Promiscuity refers to sexual behaviour of a man or woman who either casually or regularly copulates with several partners. Human sexual behavior or different human sexual practices encompass a wide range of activities such as strategies to find or attract partners ( Mating and display Most religions disapprove of and discourage sexual promiscuity, though some permit it, such as religious prostitution in ancient Mesopotamia and Greece. Religious prostitution, sacred prostitution or temple prostitution is the practice of having Sexual intercourse (with a person other than one's spouse Mesopotamia (from the Greek meaning "land between the rivers" is an area geographically located between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers largely corresponding Greece (Ελλάδα transliterated: Elláda, historically, Ellás,) officially the Hellenic Republic (Ελληνική Δημοκρατία

Evolutionary psychologists propose that humans have inherited both a propensity to form lasting male-female bonds and a propensity for promiscuity. Their critics counter that humans are born with no such propensities, either for faithfulness or for promiscuity.

Human promiscuity

Main article: Human sexuality

What sexual behaviour is considered socially acceptable, and what behaviour is "promiscuous", varies much among different cultures. Generally speaking human sexuality is how people experience and express themselves as sexual beings Generally speaking human sexuality is how people experience and express themselves as sexual beings In some cultural contexts, a woman who copulates with a man or men other than her husband is considered promiscuous, while in another culture a married or unmarried man's extra- and pre-marital like behaviour may not be considered promiscuous.

In some cultures, the term is applied to any man or woman who has more than one lover at a given time. In some industrialized societies, it is likely used only, and derogatorily, in describing women who have many sexual partners, seemingly chosen indiscriminately. In such a case, no set number of sexual partner delimits the promiscuous from the not promiscuous.

Accurately assessing people's sexual behavior is difficult, since there are strong social and personal motivations, depending on social sanctions and taboos, for either minimizing or exaggerating reported sexual activity. Social control refers to social mechanisms that regulate individual and group behavior leading to conformity and compliances to the rules of a given Society or A taboo is a strong Social prohibition (or ban) against words objects actions or discussions that are considered undesirable or offensive by a group culture Extensive research has produced mathematical models of sexual behaviour comparing the results generated with the observed prevalence of STDs to statistically estimate the probable sexual behavior of the studied population.

A person's numbers of sexual partners, both in a lifetime and concurrently, varies widely within a population. In the U. S. , seven women is the median number of lifetime female sexual partners; four men is the median number of male partners for women; 29 percent of men and 9 percent of women report to have had more than 15 sexual partners. ^[1] Studies of the spread of STDs consistently demonstrate that a small percentage of the studied population have more partners than the average man or woman, and a smaller number of people have fewer than the statistical average. An important question in the epidemiology of venereal diseases is whether or not these groups copulate mostly at random (with sexual partners from throughout a population) or within their social groups (assortative mixing). Epidemiology is the study of factors affecting the Health and Illness of populations and serves as the foundation and Logic of interventions made in the In the study of Complex networks the term assortative mixing refers to a bias in favor of connections between network nodes with similar characteristics

A 2006 comprehensive global study (analysing data from 59 countries worldwide) found no firm link between promiscuity and sexually transmitted diseases. ^[2] This contradicts other studies. ^[3][4]

Male promiscuity

The words 'womaniser, wencher, playboy, philanderer, libertine, rounder, debauchee, player, mack daddy, stud, ladies' man, skirt-chaser, man-whore, manslag, ladykiller, stallion, Cad and rake (rakehell) refer to a man who (depending on the individual's sexual orientation) has love affairs with women or men he either cannot or will not marry or commit himself to. A rake is defined as a man habituated to immoral conduct Rakes are frequently Stock characters in novels A man is a Male Human. The term man (irregular plural For other uses see Love Affair or Scandal An affair may refer to a form of nonmonogamy, to Infidelity or to Adultery. Typically, the love affairs are sexually motivated, with slight emotional connection and attachment. The names of real and fictional seducers have become eponyms for such promiscuous men. The most famous are the historical Casanova (1725-1798),^[5] the fictional Don Juan who first appeared in the 17th century, Lothario from Nicholas Rowe's 1703 play The Fair Penitent, How I Met Your Mother's Barney Stinson, and perhaps most famously, Ian Fleming's literary and film character James Bond. Don Juan (Spanish or Don Giovanni (Italian is a legendary fictional Libertine whose story has been told many times by many authors Lothario is a character in the play The Fair Penitent (1703 by Nicholas Rowe. Nicholas Rowe (1674 &ndash 1718 English Dramatist, poet and miscellaneous writer was appointed Poet Laureate in 1715 The year 1703 in literature involved some significant events Events July 29, July 30, July 31 - Daniel Defoe The Fair Penitent is Nicholas Rowe's stage adaptation of the tragedy The Fatal Dowry, the Philip Massinger and Nathan Field How I Met Your Mother is an American Situation comedy that premiered on CBS Broadcasting on September 19 2005 Barney Stinson is a Fictional character created by Carter Bays and Craig Thomas for the CBS television series How I Met Your Mother Ian Lancaster Fleming ( May 28, 1908 – August 12, 1964) was a British author, Journalist and Second World War James Bond 007 is a Fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve Novels and two Short story

