How different would civilization be if humans had "mating season" ?

Let's imagine, a world where 10 month a year, men and women don't care about each other. However, twice a year, during 2-3 weeks, non pregnant women produce pheromone that men can't resist and start calling every boy around to breed with them.

How would this impact the civilisation ?

I know about David Brin's *glory season * but not sure whether any other writer explored that idea.

BCsven ,

From what I have heard/been told the "ignoring partner and sex 1-2 times a year" is a lot of marriages, so maybe your scenario wouldn't change much

Thcdenton ,

It would be like the purge, but stickier.

HootinNHollerin ,

The Urge

JackbyDev ,

We sort of do

https://programming.dev/pictrs/image/912acd8b-a5cd-4e63-be87-1c0a9c72cf7e.png

slooopy_potatoe ,

Reminds me of how the Vulkans have it in Star Trek. I'm no expert but there was an episode where Spock went into his horny craze :)

owsei ,

Yes, it's the Pon Farr, that makes Vulkans have blood fever. The episode you are talking about is Amok Time

ShepherdPie ,

This had been a theme through multiple Trek series. They call it Pon farr.

comfyquaker ,

first two things come to mind:

water-cooler conversations at work would be different. telecommuting may be an important option during the season.

My shiny seashell collection may be in jeopardy. the ladies love seashells 🐚.

intensely_human ,

It would be a very large undertaking to describe the changes since hidden breeding cycles are one of the things that separates humans from other apes.

Human women being able to choose when and with whom to mate, secretly, is one of the most significant aspects of what it means to be human.

Humanity is one of the few species whose evolution is primarily driven by sexual selection and not just the “I survived long enough to find a female so I reproduced” strategy we know of as natural selection.

Ziggurat OP ,

Username checks out,

But nice answer

billgamesh ,

Yeah. Note a very fun answer, but I'd go so far as to say this was critical enough in hominem development that there wouldn't be human society if humans had a mating season. So many of critical points in human development seem to hinge on very social developments, and this may have played a large role in that.

IsoSpandy ,

Boink once a year, get no fire or wheel.

billgamesh ,

some would even argue no modified stone tools

agamemnonymous ,
@agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works avatar

It's like when someone says something like "Oh if men could get pregnant there'd be an abortion clinic on every corner". Not getting pregnant is the core attribute that makes "men" a concept.

intensely_human ,

We’re like humanity’s spartans. I literally feel less fear than is rational for my own survival, because it’s optimal for the group that I should be ready to be overwhelmed by rage or whatever and attack the lion and get killed so others can survive.

I spoke with a female marine once — someone who could kill me no problem — and she told me the fear she felt before training was still there. Conversely despite knowing from experience that I am useless in a fight, I feel cocky and self assured. Or, if I stay on top of the cockiness, I simply don’t feel afraid.

I don’t mean it’s not there. I’ve been terrified. But I’ve got a confidence that just slowly steadily increases in the absence of recent evidence, that somehow I’m invincible.

Anyway, I say it’s like spartans because this reminds me of some kind of drug cocktail you could inject into a solider to just make them not give a fuck.

I’m not complaining mind you. I’ve got no problem with having less fear. But mostly because I live in a super safe environment, so it doesn’t hurt me to have less fear.

FrostyCaveman ,

I imagine it would look a lot like how Zoidberg’s home world is depicted on Futurama

random_character_a ,
@random_character_a@lemmy.world avatar

Post nut clarity for most of the year sounds peaceful, but I'm guessing people in heat would think with their genitals and wouldn't care about STDs or pregnancy.

Everyone wound have some STD and birth control would be a side note. Human reproduction would work like clockwork and without neutering world would have exploded long time ago.

FVCKVRSELF ,

Sexual crimes would increase.

SupraMario ,

Not just SA crimes. Fighting between males would be insane.

ryannathans ,

We sortof do, there's a huge cluster of birthdays roughly july to september

juliebean ,

here's a chart!
https://lemm.ee/pictrs/image/516aa49c-1684-4994-b87c-ea5534967d4b.jpeg

what's fascinating to me about this is how people are clearly using medical science to avoid giving birth on certain holidays.

idiomaddict ,

Doctors also influence the avoidance of holidays there

juliebean ,

that's a good point! nobody wants to do labor of either kind on xmas.

Mothra ,
@Mothra@mander.xyz avatar

Fascinating stuff but is this a global chart or is it limited to a single country? Or hemisphere?

juliebean ,

judging from the weird void on july 4th, i am guessing it is based on data from the US. probably based on census records.

massive_bereavement ,
@massive_bereavement@fedia.io avatar

So Christmas?

teawrecks ,

Or just winter, I think. Lots of people indoors with nothing better to do.

Edit: actually, I'm curious how this chart looks for just the southern hemisphere.

Dasnap ,
@Dasnap@lemmy.world avatar

I had the discussion the other day of how civilization would be different if humans followed the 'have loads of babies at once and see which ones survive' style of reproduction.

"Oh hi Sarah! How're the kids?"

"Oh, little Jeremy wasn't eating as much as the others so I threw him outside onto the road."

kibiz0r ,

We probably wouldn’t name them until they had reached a certain age

Dasnap ,
@Dasnap@lemmy.world avatar

"Number 5 and Number 7 ate Number 3 last night."

AeroNaut ,

Missed opportunity there mate:

7 8 9

teawrecks ,

6 now lives in fear of his younger sibling.

Mothra ,
@Mothra@mander.xyz avatar

Does it happen en masse or does each woman have their own heat season? Say, does everyone go crazy during the same 2-3 weeks or does it vary per person like it happens with periods?

In the masse heat I think there would be some obvious differences in stuff like festivities and each culture would adapt to these seasons. There would be a need to gather and store resources before the rut, and also to be prepared for the inevitable birthing en masse to come. We would probably have public holidays for the mating seasons and festivities for birthing season. In contemporary times, hospitals would need to do some heavy work planning and preparing maternity ward space to accommodate the seasonal influx. That's just what pops to mind.

Not too sure about the differences in the second case though. One option is, women would be allowed to retreat from society and become hermits during heat if they want to avoid pregnancy and this would be totally normal. Or, some cultures would lock them to prevent them getting pregnant. Coming to think of it, I think having women randomly in some kind of irresistible heat like this would be very disruptive and impossible to prepare for so I don't see much happening in the way of gender equality and women's rights sadly. I'm inclined to think the re would be a lot of gender based extreme segregation.

thesporkeffect ,

Option #2 is basically werewolves.

Nemo ,

I'll point out that many creatures that have seasonal mating still mate for life.

jordanlund ,
@jordanlund@lemmy.world avatar

Lots more people would have the same birthdays.

ShepherdPie ,

I sometimes do the math on people's birthdays to see what holiday they were conceived around. Lots of early
September (Christmas/New Years) and November birthdays (Valentines)

jordanlund ,
@jordanlund@lemmy.world avatar

August = Thanksgiving which is why there's always family drama.

Twitches ,

Maybe my wife would actually have sex with me?

kionite231 ,

Huh then what's the point of having wife if you don't/can't have sex with her.

makingStuffForFun ,
@makingStuffForFun@lemmy.ml avatar

Found the unmarried person.

Twitches ,

🤣

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