However, I'd point out that if you do come on down to the farm, you'll see cows mounting cows, bullocks mounting bullocks, hens mounting hens.... sheep... rams... goats... Need I go on? All I can say is that whoever made that song hasn't spent much time on the farm. Whilst there may be no offspring it doesn't stop 'em going through the motions.
Actually, Adullamite, I'd have to answer your query, "Yes." I lived in Central America for a number of years where it was common practice to irrigate crop fields with human waste water.
Well, I've spent a great deal of time around chickens, and I am yet to see two roosters strolling along, hand-in-hand. On the other hand, they can be rather sneaky when they want to be.
Come to think of it, I wonder if they have any heated discussion on coming out of the coop...? It would sure explain some of the nasty rooster fights I have seen.
Whether Central America leads the world or not, it certainly is populous, and the people there are just as much humans as we are.
But your question was "is it normal for humans to shit where they stand?", and in many parts of the world, the answer is yes. In rice paddies, for instance, they'll just squat and let go. And I'd expect most nomadic and forest dwelling folk aren't much different. Anybody who's spent time in India, Pakistan Afghanistan, Africa will tell you that everywhere tends to smell of shit. It's only relatively recently, the last two hundred years or so that it ceased to be acceptable in our 'civilised' countries. We in the developed world still fertilise our fields with the solids from our sewage treatment tanks. It is better to ferment and compost our shit, than use it fresh, in order to reduce the viability of parasites and pathogens, but yes, we eat food grown in our own dung.
The whole business of characterising human behavious as 'normal' or not, based on what animals do, is a bit fraught. All manner of things we thought were confined to humans, are often not. Homosexual activity is indeed 'normal' in a lot of animals. So your farming couple are using a false and irrelevant analogy. anal....ogy! see what I did there! Animals and humans also regularly practise rape, interspecies sexual activity, incest, murder, and cannibalism. It's fairly common in many animal species to kill and eat their own young, or competing offspring of their neighbours. That's no recommendation for us adopting those behavious as desirable. So your farm couple are barking up the wrong tree. To suggest that "if animals don't do it, it must be wrong" is parallelled by the equally nonsensical assumption that "if animals DO do it, it must be right" Ladies:- Please do try not to devour your lover, starting with his head, immediately after sex.
That's a good question. The evidence, globally, given by the numbers of people (and penguins) whose desires are inflamed by their own gender, and by the historical record would say that it's not abnormal. It's a minority trend, but a large minority. In evolutionary terms, it's not a particularly good trait to have, we might call it a dead-end. But it does seem to be inbuilt into the genetic structure of a significant proportion of people.
What are the consequences? well, who knows? In theory, as homosexuality is now more openly accepted, fewer homosexual individuals will feel the need to mate with members of the sex they aren't drawn to, and thus, if it is coded in a gene, the numbers of offspring with that gene would reduce. But I'm no geneticist, so I'll just say I don't know.
11 comments:
However, I'd point out that if you do come on down to the farm, you'll see cows mounting cows, bullocks mounting bullocks, hens mounting hens.... sheep... rams... goats... Need I go on?
All I can say is that whoever made that song hasn't spent much time on the farm.
Whilst there may be no offspring it doesn't stop 'em going through the motions.
You also see animals shitting where they stand, is this normal for humans then?
Ad, you make me laugh!
Actually, Adullamite, I'd have to answer your query, "Yes." I lived in Central America for a number of years where it was common practice to irrigate crop fields with human waste water.
xxx
Indeed Central America leads the world.
Well, I've spent a great deal of time around chickens, and I am yet to see two roosters strolling along, hand-in-hand. On the other hand, they can be rather sneaky when they want to be.
Come to think of it, I wonder if they have any heated discussion on coming out of the coop...? It would sure explain some of the nasty rooster fights I have seen.
Whether Central America leads the world or not, it certainly is populous, and the people there are just as much humans as we are.
But your question was "is it normal for humans to shit where they stand?", and in many parts of the world, the answer is yes.
In rice paddies, for instance, they'll just squat and let go. And I'd expect most nomadic and forest dwelling folk aren't much different. Anybody who's spent time in India, Pakistan Afghanistan, Africa will tell you that everywhere tends to smell of shit.
It's only relatively recently, the last two hundred years or so that it ceased to be acceptable in our 'civilised' countries.
We in the developed world still fertilise our fields with the solids from our sewage treatment tanks. It is better to ferment and compost our shit, than use it fresh, in order to reduce the viability of parasites and pathogens, but yes, we eat food grown in our own dung.
The whole business of characterising human behavious as 'normal' or not, based on what animals do, is a bit fraught. All manner of things we thought were confined to humans, are often not.
Homosexual activity is indeed 'normal' in a lot of animals.
So your farming couple are using a false and irrelevant analogy.
anal....ogy! see what I did there!
Animals and humans also regularly practise rape, interspecies sexual activity, incest, murder, and cannibalism. It's fairly common in many animal species to kill and eat their own young, or competing offspring of their neighbours. That's no recommendation for us adopting those behavious as desirable.
So your farm couple are barking up the wrong tree.
To suggest that "if animals don't do it, it must be wrong" is parallelled by the equally nonsensical assumption that "if animals DO do it, it must be right"
Ladies:- Please do try not to devour your lover, starting with his head, immediately after sex.
I just wonder why it troubles anyone.
Fish, I can see you collecting eggs on the farm. Did the farmer ever catch you....?
Soub, so you agree gayboys are abnormal?
Rab, What folks do in privacy is their business, but nationally it is for all of us to consider the consequences.
That's a good question. The evidence, globally, given by the numbers of people (and penguins) whose desires are inflamed by their own gender, and by the historical record would say that it's not abnormal. It's a minority trend, but a large minority.
In evolutionary terms, it's not a particularly good trait to have, we might call it a dead-end. But it does seem to be inbuilt into the genetic structure of a significant proportion of people.
What are the consequences? well, who knows? In theory, as homosexuality is now more openly accepted, fewer homosexual individuals will feel the need to mate with members of the sex they aren't drawn to, and thus, if it is coded in a gene, the numbers of offspring with that gene would reduce.
But I'm no geneticist, so I'll just say I don't know.
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