How did mankind ever work out 'where babies come from'???

[RememberToPlaywiththeKids]

Seriously - 9 months from sex to bubs - how did anyone ever work out the cause and effect??

But how did that particular awareness come about, when there is no obvious connection between sex and babies? That's all we're pondering.

EBM - classic!

no-one's suggesting that one person had a light bulb moment.....

humankind

humankind

humankind

Please

mankind [ˌmænˈkaɪnd]
n

1. human beings collectively; humanity
2. men collectively, as opposed to womankind

Usage: Some people object to the use of mankind to refer to all human beings and prefer the term humankind

personal preference...

I expect Ayla in the Clan of the Cave Bear books worked it out. She worked out everything and was responsible for most of humanity's inventions too.

Well, glad we've got that sorted!

OldLadyKnowsNothing (far be it from me to comment on your nickname) do you really stand by this statement, 'there is no obvious connection between sex and babies.'?

Because I think the penis going in to the vagina, which produces babies and virgins not having babies are big clues.

That's without ANY knowledge whatsoever of the animal kingdom.

It may seem obvious blinder but there would have been infertile people having sex who weren't producing babies too. And they wouldn't know they were infertile - for all we know they may have thought about it from a spiritual angle and thought sex was just something fun to do.
It's not as if a baby just pops out after sex - the gestation period wouldn't have stopped them having sex either so the connection would have taken a bit of working out. So they would have had to work out why having sex when not obviously pregnant didn't result in a baby.
And breastfeeding females would have been having sex but (mostly) not getting pregnant so that would muddy the waters.
Granted the virgin thing would spark a connection but maybe they thought it was age-related and most females would probably mate pretty young then.

Yes, blinder, I very much stand by my statement that there is no obvious connection between sex and babies.

You have sex. Nothing happens immediately. You have sex some more, maybe with the same man, maybe someone else. You have lots of sex, and nothing happens.

Then your period stops; and I'll agree that our ancestors would have been aware of menstruation occurring more or less regularly, and what the cessation of menses meant.

Then, many, many weeks after you had sex, and quite possibly while you're still having sex regularly, your belly begins to swell, the child grows, and several moons later you give birth.

You're probably still having sex regularly throughout pregnancy.

So how is it obvious that one particular act of sex caused the baby?

The thing about periods is a bit of a red herring. I was under the impression that periods were a bit of a modern thing.
Humankind (Thank you Hully) had a much shorter life expectancy aeons ago. Women spent their fertile years pregnant or nursing, so didnt have much PMT or period pains and died before menopause. Neanderthal man had an average life epectancy of about 30. (Heard some Gyno talking about this once)

What I want to know is how they figured out where the penis went in the first place.

Virgins would be mainly pre-pubescent; there was no "not until you're 16" law in pre-history. Even now there is the (quite revolting imvho) opinion that "if it's old enough to bleed, it's old enough to fuck".

Women didn't used to have as many periods as modern women, because of pregnancy/breastfeeding/early death. The menstrual cycle is not, however, a modern phenomenon.

Never heard periods were modern! Why would that be? And how would they know that there was no PMT or period pain?? Yes they would be pregnant or nursing most of the time but no-one can really say they didn't have periods for many months out of their lives.
No-one can say for definite what fertility levels would have been like back then.

Oh, that's a good one, too.

Does anyone remember that terribly hoky movie with Brooke Shields called The Blue Lagoon?

Right, that was in regard to Melty's question. (slow typist)

Well that trumps the other stupid question.

Humans evolved from other hominids which were mammals who reproduced by sexual intercourse. Like other mammals. The urge to put a penis in a vagina (leaving aside homosexuality for now) is probably the deepest primal urge a mammal can experience.

The earliest creation myths are accounts of the sky mating with the earth. For as long a we have observed natural cycles (as soon as we hunted probably) we have been aware of fertility and our place in it. Sex would have been a major part of life. The pregnant woman is the earliest piece of art. Phalluses and vaginas are also reproduced alongside images of birthing goddesses. It seems obvious because it is obvious that sex creates babies. Wombs and vaginas were venerated by the earliest humans.

Yeah, LOL - that movie was cringeworthy!

I think the problems that many women have re menstruation are modern, in the sense that if you were pregnant/feeding/suffering famine as in the past, you don't have periods to cause problems. These days we're more likely to menstruate regularly from maybe 10 years old to 50-odds, with only two or three pregnancy breaks, and often no breastfeeding.

By the time people were creating art, yes, the connection between sex and babies had been made. But there were hominids/humans before pottery.

You know what, blinder - it's obvious from your posts that you're very knowledgeable, and are very good at explaining what you do know.

Sadly, your very well-worded explanations are extremely condescending. Which is too bad. I'd be much more interested in what you have to say if their subtext wasn't so obviously "you're all idiots".