Bruce Bagemihl - Biological Exuberance

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Giraffe (Coe 1967:320; Leuthold, W. [1977] African Ungulates: A Comparative Review of Their Ethology and Behavioral Ecology , p. 130 [Berlin: Springer-Verlag]).

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Connor, J. (1997) “Courtship Testing,” Living Bird 16(3)31-32; Depraz, V, G. Leboucher, L. Nagle, and M. Kreutzer (1997) “‘Sexy’ Songs of Male Canaries: Are They Necessary for Female Nest-Building?” in M. Taborsky and B. Taborsky, eds., Contributions to the XXV International Ethological Conference , p. 122, Advances in Ethology no. 32 (Berlin: Blackwell Wissenschafrs-Verlag); Emlen, S. T., and N. J. Demong (1996) “All in the Family,” Living Bird 15(3):30-34; Savanna Baboon (Smuts 1985:223, 1987:39, 43); Tasmanian Native Hen (Goldizen et al. 1998); Mirande, C. M., and G. Archibald (1990) “Sexual Maturity and Pair Formation in Captive Cranes at the International Crane Foundation,” in AAZPA Annual Conference Proceedings, pp. 216-25 (Wheeling, W.Va.: American Association of Zoological Parks and Aquariums); Bonobo (de Waal 1997:117); Eisner, T., M.A. Goetz, D. E. Hill, S. R. Smedley and J. Meinwald (1997) “Firefiy ‘Femmes Fatales’ Acquire Defensive Steroids (Lucibufagins) from Their Firefly Prey,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 94:9723-28; Domestic Goat (Shank 1972:500). See also the discussion of red-cockaded woodpecker “family values” in chapter 2.

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Greylag Goose (Lorenz 1991:241-43) (see also Lorenz’s own assertion, in this same passage, that such male pairs are not simply platonic “friendships” between males but are equivalent to male-female mated pairs). Analogously, Kortlandt (1949) (Great Cormorant) labels same-sex pairs “pseudohomosexual” rather than “homosexual” if their members later form heterosexual bonds, once again equating “true” homosexuality with lifetime, exclusive same-sex pairing. See chapter 2 for more on the dubious notion of “true” homosexuality and its relation to more sophisticated characterizations of sexual orientation. Lorenz’s unwillingness to apply the term homosexual to gander pairs and thereby invite human-animal comparisons (or imply full heterosexual-homosexual equivalence) is especially problematic in light of his activities during the Third Reich. As a member of the Nazi party in Austria and an official lecturer for its Office of Race Policy, Lorenz did not hesitate to draw analogies between animals and people to support and develop the doctrines of “biological degeneracy,” “racial purity,” and the “elimination” of “inferior” or “asocial” elements (Deichmann, U. [1996] Biologists under Hitler , especially “Konrad Lorenz, Ethology, and National Socialist Racial Doctrine,” pp. 179-205. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press). Among his most blatant assertions in this regard are statements (in 1943) that physical and moral “decay” in people is “identical” to the effects of domestication on animals and (in 1940) that the “defective type” among humans is like “the domesticated animal that can be bred in the dirtiest stable and with any sexual partner” (ibid., pp. 186, 188; cf. Lorenz’s [1935/1970:203] surmise that same-sex pairing in Jackdaws only occurs in captive animals and is not a feature of “natural” populations). He also asserted (in 1941) that “Precisely in the large field of instinctive behavior, humans and animals can be directly compared…. We confidently venture to predict that these studies will be fruitful for both theoretical as well as practical concerns of race policy” (ibid., p. 186). The subject of how the antihomosexual climate of Nazi Germany and the Nazi sympathies of some biologists helped shape the scientific discourse on animal homosexuality deserves further investigation. Many zoological studies of this phenomenon, after all, were written in Germany and Austria during this period or were heavily influenced by work that had its genesis during this time. Moreover, one of the earliest scientific surveys of animal homosexuality (Karsh, “Päderastie und Tribadie bei den Tieren” [1990]), appeared in the periodical Jahrbuch für sexuelle Zwischenstufen (Yearbook for Sexual Intermediate Types), published by the noted Jewish homosexual Magnus Hirschfield, whose mammoth archives and library of sexology were later destroyed by the Nazis.

