Sex in Ancient and Modern Worlds

By Tommy Leung on 11/04/2011 in Fitness, Life

Before I discovered the paleo diet, I wouldn’t have thought for a second to consult with evolution or ancient cultures to deal with or help shed light on modern health issues. It seems like common sense now that we should look at how humans have lived, thrived, and evolved in order to understand what good human health ought to be. That’s how we study every other creature on the planet: we observe what they do in their natural environment.

The natural next step after modeling diet around evolution is to see what other things can also benefit by applying the same ideas. A paleo-style diet works wonders so it is logical to suspect similar benefits can be achieved in other parts of life like physical fitness, sleep, activity levels, and even sex. It is important that we remember this isn’t paleolithic times. The objective isn’t to imitate cavemen and ignore modern science but, to use what we know about human evolution to guide us.

I came across this post at Hunt Gather Love about the sexual practices of two indigenous tribes in sub-Saharan Africa through one of Mark’s Daily Apple’s Weekend Link Loves and it intrigued me! Yes. Sex interested me. Shocker! I even read the entire text of the study. I read the full text of a lot of studies and papers so this isn’t something strange but, this was more entertaining to read about than a study on how vitamin D3 supplementation affects bone density and prevents fractures in seniors. As much as I love vitamin D, sex is just more interesting!

There’s a few charts in this study and one that stood out is this one about frequency of sex in a week:

This is a comparison between married couples and not the overall population of the United States and the people from the Aka and Ngandu tribes. There’s plenty of jokes in the modern world about couples having virtually no sex once they’re married and this data for Americans seems to support it! It looks spectacularly worse compared to these African tribes. So, what the hell? Are we not doing it enough? There’s plenty of studies that point to more sex correlating to better health. Whether these studies have any merit is another story but, why would anyone ignore any piece of science that tells them to have more sex?!

This chart makes married Americans look like sexless prudes but, are these indigenous peoples really having that much sex? And if they are, why? And how are they doing this? Sex eight times a week is no physical feat to scoff at. I’m sure larger waist sizes in America isn’t helping our cause but, if we’re not having enough sex, are they having too much sex? The Ngandu tribe seems to have a much more reasonable and desirable amount of sex. Why the disparity between the two tribes?

Monogamy or Polygamy?

Firstly, some folks will look at that graph and immediately assume that these tribes practiced polygamy or were otherwise sleeping around a lot. However, the study reports that “only a few members in each ethnic group were in polygynous relationships so we were unable to determine the impact of polygyny on sexual behavior.” These two tribes also have a cultural belief called the “post-partum sex taboo”:

The post-partum sex taboo is a cultural belief that a husband and wife should abstain from sexual activity after the birth of a child until the child is walking well. If a parent sleeps with someone else the child will get a specific illness, called ekila dibongo (taboo/illness of the knees), and potentially die.

The Aka tribe that reported the greatest sexual frequency also reported the least likelihood of looking for a different mate in this post-partum period while the Ngandu males almost always looked for another mate:

Some Aka men did not believe in the post-partum taboo and continued to sleep with their spouse while most Aka men believed and respected the conditions of the taboo and did not seek out other women. About one-fourth of the Aka men said they would seek out other women, but these were primarily males under 25. It is not clear if this is due to changes in cultural beliefs or a function of their age. Ngandu men on the other hand, almost always searched for other women during this time regardless of their age.

The women of both tribes generally followed the taboo and believed or hoped their husbands did:

All Ngandu and 72% of Aka women said they followed the taboo and said that their husbands either followed or women hoped their husbands respected the taboo.

So while there is evidence that Ngandu men sleep around in the post-partum period, it doesn’t necessarily equate to having multiple partners prior to that period. The study also had fewer Ngandu participants in comparison to the size of the tribe. Ngandu villages range in size from 50 – 400 individuals while the study included 21 participants split evenly by gender. The Aka villages consist of 25 – 35 individuals and the study included 35 Aka participants split evenly by gender.

