Samoan lovers hint at evolutionary mechanisms, scientists claim
Feb. 8, 2008 Special to World Science
Studies of some unusual men in the remote Pacific have led scientists to surprising conclusions about homosexual and other gender-bending behaviors.
One of these conclusions: sexual attraction to members of the same sex may have an evolutionary function, though past studies had failed to find one.
The red arrow shows the tiny islands of Samoa, sandwiched in the Pacific between the land masses of Australia (left) and North America (right.) (Click for larger view). (Image courtesy U.S. State Dept.) A second assertion to emerge from the work is that psychologists should reconsider the way they classify as a “disorder” transsexualism—a strong desire to be the opposite sex.
The research focuses on a remarkable group of men who have sex with men, though they defy much conventional wisdom on what being “gay” is. They form a broadly accepted social class in Samoa, a south Pacific island nation.
The studies are directed in part toward resolving a scientific mystery: why does homosexuality persist in the world? It seems to make little evolutionary sense.
Evolutionary theory, the lens through which most scientists study biological traits, holds that in each population, the genes of members who reproduce the most come to dominate the gene pool. That’s because these individuals, unsurprisingly, spread their genes most widely.
By that logic gays, who reproduce little, shouldn’t exist. Yet they do, along with some evidence their tendencies may have a genetic component. What gives?
The explanation, many scientists argue, could be that the childless gays put extra efforts into helping raise nephews and nieces. That would boost the children’s chances of survival, and someday reproduction. These youths, even if not gay, might share with their aunt or uncle a few genes promoting homosexuality—ensuring a clutch of “gay genes” in every generation.
One problem with this proposal: it has failed past scientific tests. A few studies have found gays aren’t especially helpful to their families. Those results have worked in favor of an opposing argument, that homosexuality has no evolutionary function. Scientists who back this view say homosexuality is an aberration, so it has about as much biological function as a birth defect—none.
Mainstream physicians no longer consider homosexuality a disorder; it was dropped from the American Psychiatric Association’s handbook of mental disorders in the 1970s. Transsexualism, or “gender identity disorder,” is still listed, though the manual says it’s only a disorder if it causes the patient significant distress.
In the new studies, Canadian psychologists sought to test some of these competing ideas by visiting Samoa, a relatively un-westernized land. By studying people who they said live closer to the ways of humanity’s “ancestral” past, the researchers said they hoped to assess possible evolutionary functions for homosexuality and the roles of other gender-blurring behaviors.
The idea about gays helping their kin, called the kin-selection hypothesis, might have failed past tests because these were done in modernized Western societies, the researchers said. Gays might help relatives more in traditional, tribally-based cultures, the scientists claimed, because these often have tighter-knit families and fewer anti-gay biases that could alienate gays. Moreover, the researchers argued, the traditional environment is more appropriate to study, as it’s more like the setting in which humans mainly evolved.
Men who habitually have sex with men are socially accepted in Samoa, where they’re known as fa’afines. Some characteristics of fa’afines, the psychologists said, are quite foreign to Western concepts of homosexuality: notably, they have sex only with men who are considered “straight,” not with each other. But they are Samoa’s equivalent of what Westerners would call gay men.
Based on fa’afine responses on questionnaires, compared to responses of heterosexual Samoan men, the researchers concluded that fa’afines put “significantly” more effort into raising nephews and nieces. The childcare activities that saw stronger input from fa’afines included babysitting, buying toys, tutoring, exposing the children to art and music, and contributing to day-care, medical and education expenses, the surveys indicated.
It’s the first study to offer real evidence for the kin selection hypothesis’ basic prediction, “that androphilic [“gay”] males should direct more altruistic behavior toward kin than gynephilic [“straight”] males,” the team wrote in a report of their findings. The paper appeared in last May’s issue of the research journal Evolution and Human Behavior.
But more studies will be needed, wrote the authors, Paul Vasey and colleagues at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta. A stronger study would compare the fa’afines to childless non-fa’afines, they noted. In their own study, 58 percent of the “straight” respondents had children, who might have diverted their attention from nephews and nieces.
In another study, Vasey and Nancy Bartlett of Mount Saint Vincent University in Nova Scotia concluded that psychologists’ assessment of transsexualism as a disorder, at least for children, should be revised.
The relationship between transsexualism and homosexuality, if any, is unclear, though some experts say that many boys with “gender identity disorder” become gay.
Vasey and Bartlett wrote that fa’afines they interviewed seldom recalled being “distressed” by feeling or acting like a girl in childhood. Most such distress—the researchers concluded based on that and other factors—arises in Western societies because of the stigmatization of such children.
Thus, the researchers wrote, the diagnosis of “gender identity disorder in children” should no longer be listed “in its current form” in the American Psychology Association’s handbook, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Some gay activists have called for the condition to be de-listed completely. Vasey and Bartlett didn’t go that far. But in their study, in last fall’s issue of the research journal Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, they did write: “There is no sound evidence that cross-gender behaviors or identities, per se, cause distress.”
Cool study but it doesn't really say anything about Lesbians, maybe they couldn't find a similar place with women to study. I'd assume the same would hold true for them but who knows?
