Sexually the naked ape finds himself today in a somewhat confusing situation. As a primate he is pulled one way, as a carnivore by adoption he is pulled another, and as a member of an elaborate civilised community he is pulled yet another.
To start with, he owes all his basic sexual qualities to his fruit-picking, forest-ape ancestors. These characteristics were then drastically modified to fit in with his open-country, hunting way of life. This was difficult enough, but then they, in turn, had to be adapted to match the rapid development of an increasingly complex and culturally determined social structure.
The first of these changes, from a sexual fruitpicker to a sexual hunter, was achieved over a comparatively long period of time and with reasonable success. The second change has been less successful. It has happened too quickly and has been forced to depend upon intelligence and the application of learned restraint rather than on biological modifications based on natural selection. It could be said that the advance of civilisation has not so much moulded modern sexual behaviour, as that sexual behaviour has moulded the shape of civilisation.
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