What's your view of evolutionary origins of MA?

[InfinityChild]

Why does there have to be one? Do we need to be evolutionary “valid” to deserve basic human rights? Whats the evolutionary reason for gay men? Or a piss kink? Or dendrophillia? Or having a race fetish?

This is true, but figuring out the why in things is very human

[PinkPawn]

The other theory is that pedophilia is an even better way to ensure paternity. If you start having sex with a girl before she is fertile, then continue to have sex with her when she becomes fertile, that's an even more surer way to ensure paternity then staring to have sex with her at puberty. Basically it's a way to make certain that you are the first to have sex with her when she become fertile.

The evidence for this is that a lot of pedophiles tell me that they stay attracted to a child until a much older age then if they met the kid at that older age. So if they meet a kid at 7, they might stay attracted to the kid till they are 13. But if they just met the kid at 11 the kid would be too old.

This would be consistent with the idea that pedophilia is a way to ensure that you are the absolute first to have sex with a girl when she becomes fertile.

Of course, all of this is a bit academic. Evolution is a bitch. It wants you to have sex with as many fertile woman as possible, by force if necessary. And if somebody is in your way, evolution is happy to kill them. It's not a great place to look for your ethics.

I once heard an evolutionary biologist on a podcast, discussing sex and relationships. While I didn't agree with all the woman had to say, she said that basically men want to be rich in order to get as many women as possible; they are attempting to hoard women. Further to that point, many will hoard children-- if not for immediate consummation then for blocking competitors. It makes some sense. Those polygamous Mormon fundamentalists basically trade young girls like livestock, with the prophet getting first choice and then handing them out to political cronies. They also kick out boys to prevent further competition

Then again, this doesn't strike me as pedophilia-- it seems focused on control and coercion rather than love and mutual attraction. I also question whether this is strictly evolutionary. I guess the urge to do it is, but it seems to happen mostly in coercive systems and contexts. If there was, say, a Navajo tribe where one guy was trying to hoard all the pussy, surely he'd have been murdered (a quick search revealed some polygamy/polygyny in Navajo customs, but that's not necessarily the same thing as hoarding)