested that part of the process of pair-formation-falling in love-involves a kind of olfactory imprinting, a fixation on the specific individual odour of the partner's body. Connected with this is the intriguing discovery that at puberty there is a marked change in odour preferences. Before puberty there are strong preferences for sweet and fruity odours, but with the arrival of sexual maturity this response falls off and there is a dramatic shift in favour of flowery, oily and musky odours. This applies to both sexes, but the increase in musk res onsiveness is stronger in males than females. It is aimed that as adults we can detect the presence of musk even when it is deluted down to one part in eight million parts of air, and it is significant that this substance plays a dominant role in the scent-signalling of many mammalian species, being produced in specialised scent-glands. Although we ourselves do not possess any large scent glands, we do have a large number of small ones-the apocrine glands. These are similar to ordinary sweat glands, but their secretions contain a higher proportion of solids. They occur on a number of parts of the body, but there are specially high concentrations of them in the regions of the armpits and the genitals. The localised hair-tufts that grow in these areas undoubtedly function as important scent-traps. It has been claimed that scent production in these areas is heightened during sexual arousal, but no detailed analysis of this phenomenon has yet been made. We do, however, know that there are 75 per cent more apocrine glands in the female of our species than in the =and it is interesting to recall that in lower mammals during sexual encounters the male sniffs the female more than she sniffs him. The location of our specialised odour-producing areas appears to be yet another adaptation to our frontal approach to sexual contact. There is nothing unusual about the genital centre, this we have in common with many other mammals, but the armpit concentration is a more unexpected feature. It appears to relate to the general tendency in our species to add new sexual stimulation centres to the front end of the body, in connection with the great increase in face-to-face 68
sexual contacts. In this particular case it would result in the partner's nose being kept in close proximity with a major scent-producing area throughout much of the pre-copulatory and copulatory activity. Up to this point we have been considering ways in which the appetitive sexual behaviour of our species has been improved and extended, so that contacts between the members of a mated pair have become increasingly rewarding, and their pair-bond therefore strengthened and maintained. But appetitive behaviour leads to a consummatory act and some improvements have been needed here too. Consider for a moment the old primate system. The adult males are sexually active all the time, except when they have lour ejaculated. A consummatory orgasm is valuable for them because the relief from sexual tension that it brings damps down their sexual urges long enough for their sperm supplies to be replenished. The females, on the other hand, are sexually active only for a limited period centred around their ovulation time. During this period they are ready to receive the males at any time. The more copulations they experience, the greater the insurance that successful fertilisation will be achieved. For them, there is no sexual satiation, no moment of copulatory climax that would pacify and tame their sexual urges. While they are on heat, there is no time to lose, they must keep going at all costs. If they experienced intense orgasms, they would then waste valuable potential mating time. At the end of a copulation, when the male a,aculates and dismounts, the female monkey shows little sign of emotional upheaval and usually wanders off as if nothing had happened. With our own pair-bonding s ecies the situation is entirely different. In the first pace, as there is only a single male involved, there is no particular advantage in the female being sexually responsive at the point where he is sexually spent. So there is nothing working against the existence of a female orgasm. There are, however, two things working very much in its favour. One is the immense behavioural reward it brings to the act of sexual co-operation with the mated partner. Like all the other improvements in 69
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THE NAKED APE by Desmond Morris A B
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book is intend
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INTRODUCTION THERE are one hundred
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some respect. If they were healthy,
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CHAPTER ONE ORIGINS THERE is a labe
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we put it, it looks out of place. E
Page 13 and 14: The primate group, to which our nak
Page 15 and 16: Faced with a new environment, our a
Page 17 and 18: complex manoeuvres could be develop
Page 19 and 20: The brightest stars in the carnivor
Page 21 and 22: a pack of African hunting dogs it i
Page 23 and 24: the night, but the contrast is neve
Page 25 and 26: in the dirt of the den or lair. Aft
Page 27 and 28: was a process of differential infan
Page 29 and 30: eating it, each have their own part
Page 31 and 32: Male and female hunting apes had to
Page 33 and 34: feature was its naked skin, which l
Page 35 and 36: home bases, its dens became heavily
Page 37 and 38: vital missing links in our ancient
Page 39 and 40: first appears. A great deal will de
Page 41 and 42: CHAPTER TWO SEX SEXUALLY the naked
Page 43 and 44: phase, privacy is sought and the su
Page 45 and 46: summatory act of sperm ejaculation
Page 47 and 48: the arteries pumping blood into the
Page 49 and 50: activity. Once the climax has been
Page 51 and 52: old females will have experienced o
Page 53 and 54: stay put and mind the babies while
Page 55 and 56: -the female remains responsive to t