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Re:Evolutional function for Homosexuality
Date: 2008/02/11 01:52
By: BravoLima
Status:
One thing it doesn't explain. It fails to mention how this 'gay-gene' gets passed on. If the fa'afines (unless I've missed something) simply help others, then unless they partake in straight sex, for the mere sake of doing it, then their gene is not going to reproduce.
Interesting read though, I believe it runs along similar ideaology as some paedophiles have used to give an evolutional explanation of their orientation.
It might be an unintentional advantage, but I don't think there can be much intellegent conversation about the causes until more research is successful. You should always respect one's religious beliefs, however imaginary friends, delusional behaviour, a belief in a two thousand year old folk-lore should be treated by a professional.
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Re:Evolutional function for Homosexuality
Date: 2008/02/11 06:32
By: Kanae
Status:
Anthropologically speaking, the Globalised world is devided along gender lines, but if you look back at texts from medieval Arabia and the like, you'll find that their societies practiced homosexuality on an age basis, whereby a younger boy would have to have sex with an elder man to pass into adulthood. I think that this study is rather ethnocentric: it's being carried out by phycologists, who are trained within our own paradigms.
Besides, so what if there isn't an "evolutionary reason" for homosexuality? People have been asking for thousands of years what life is about, and we still have no firm conclusion on that. It seems like a waste of time and money to reseach into such a seemingly unprofitable area of research. Can't we be doing some more research into needless innoculations or how to kill viruses instead?
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Re:Evolutional function for Homosexuality
Date: 2008/02/11 07:54
By: Steely Dan
Status:
I think it's more important to our bigot friends really; I agree with you but if the research is done I might as well to use it to prove a point.
BravoLima wrote: . It fails to mention how this 'gay-gene' gets passed on. If the fa'afines (unless I've missed something) simply help others, then unless they partake in straight sex, for the mere sake of doing it, then their gene is not going to reproduce.
Even if you're not gay, you probably share some gay genes with your gay Aunt or Uncle; rates of homosexuality are higher among siblings, so that rule would naturally apply to extended family on a smaller scale.
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Re:Evolutional function for Homosexuality
Date: 2008/02/11 08:21
By: Ashift8 BR
Status:
Interesting...but, like people have, said I fail to see the genes gets passed directly.
Well, maybe...its a combination of recessive and dominant genes genes, and if a (straight?) carrier reproduces with another carrier, and the correction combination of genes are expressed, a gay baby is made. Maybe?
I think twin studies came to the conclusion that genetics come into play some, its mostly environmental. But in some cases, the reverse was true. I don't think anyone really knows.
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Re:Evolutional function for Homosexuality
Date: 2008/02/12 04:03
By: BravoLima
Status:
'Even if you're not gay, you probably share some gay genes with your gay Aunt or Uncle; rates of homosexuality are higher among siblings, so that rule would naturally apply to extended family on a smaller scale.'
Nup, sorry but that's a dodgy response. Even if I shared gay genes with my siblings (and I wasn't gay). This means that my mother or father was gay (or perhaps their mother or father). Given the numbers of gays to straights, I find this system of passing homosexuality as a 'dormant' gene in most people as unlikely. There would just be too many 'children' being not gay to successfully procreate such a gene for so long to my thinking. Besides, when you think of living conditions of life before, say, Jesus's time even; it wouldn't have been very effectual to have people not producing children of their own. Conditions were tough enough, and many babies would not make it.
But then again evolution is not designed, so it may be that it's just a fortunate fluke, or a bunch of people making something positive out of something that would otherwise be an evolutional defect.
Ashift8: 'I think twin studies came to the conclusion that genetics come into play some, its mostly environmental.'
I don't think; in fact I think the opposite. The amazing thing about those cases are that generally the twins are raised in very similar ways, which rules out a lot of theories about 'environment'. You should always respect one's religious beliefs, however imaginary friends, delusional behaviour, a belief in a two thousand year old folk-lore should be treated by a professional.
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Re:Evolutional function for Homosexuality
Date: 2008/02/27 18:43
By: trippboi
Status:
I did not thank there were people really studying this kind of thing. It makes me thank there just trying to find out a way to prevent people from being gay or what have you.
It was interesting to read though.
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Re:Evolutional function for Homosexuality
Date: 2008/02/28 01:12
By: MooYak
Status:
trippboi wrote: I did not thank there were people really studying this kind of thing. It makes me thank there just trying to find out a way to prevent people from being gay or what have you.
It was interesting to read though.
As science it should have nothing to do with "fixing" homosexuality, but rather (and as it would appear) it should concentrate on discovering truth through empirical research. We should not hesitate to discover who we are and how we behave. Ignorance is not bliss. "Where we have strong emotions, we're liable to fool ourselves." - Carl Sagan
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Re:Evolutional function for Homosexuality
Date: 2008/02/28 03:49
By: BravoLima
Status:
Supply and demand, my dear subordinate MooYak.
If the 'cause' of homosexuality is ever found, it could herald in a great day for many people, perhaps solidify justification for many, further understanding of other alternative sexualities, and more.
And then, there will be a corner market of the world, fuelled by religious intolerance, where abortions due to 'Mah li'l Jim Jim had a touch of da Queen Gene' will begin.
Doubtless, when the atom was split for good, a bomb was made for terrorism. You should always respect one's religious beliefs, however imaginary friends, delusional behaviour, a belief in a two thousand year old folk-lore should be treated by a professional.
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