Male circumcision is a weapon in the sperm wars in societies where men
tend to have multiple wives: (Article published in New Scientist)
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14069
Circumcision and other forms of male genital mutilation have always been
a puzzle. The ritual mutilations can leave the man vulnerable to
infection and even death. So why do some societies insist on such a
risky ritual for their men?
There may be an evolutionary explanation, according to Christopher
Wilson, of Cornell University in New York, US. It could function to
reduce a young man's potential to father a child with an older man's
wife, he says.
Sperm competition theory predicts that males will evolve ways to ensure
that their sperm, and not another male's, fertilises a female's eggs.
Genital mutilation, in this view, is just another way to win the sperm war.
In some forms of mutilation, the handicap to sperm competition is
obvious. There is subincision, for example, where cuts are made to the
base of the penis. This causes sperm to be ejaculated from the base
rather than the end, and is performed in several Aboriginal Australian
societies, says Wilson.
In some African and Micronesian cultures, young men have one of their
testicles crushed.
Male genital mutilation makes it less likely that a male will manage to
father a child with another man's wife, Wilson says.
Home advantage
Circumcision is one of the less painful forms of mutilation, but it is
also less effective at reducing sperm competition. Wilson suggests,
however, that the lack of a foreskin could make insertion or ejaculation
slower, meaning brief, illicit sex is less likely to come to fruition
and lead to a pregnancy.
Younger men, he says, willingly submit to having their reproductive
ability reduced because they benefit socially from the older men, by
forming alliances, and by gaining access to weapons or tribal lore.
The older men have also gone through the ritual, and seen their own
reproductive effectiveness reduced. But if a man with, say, four wives
wants to ensure that any children his wives produce are his, there is
pressure to make sure other men can't successfully impregnate them.
The husband's own reproductive ability is impaired, but continuous and
repeated access to his wives makes up for it, while any genital
mutilation is a greater handicap to an interloper trying to sneak brief
occasional sex with his wives.
Price of alliance
"An older married man must form alliances, or associate with younger or
unmarried men at some point, and it would be better to associate with
and invest preferentially in those who are least likely to threaten his
paternity, especially in societies where cuckoldry is rife," says Wilson.
"Men who demand genital mutilations as part of the price for alliance
and investment would be less vulnerable to exploitation of such
relationships and loss of paternity to peers."
Wilson has now tested the idea. If the sperm competition theory is
correct, he reasoned, then male genital mutilation should be more common
in societies where men tend to have multiple wives, especially those in
which the wives live apart from the husband.
The mutilation would also probably be carried out in a public setting,
witnessed mostly by other men, and performed by a non-relative. Men who
refused would face social sanctions.
Who's the daddy?
Wilson searched anthropological databases and found that his predictions
were borne out: 48% of highly polygynous societies practice some form of
male genital mutilation, and in societies in which wives live in
separate households that increases to 63%.
Only 14% of the monogamous societies in the database practice male
genital mutilation.
It might also be the case that selection works at a group level, so that
societies that enforce mutilation are more stable because of less
conflict over paternity, Wilson says.
David Barash, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Washington
in Seattle, US, says that the paper makes a convincing case.
"Wilson has tackled a perplexing question and come up with a persuasive
preliminary answer to an evolutionary enigma: why do men submit to
procedures that seem to reduce their fitness?" he says.
=================================
Professor Asim K. Duttaroy
Faculty of Medicine
University of Oslo
POB 1046 Blindern
N-0316 Oslo
Norway
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