During the English Restoration period (1660-1688), the words rake hell and rake were used glamorously: the Restoration rake is a carefree, witty, sexually irresistible aristocrat typified by Charles II's courtiers, the Earl of Rochester and the Earl of Dorset, who combined riotous living with intellectual pursuits and patronage of the arts. The English Restoration, or simply The Restoration began in 1660 when the English monarchy, Scottish monarchy and Irish monarchy were restored Charles II (Charles Stuart 29 May 1630 – 6 February 1685 was the King of England, Scotland, and Ireland. For other people of this name see John Rochester. John Wilmot 2nd Earl of Rochester ( April 1, 1647 &ndash July 26 Charles Sackville 6th Earl of Dorset and 1st Earl of Middlesex ( 24 January 1638 &ndash 29 January 1706) was an English poet and courtier son The Restoration rake is celebrated in the Restoration comedy of the 1660s and the 1670s. Restoration comedy is the name given to English comedies written and performed in the Restoration period from 1660 to 1710 After the reign of Charles II, and especially after the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the rake was perceived as negative and became the butt of moralistic tales in which his typical fate was debtor's prison, permanent venereal disease, and, in the case of William Hogarth's A Rake's Progress, venereally-caused insanity and internment to Bedlam. The Glorious Revolution, also called the Revolution of 1688, was the overthrow of King James II of England (VII of Scotland in 1688 by a union A debtors' prison is a Prison for those who are unable to pay a Debt. A sexually transmitted disease ( STD) or venereal disease ( VD) is an illness that has a significant probability of transmission between Humans William Hogarth (10 November 1697 &ndash 26 October 1764 was a major English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic A Rake's Progress is a series of eight paintings by 18th century English artist William Hogarth. Traditionally insanity or madness is the behaviour whereby a person flouts societal norms and may become a danger to himself and others The Bethlem Royal Hospital of London, which has been variously known as St

Female promiscuity

Since at least 1450, the word slut has been used to describe a sexually promiscuous woman and also historically refers to an unhygienic woman who is personally dirty and unkempt. Slut or slattern is a Pejorative term for a person who is deemed sexually promiscuous.

Nature versus nurture controversy

Main article: Nature versus nurture

Evolutionary psychologists propose that a conditional tendency for promiscuity is inherited from our hunter-gatherer ancestors. The nature versus nurture debates concern the relative importance of an individual's innate qualities ("nature" i Evolutionary psychology ( EP) attempts to explain mental and psychological traits ��such as Memory, Perception, A hunter-gatherer society is one whose primary subsistence method involves the direct procurement of edible plants and animals from the wild Foraging and Hunting Male promiscuity, they say, was advantageous because it allowed males to father more children. Female promiscuity, on the other hand, is said to have allowed female ancestors to have children with superior genetic potential. Those who oppose evolutionary psychology, such as those in the radical science movement, propose that humans are born with no significant dispositions for or against promiscuity, or for or against any number of other social behaviors.

In the animal world

Further information: Animal sexual behaviour

In the animal world, some species of animals, including birds such as swans, once believed monogamous, are now known to engage in extra-pair copulations. Animal sexual behaviour takes many different forms even within the same Species. Birds ( class Aves) are bipedal endothermic ( Warm-blooded) Vertebrate animals that lay eggs. Swans are Birds of the family Anatidae, which also includes geese and Ducks Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in Although social monogamy occurs in about 90 percent of avian species and about 3 percent of mammalian species, investigators estimate that 90 percent of socially monogamous species exhibit individual promiscuity in the form of extra-pair copulations. Mammals ( class Mammalia) are a class of Vertebrate Animals characterized by the presence of Sweat glands, including sweat glands ^[6][7][8]

See also

• Brothel
• Cottaging
• Orgy
• Polyamory
• Swinging
• Primitive promiscuity

References

1. ^ New survey quantifies the sex we’re having MSNBC
2. ^ Wellings K, Collumbien M, Slaymaker E, et al (2006). For the 2008 film of this name see The Brothel. For the television series of this name see Cathouse The Series. Cottaging is a British Gay slang term referring to anonymous male-male sex in a public Lavatory (a cottage or tea-room) or to the An orgy (όργιον was a secret cultic congregation at nighttime in Ancient Greek religion, overseen by an orgiophant (a teacher or revealer of Polyamory (from Greek el πολυ meaning many or several and Latin la amor “love” is the desire practice or acceptance of having more than one Swinging, sometimes referred to as the swinging lifestyle, is "non-monogamous sexual activity treated much like any other social activity that can be experienced as a Primitive promiscuity or original promiscuity, is the hypothesis that human race originally lived in a state of Promiscuity. "Sexual behaviour in context: a global perspective". Lancet 368 (9548): 1706–28. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(06)69479-8. A digital object identifier ( DOI) is a permanent identifier given to an Electronic document. PMID 17098090.  
3. ^ Promiscuity fuels spread of HIV/AIDS BBC
4. ^ Relation between sexual promiscuity, drugs abuse and HIV infection in Buenos Aires, Argentina. study available at National Library of Medicine
5. ^ Julie Coleman (1999). Love, Sex and Marriage: A Historical Thesaurus. Rodopi. ISBN 9042004339.  
6. ^ Reichard, U. H. (2002). Monogamy—A variable relationship. Max Planck Research, 3, 62-67.
7. ^ Lipton, Judith Eve; Barash, David P. (2001). The Myth of Monogamy: Fidelity and Infidelity in Animals and People. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman and Company. ISBN 0-7167-4004-4.  
8. ^ Research conducted by Patricia Adair Gowaty. Reported by Morell, V. (1998). "Evolution of sex: A new look at monogamy". Science 281 (5385): 1982-1983. doi:10.1126/science.281.5385.1982. A digital object identifier ( DOI) is a permanent identifier given to an Electronic document.