19-12-2012, 04:01 PM
Maybe we haven't been civilised/intelligent enough to have mutated to the point where it doesn't matter if the mother finds suckling pleasant or not.
Certainly, I'd be surprised if there were any other female mammal on the planet for which it would be not be extremely nice to be suckled. Weaning usually occurs when the babies grow teeth and it is no longer pleasant for the mother.
I presume that the stimulation of the pleasure centre counterbalances any mild discomfort caused by sucking, so that weaning actually requires pain sharp enough to counterbalance the pleasure stimulus.
Of course, there is always the comfort obtained by releasing the pressure of a full breast, but once that has gone there would be no incentive to be fully drained unless additional pleasure was obtained.
Homo sapiens sapiens are thought to have been around for 43,000 years, but reading and writing only about 6,000 years. Education for all, only a few hundred years, and that's still not the case everywhere. Until mothers were made aware of the importance of suckling, at least until bottle feeding was invented, the pleasure gene made sure that their babies got the most feeding.
The lactase gene that allows adults to digest milk mutated around the time of dairy farming, 5000-10000 years ago. As a beneficial gene it spread rapidly, with some 80% of Europeans with lactase persistence, but very low elsewhere.
Losing the pleasure principle would be a detrimental effect, and like most detrimental mutations require a sophisticated civilisation to continue, e.g. haemophilia.
I think that is my best explanation for the ratio. Just a theory folks!
B.
Certainly, I'd be surprised if there were any other female mammal on the planet for which it would be not be extremely nice to be suckled. Weaning usually occurs when the babies grow teeth and it is no longer pleasant for the mother.
I presume that the stimulation of the pleasure centre counterbalances any mild discomfort caused by sucking, so that weaning actually requires pain sharp enough to counterbalance the pleasure stimulus.
Of course, there is always the comfort obtained by releasing the pressure of a full breast, but once that has gone there would be no incentive to be fully drained unless additional pleasure was obtained.
Homo sapiens sapiens are thought to have been around for 43,000 years, but reading and writing only about 6,000 years. Education for all, only a few hundred years, and that's still not the case everywhere. Until mothers were made aware of the importance of suckling, at least until bottle feeding was invented, the pleasure gene made sure that their babies got the most feeding.
The lactase gene that allows adults to digest milk mutated around the time of dairy farming, 5000-10000 years ago. As a beneficial gene it spread rapidly, with some 80% of Europeans with lactase persistence, but very low elsewhere.
Losing the pleasure principle would be a detrimental effect, and like most detrimental mutations require a sophisticated civilisation to continue, e.g. haemophilia.
I think that is my best explanation for the ratio. Just a theory folks!
B.