The evolution of size matters

How common are forced copulations in hunter gatherer societies today? I'd guess a lot less than you seem to be implying - except in intertribal conflict. I would think conceptions due to rape in wartime would only be inthe minority though.I don't know how much choice human women had over choice of partners over most of our history, but I don't think you can just assume it was slim. Because, contrary to your claims later in the post, there is no correlation between penis size and height. Penis size seems to vary independently of the size of the rest of the body.

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How sure are we that penis size is fully inheritable. Perhaps the difference between a tiny one, and a functional one is subject to natural selection. But is there any evidence that the difference between a functional one, and a Johnny Wadd monster is passed on to offspring rather than being subject to non-genetic factors. I don't know enough biology to accurately list the possibilities, but perhaps something during embyo development or epignetics factors.

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Apparently it's not all inherited, according to wikipedia at least. Their article on penis size lists a nuch of chemical factors during development which can affect the size of the penis, but most of these seem to be to reduce it from what it would otherwise have been.I'm afraid I don't really know anything about this, so I can't help you much further.

Why would you assume this - this seems to betray a very poor understanding of the development of human society. Few things have changed in some straight line as you travel through time. The classic example is stature, which in industrialised societies is busy breaking new records. As you go back, people get shorter - until they stop getting shorter, since you realise their shortness was the result of the conditions of industrial society. And then you go back further, and suddenly realise that before the development of agriculture people were taller again.I think this is the point that Jon is getting at. Just because most historical socieities were more patriarchal than ours, we can't assume the same of pre-historical societies.Edited by caffeine, : No reason given.