The data collected about the Aka is therefore likely more reliable and indicative of the tribe as a whole opposed to the Ngandu data. While the data can’t conclusively determine monogamy or not, the Aka data is more reliable and points in that direction. Of course, different tribes have different customs, traditions, and beliefs that may make monogamy or polygamy the norm. Any data that sways one way or the other doesn’t conclusively prove anything except to dispel assumptions that all cavemen slept with every cavewoman he could find as an evolutionary explanation to infidelity or other such weakly supported ideas.

Ancient Sex as Play or Work?

Sex eight times a week is quite a lot by any measure and especially by modern measures. So the logical first question would be whether these indigenous tribes were doing it for fun or as a means to another ends? Both tribes have a child mortality rate of 35 – 45%. With that in mind, it becomes obvious that having as many children as possible would be a priority. And it is. Women give birth 5 – 6 times on average. The chart above demonstrating frequency of sex also shows that frequency declines in the age group that is no longer looking to produce offspring: 40 – 45 years.

According to the participants interviewed, they are primarily interested in children:

One young Aka male said “I am now doing it five times a night to search for a child. If I do not do it five times my wife will not be happy because she wants children quickly.” Aka females had similar feelings as expressed by one woman “I had sex with him to get infants, not for pleasure, and to show that I loved him”. Another Aka woman said, “It is fun to have sex, but it is to look for a child.”

They even go as far as to say:

Ngandu had similar views as one male said “Having sex three times a night is to look for a child NOT for pleasure”

An Aka male even refers to what he’s doing as work:

A 25 year-old man said, “It is work to find children and get children to make a large camp like my father.” He reported having sex 4–5 times a night.

The study goes on to discuss that:

… having sex was often viewed as bila (work). Some of following comments from Aka men and women emphasize this point. “The work of the penis is the work to find a child.” “I am always looking for a child, it is pleasurable, but it is a big work.” “Bila na bongedi” (sexual desire is work). Several informants compared the work of getting food and the work of searching for a child. “Getting food is more difficult, but both are lots of work. Sex life is not as tiring as work during day; the work at night is easier because can make love then sleep.”

Of course, this isn’t to say that they didn’t experience pleasure while doing this work:

Sex was seen as pleasurable, but pleasure was secondary or tertiary to searching for a child or to demonstrate love towards a mate. Ngandu men and women were somewhat more likely than Aka to mention pleasure as an important part of sex life. Ngandu women said “Sex is pleasure, work, sign of love and necessary for infant growth” and “Sex is for pleasure and for work to find kids.”

When it comes to frequency of sex per night and days of rest in between:

The data imply that, on average, 18–45 year-old Aka have sex about three times per week and three times per night. Ngandu 18–45 year-olds have sex about twice a week and two times per night.

So in the case of these two tribes–and likely all indigenous peoples–sex is firstly an act of work to produce children and secondly or thirdly an act of play for the sake of pleasure alone. This shouldn’t really be a surprise as it is only in the modern world that child mortality is low enough for couples to plan for children and largely expect every child born to survive into adulthood.

While this is a great conversation topic to have at ready, we really only care what this means for us in the modern world.

Sex and the Modern World

It is hard to imagine that anyone needs scientific evidence to believe sex is good for them. The sex itself can be good or bad in terms of satisfaction but, no scientific study is going to change that one way or the other–there’s also no shortage of articles on improving sex in men’s and women’s magazines every month.  The question that I want to answer is how much sex is likely optimal for health and longevity.

From a health perspective, I don’t think one can have too much sex. I’m not sure it’s even possible in all but the most extreme circumstances to have too much sex.

An article in Forbes had these snippets to say about the issue:

The best that modern science can say for sexual abstinence is that it’s harmless when practiced in moderation. Having regular and enthusiastic sex, by contrast, confers a host of measurable physiological advantages, be you male or female.

Dr. Claire Bailey of the University of Bristol says there is little or no risk of a woman’s overdosing on sex. In fact, she says, regular sessions can not only firm a woman’s tummy and buttocks but also improve her posture.