Page 57 and 58: mucous surfaces permanently exposed
Page 59 and 60: areas in other animals where there
Page 61 and 62: Any body relationship, they feel, s
Page 63: At some point, back in our ancestry
Page 67 and 68: This may also explain why the male
Page 69 and 70: lengths to render her as sexually r
Page 71 and 72: ised his sex life. The contemporary
Page 73 and 74: apology being proportional to the d
Page 75 and 76: enlarges it, imitating in this way
Page 77 and 78: ituation where the female is produc
Page 79 and 80: and avoids being attacked. A subord
Page 81 and 82: object lacking these signals. Secon
Page 83 and 84: is that the prolonged period of inf
Page 85 and 86: on the fundamental sexual structure
Page 87 and 88: CHAPTER THREE REARING THE burden of
Page 89 and 90: is not enough for the infant's lips
Page 91 and 92: mother, either instinctively or by
Page 93 and 94: apid during the first two years of
Page 95 and 96: onwards. It may even clasp on to he
Page 97 and 98: unlike the verbal signals, they eme
Page 99 and 100: mother's face and to distinguish he
Page 101 and 102: oth frighteningly odd and at the sa
Page 103 and 104: friendly, but if we greet them by l
Page 105 and 106: We develop the vital bond of attach
Page 107 and 108: andom and unco-ordinated. The cryin
Page 109 and 110: CHAPTER FOUR EXPLORATION ALL mammal
Page 111 and 112: But the reverse is actually the cas
Page 113 and 114: are combined, one with another, to
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equired no reward-it was its own re
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Writing, a formalised offshoot of p
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and clothing, in furniture and cars
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contacts immensely difficult and wi
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epeatedly bite themselves, or pull
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on the other hand, of vital signifi
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in respiratory activity. Breathing
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under the extreme conditions of agg
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formalised into rhythmic twistings
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sdditional energy on it, and it is
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the grooming itself. Monkeys make g
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signal. (With the arm bent and held
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intensities of it are expressed in
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mechanisms. Many moths have a pair
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largely confined now to a form of s
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such a situation can be seen to per
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the policeman into a position of im
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attacker and his enemy, and it is t
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intelligence that must get us out.
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frequent accompaniment of wailing o
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of the `pomp and circumstance' will
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in profusion. This is usually expla
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personal acquaintances listed there
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grounds. It is a predominantly masc
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elements of challenge, luck and ris
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Another interpretation is that we h
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If they appeal to our old primate w
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disposal, we might be expected to r
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giving an impression of great conce
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the female can then fondle it and c
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is it aesthetically pleasing. Its f
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significance of the hair. In its re
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co-operativeness, specialised groom
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it is a strong dose of security tha
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If the environment becomes too cold
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CHAPTER EIGHT ANIMALS UP to this po
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prey-predator relationship, since i
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substitute space-traveller. No othe
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interferes with the efficient runni
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point of view, are fully justified
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small objects (chimpanzee, monkey,
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The unexpected discovery here is th
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on its back. It must be stressed he
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This cannot be explained solely on
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spiders being nasty, hairy things.
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symbolically, scientifically or aes
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tendencies; that if we have to beco
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Heart-beat response: Salk, 1966. Gr
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BIBLIOGRAPHY AMBROSE, J. A., `The s
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MILES, W. R., 'Chimpanzee behaviour
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Mimikry der Primaten'. Die Naturwis
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