Were cave women easy?

I doubt there was any romantic connotation to sex. I bet it strictly a pleasure/reproductive act.

“easy”- well I don’t think they used the term “virginity” so I bet it wasn’t a positive/negative to have lots of sex. The concept of virginity puts too much pressure on people and if that didn’t exist back then I am sure the had as much sex as they wanted

We are all products of incest I bet

Prehistoric hornyness is probably in our DNA.

If the mood hit them, yes.
@SergeantQueen I doubt anyone back then knew anything about reproduction. Lots of people in the 1800s didn’t know where babies came from.

@SergeantQueen – Incest for sure, until some survival-based taboos were enforced.

What really fascinates me is new evidence that shows Neandrathals and Cro Magnon humans coexisted for a time, and interbred.

Can you imagine how strange?

I don’t think they had a conscious choice. Men overwhelmed them, and society at that time was male dominated. No such thing is gender identity. For that matter, no such thing as rape.

Men did what they did because they could.

@elbanditoroso

But, would you talk about a chimpanzee like that?

Or, would you say something more concrete, like, chimpanzees typically have one dominant male with a harem of female chimpanzees, younger males possibly help guard the group, and potentially mate opportunistically. (No idea if that’s how it goes)

I’m not an expert by any means, but I suspect you would typically see a strong alpha male and a cohort of females who would have sex with him. He would probably be constantly fending off challengers and I’m sure some of the “beta” males would sometimes have consensual sex with (or rape) the females in the tribe.

Were cave women monogamous?
– When it suited them
What were relationships like 100,000ya?
– Much like today, boy scouts girl guides
What does our biology tell us about the reality of prehistoric reproduction?
– It tells us that it is identical

I tend to think humans would mostly cooperate, get along, and behave reasonably well toward one another, and that the first humans probably behaved a bit like humans do in the indigenous cultures that still exist. Or at least, closer to that, than to the pathological notions suggested in some of the posts here.

Humans who are related and live together in small groups tend to get along and treat each other well, and women tend to be at least as good as men at figuring out how to get others to behave, and tend to do most of the work of raising children. Most pre-agricultural tribes seem to have a pretty balanced society.

There was no family like today, when people lived in caves. The small groups of hunters and gatherers lived promiscuous. The women were not easy or the other way around: men & women were easy. Promiscuity was a survive strategy of the whole early society.

The family is a product of the society of property (agriculture & animal breeding) ca 10 000 years ago, the women are owned by men it was a patriarchal society. With property came religion, prostitution and opression of the women. Sincethere the people dreamed of better times in the lost paradise with free and easy sex.

@Zaku ”...first humans probably behaved a bit like humans do in the indigenous cultures that still exist.”

I have no basis of knowledge on this, but my impression was that the earliest humans were much closer to animals than to modern humans. Remember that even “primitive” indigenous populations are the product of hundreds of thousands of years of evolution. It doesn’t seem like a reasonable basis of comparison.

Earth girls are easy: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Girls_Are_Easy

What do you mean by “easy”?

That they’d consent to sex right away I think

@gorillapaws 100,000 ago they were fully human.
Look animal behavior today, including ours. The males beg and posture, the females select.
I don’t know if there is any reason to think humans were any different then.
Did rape happen? Undoubtedly, but not in the free for all manner you guys are suggesting. IMO.

This is fun, and I think we can all smile at most of the answers people are posting.

But to be serious for just a brief moment, there’s a lot about prehistoric sex practices we can’t be sure of and may never know. Archaelogical clues are scatered. Speculation based on what we’ve learned from studying current and historical indigenous groups might be as close as we can come. And that evidence shows plenty of diversity when it comes to sexuality.

I guess my point is: If we think that the rules & norms we have for sex now are the result of something that’s evolved in a straight line from our distant past, it’s just not so.

We’re a bunch of curious and sometimes strange creautures still trying to figure out what’s hawt, and what’s not.

The Neanderthals are extincted because they had no life strategy, but reproduction problems and furthermore were pursued by our ancestors. I do believe also, at first the stronger Neanderthals pursued our ancestors and raped their women. I do not believe in a coexistence between the species. The mix was more a result of rape then of sympathy. In result the mix with Neanderthals did not advantageous for our ancestors and therfore they ended also possible positive contacts.
Sexual practice of hunters & gatherers (Cro Magnon humans, our ancestors) served the reproduction, it was lesser the lust and fun like in later societies.
I repeat, in prehistory free and easy sex was part of a survive strategy. Look at the indigen Ennuits. Their sexual practice was promiscuious until the last century, if their hunt-communities came together to big fetes. It served just the reproduction, of course already with lust & fun. But this example is actually incomparable to prehistoric conditiones.

Since 10000 years ago rules & norms (for sex and each thing) are dictatet by the social relationships grounded on property of means of production.

What is it with you guys.and your “easy sex” fantasies?

@Dutchess

Don’t get it wrong, please. The men-fantasies are products of their time, which is dominated by capitalism: everything and everyone can be buyed, so easy to get…

It’s a product of their hormones. They just need to understand most women don’t share their obsession.

@Dutchess
You have prejudices on men, lady !
Women have the same hormon problems like men.

No we don’t.

Clan of the Cave Bear by Jean M. Abell has some interesting insights as to what it might have been like.

That was a good book. There was a lot of creative thought that went in to it.
The sequels were all about the sex. My daughter met someone in a neighboring town named “Jondular.” She about choked to death.
Lol! Steven King once referred to them as “Ms. Auell’s randy cave people.” :D

What do you mean?

Who are you talking to @Glambarber?

@Dutchess III

I was just answering the question. What does the poster mean by “easy”?

You know what he means. Sexually uninhibited. Have sex with any one.

There can be an advantage to promiscuity that occurs in animals, that may or may not apply in the case of our ancestors. If a female has sex with different partners then there is no way of knowing for sure who the father is. This provides protection for the offspring. In the animal world infanticide is not uncommon. The first thing that a male lion does when it takes over a pride is to kill all the cubs.

I would agree with that argument, @LostInParadise, but did they understand correlation between sex and the appearance of a baby 9 months later?

I would think so. They did not have to wait nine months. They must have understood the relationship between pregnancy and childbirth.

I suppose they could make the connection between sex and pregnancy and genes on an instinctive level, like the lions do.

@Dutchess III: Please don’t tell me what I know. Where I come from we do not use the word “easy” to mean “Sexually uninhibited. Have sex with any one”. In fact we don’t have any derogatory words for that here. People who use derogatory words for that are jealous, bigoted conservatives – the sort that aren’t welcome in this area.

@glambarber My humblest apologies. There is an 80’s movie called “Earth girls are easy”, someone even mentioned it above, I meant nothing derogatory by it. No judgment.

It was a flashy title I used to get my question more attention.

I meant nothing by it, other than what were human relationships like on prehistoric Earth.

Sorry if you are offended by this slight that was commonly an expression to shame women.

Not my intention.

@Ltryptophan: I’d forgotten about that movie, so I accept your explanation and apology this time. But remember I live in a community that hates to shame women.