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Western Gull (Hayward and Fry 1993). See also Diamond and Burns, who suggest that same-sex pairing in Gulls should be referred to as “joint brooding” or “coparenting” rather than as homosexuality, thereby emphasizing its supposed reproductive functions (Diamond, M., and J. A. Burns [1995] “Human-Nonhuman Comparisons in Sex: Valid and Invalid,” paper presented at the 24 thInternational Ethological Conference, Honolulu, Hawaii). For arguments that same-sex pairing is not primarily a reproductive behavior, see chapters 4 and 5.

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For examples of scientists who use the term homosexual (or lesbian or gay ) even when no overt sexual activity is involved (i.e., to refer to related behaviors such as courtship, pairing, or parenting), see Sauer 1972 (Ostrich), Nethersole-Thompson 1975 (Scottish Crossbill), Wingfield et al. 1980 (Western Gull), Braithwaite 1981 (Black Swan), Smith 1988 (Lyrebird), Diamond 1989 (Snow Goose), Reed 1993 (Black Stilt).

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And in fact just such a “broad” definition of heterosexuality is required in many cases. “Heterosexual pairs” in which little or no sexual activity occurs between partners have been reported for Greylag Geese (as mentioned above) and Lesser Scaup Ducks (Afton 1985:150), among others; see also Loy (1971:26) for “sexual” bonds between male and female Rhesus Macaques that do not involve mounting or copulation, and Smuts (1985:18, 163—66, 199, 213) on the platonic “pair-bonds” or “friendships” between male and female Savanna Baboons. In addition, in some “heterosexual pairs” of splendid fairy-wrens all offspring are fathered by males other than the female’s pair-bonded mate (i.e., she does not copulate—or at least is not fertilized by—her partner); see Russell, E., and L Rowley (1996) “Partnerships in Promiscuous Splendid Fairy-wrens,” in J. M. Black, ed., Partnerships in Birds: The Study of Monogamy , pp. 162-73 (Oxford: Oxford University Press). For an example of a “broad” definition of (hetero)sexuality that encompasses courtship activities in addition to overt copulatory behavior, see Tinbergen, N. (1965) “Some Recent Studies of the Evolution of Sexual Behavior,” in F. A. Beach, ed., Sex and Behavior , pp. 1—33 (New York: John Wiley and Sons).

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In discussing the possible dangers of anthropomorphism in terminology, the comments of biologist John Bonner are instructive: “An anthropologist might find the use of words such as slaves or castes for ant colonies most undesirable…. For instance, it implies that the most repugnant human morals are ascribed to the members of some species of ant…. Much worse, it could imply that if ants have slavery, it is a natural thing to do and therefore quite justified in a human society. These arguments are not quite rational and can only be advanced under extreme fervor of one sort or another. A more reasoned objection would be that the motivations of ants and men might differ radically, but by using the same words this distinction is lost. A biologist, on the other hand, feels that the points made above are too obvious to interfere with the dual use of the words. He does not see any problem: in both ant and human slavery individuals forcibly capture members of their own species or related species and cause their captives to do work for the benefit of the captors. It is unnecessary to drag in all the possible political, psychological, or strictly human nuances; a very simple definition of the word is sufficient. There is no need to be tyrannized by words. If a biologist may not use the common words, he will be forced to invent a whole new set of jargon terms for nonhuman societies, an unfortunate direction since there are too many jargon words in any science as it is. I hope it will be sufficient if I make it clear in the beginning that words either invented or frequently used for human societies will also be used for animal societies with the understanding that I am not implying anything human in their meaning; they are to be considered simple descriptions of conditions.” (Bonner, J. T. [1980] The Evolution of Culture in Animals , pp. 9–10. [Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press].) Unfortunately, this eminently reasonable position has not been adopted by most biologists where homosexuality is concerned; for a counterview, sec Gowaty, “Sexual Terms in Sociobiology.”