Taboos Against Homosexuality Promote its Genetic Survival
The taboo against homosexuality is especially interesting. There is not generally accepted biological explanation of homosexuality and superficially it does not appear to be adaptive. Nevertheless, evidence is accumulating that there is an inherited predisposition for homosexuality. Assuming this is the case, the taboos of the past would, paradoxically, have favoured the survival of these genes by forcing the people who carried them, against their wishes, to marry and have children.
This suggests an interesting prediction for the future. As horizontal transmission increases the taboo should lose its power and so can be expected to disappear, as indeed it is doing in many societies. Homosexuals are then free to have sex with other homosexuals, to have long-term relationships with their own sex, and not to have children at all. The short-term effect is much more overt homosexual behavior and acceptance of that behavior by everyone, but the long-term effect may be fewer genes for homosexuality.
Notes:
By forcing homosexuals to live heterosexual lives, the genes for homosexuality survive.
Folksonomies: memetics homosexuality taboos
Taxonomies:
/health and fitness/incest and abuse support (0.577280)
/business and industrial/advertising and marketing/advertising (0.564503)
/family and parenting/children (0.535656)
Keywords:
homosexuality (0.922220 (negative:-0.419582)), homosexuality survive (0.729659 (neutral:0.000000)), Homosexuality Promote (0.719046 (negative:-0.613013)), heterosexual lives (0.541315 (negative:-0.613013)), Genetic Survival (0.524158 (negative:-0.613013)), fewer genes (0.515739 (negative:-0.384361)), biological explanation (0.497451 (negative:-0.398958)), interesting prediction (0.485562 (positive:0.752502)), short-term effect (0.480048 (negative:-0.515010)), homosexuals (0.476977 (negative:-0.451185)), long-term effect (0.476087 (negative:-0.384361)), horizontal transmission (0.474398 (negative:-0.611731)), long-term relationships (0.463818 (negative:-0.462415)), taboos (0.412173 (negative:-0.578315)), taboo (0.390950 (negative:-0.611731)), children (0.294379 (negative:-0.477553)), predisposition (0.291807 (negative:-0.281999)), wishes (0.264114 (negative:-0.427182)), acceptance (0.261225 (negative:-0.515010)), evidence (0.258645 (negative:-0.281999)), case (0.253865 (neutral:0.000000)), past (0.253681 (negative:-0.543618)), future (0.253616 (positive:0.752502)), societies (0.253322 (neutral:0.000000)), people (0.253223 (negative:-0.232585))
Concepts:
Homosexuality (0.988275): dbpedia | freebase
Sexual intercourse (0.723193): dbpedia | freebase
Age of consent (0.555682): dbpedia | freebase
Sexual orientation (0.526542): dbpedia | freebase | yago
AIDS (0.509230): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc | yago
Homosexual behavior in animals (0.503190): dbpedia | freebase
Bisexuality (0.490874): dbpedia | freebase
Human sexuality (0.481670): dbpedia | freebase
Triples
Examples of Memes in Conflict with Genes
Taboos Against Homosexuality Promote its Genetic Survival > Similarity > Memes and Genes in Conflict in Modern Child-RearingTwo examples of memes overriding the reproductive imperative of genes. Homosexuality genes survive because of religious taboos, while the genetic need to reproduce is overridden by the professional woman meme.