What is evolutionary role of the gay man? That’s what Francisco Gomez Jimenez, a researcher at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, wants to know.
Jimenez is master’s student at the university. He plans to begin his PhD later this summer. For his research, he has traveled all across the globe to study the value of homosexual males in developing families and communities.
“Homosexual males barely reproduce at all,” Jimenez tells the Calgary Eyeopener. “They don’t have kids themselves.”
He’s speaking generally, of course. And not about guys who reproduce using surrogates.
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In his observations, Jimenez has noticed that gay men have historically “[enhanced] the survival of their family relatives.”
How so?
Well, he says, “they’re really good to have around in the family, sort of like an extra set of hands.”
Or like… a babysitter?
“If we consider an ancestral environment, for example,” Jimenez pontificates, “when having kids was very risky, especially multiple kids, having an extra pair of hands definitely would have come in handy.”
He points to the island of Samoa in Polynesia as an example. The culture there recognizes a third gender called fa’afafine. The fa’afafine are assigned a male gender at birth, they are attracted to men, but they exhibit both female and male traits. Jimenez noticed that they tended to take on “uncle-like” roles in families.
But it’s not just in Samoa where this happens. He observed a similar situation among the Istmo Zapotec culture in southern Mexico.
Jimenez concludes that the fact that gay men don’t reproduce is balanced out by how much they can enhance the survival and reproduction of their lose relatives, like nieces and nephews.
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“People seem to have integrated them in,” he says. “The outcome is that they become extremely valuable members in society, especially within the families, so I think there’s a lot to learn from that.”
JaredMacBride
Not sure who is dumber . . .the researcher or the person who thought a college student’s opinions are worth our time.
Herman75
I don’t need anyone to justify why I am here.
I believe in evolution but his idea that evolution puts some of us aside as baby sitters is shortsighted to put it nicely.
Aranos
Nothing new here. The same effect has been proven to exist in many animal species. Just read ‘Homosexual behaviour in Animals: An evolutionary perspective’. And another role of non-reproductive sexuality is to strenghten the social bonding within the group. Especially in social animals who need the group to survive aka humans.
MacAdvisor
Given I hate children, I’d make a rather poor baby sitter.
Heywood Jablowme
You and I are letting evolution down! Who knew?
“I do enjoy children… as long as they are properly cooked.” – W.C. Fields
Heywood Jablowme
Is there an alternative, “creationist” theory where gay men were created by Lucifer/Satan just to be annoying to Christians, Muslims, etc.?
Yeah, I’ll take that theory!