Women who abstain from sex run some risks. In postmenopausal women, these include vaginal atrophy. Dr. Winch has a middle-aged patient of whom he says: “She hasn’t had intercourse in three years. Just isn’t interested. The opening of her vagina is narrowing from disuse. It’s a condition that can lead to dysparenia, or pain associated with intercourse. I told her, ‘Look, you’d better buy a vibrator or you’re going to lose function there.’” 

“Yes,” says Dr. Eid, “It is possible for a young man who is very forceful and who likes rough sex, to damage his erectile tissue.” The drugs increase rigidity; moreover, they make it possible for a man to have second and third orgasms without having to wait out intermission.

So as long as you’re not contracting STDs or using drugs like Viagra as a performance enhancing drug, there’s little to worry about. There is effectively no ceiling on how much sex is good for you but, there might be a floor. Having no sexual activity of any kind seems to be unnatural in the sense that all creatures on this Earth have the innate objective to pass their genes on to the next generation. And the only biological way to do that is through sex.

Of course, we’re usually not looking to produce any babies when we engage in sex today. Unlike the Aka and Ngandu, sex is for play and showing affection. If we assume that these tribes act and behave as humans would have thousands of years ago or if we just didn’t have all this technology then the one group that demonstrates sexual frequency when child bearing is not a concern is the 40 – 45 age group.

They have sex anywhere from 2 – 5 times a week while Americans barely do it more than once. It is generally acknowledged by modern medicine and research that sex lowers stress, fights depression, is good exercise, boosts the immune system, and more. So what does modern research say about how much sex we need at minimum to get these benefits?

Dr. Stephen Juan shared these insights on The Register from various studies and experts:

According to Dr Carl Charnetski of the Department of Psychology at Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, people who reported one or two sexual “episodes” per week enjoyed higher levels of Immunoglobin A. This is an antibody that helps fight disease.

According to a study by Dr David Weeks, a clinical neuropsychologist at the Royal Edinburgh Hospital in Scotland and co-author of Superyoung (1999), men and women who reported having sex an average of four times per week looked approximately 10 years younger than they really were.

WebMD notes a study in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health that noted “having sex twice or more a week reduced the risk of fatal heart attack by half for the men, compared with those who had sex less than once a month.” That same article also quoted a study in the British Journal of Urology International that found ”men who had five or more ejaculations weekly while in their 20s reduced their risk of getting prostate cancer later by a third.”

If we combine the study of the Aka and the Ngandu with modern scientific research, it seems to show that sex 2 – 5 times a week provides all the health benefits and would be a natural occurrence for humans not looking for offspring.

Reality Check

Of course, no matter how many studies we can point to or data we collect about the benefits of sex and frequency of sex, we can’t actually show that sex causes things like improved health and longevity. There are no controlled studies to demonstrate this nor would any such study really be possible. All available studies are dependent on what people remember and claim they did. There can also be sample bias where healthy people just happen to have more sex opposed to sex being the reason they are healthy.

This is a case where the science is there for fun and decoration more than anything else. We can determine for ourselves whether sex is good or not based on how much we enjoy doing it. I’d make the case that we generally feel good during and after sex and we like to think about sex before we have it. If the logic holds that we should do more of the things that are good for us then we should have as much safe sex as we can.

That’s probably what our ancient ancestors did. They liked sex as much as we do. While they weren’t being chased by saber tooth cats, hunting bison, foraging for root vegetables, making shelters, tending fires, sharpening tools, or doing other things for survival, they probably had sex or some other play activity. Which is what we should strive to do more of in the modern world: play.

We should play as much as we can. And as all the science and generations of human experience seem to suggest: sex is a great candidate for play. The number of times is probably not nearly as important as the quality of the experience. Great sex fewer times probably has more benefits–and is more satisfying–than mediocre sex many times. But, we shouldn’t take the quality over quantity argument to the extreme. It should be good like a home-cooked meal and it should happen more frequently than appearances of a full moon.