<< Masturbation among Mammals >>

Masturbation, sometimes to the point of orgasm, occurs widely among the males of most infra-human mammalian species. It has been less often observed among the females of the infra-human species but it is recorded for the female rat, chinchilla, rabbit, porcupine, squirrel, ferret, horse, cow, elephant, dog, baboon, monkey, and chimpanzee. The data on these infra-human mammals are, however, fragmentary, for the sexual activities of few of them outside of a limited number of laboratory species have ever been extensively observed. It is not impossible that more extended observations would greatly increase the list of species in which the female is known to masturbate.
Masturbation among the females of infra-human species of mammals is recorded in: Ellis 1910:165 (horse). Northcote 1916:420 (ferret). Zell 1921(1):237 (dog). Stone 1922:129 (rat). Zuckerman 1932:230 (baboon). Williams 1943: 445 (cow). Shadle, Smelzer, and Metz 1946:117-121 (porcupine), also cited in Ford and Beach 1951:161. Beach in Hoch and Zubin 1949:63 (elephant). Klein 1951 (verbal communie., rabbit). Ford and Beach 1951:162, 166 (monkey). Our own observations cover female dogs, chinchillas, rats, and chimpanzees. Shadle (verbal communic.) also has seen masturbation in the female racoon, skunk, and guinea pig. Data on the chimpanzee are in: Bingham 1928:148-150. Spragg 1940:87. Yerkes 1943:58. Ford and Beach 1951:163. Lashley, Nissen, Gavin, and the Brookfield Zoo keepers have observed the female chimpanzee masturbating (verbal communic.).

The known distribution of masturbation among these several species is sufficient to make it clear, however, that the inclination to stimulate her own genitalia is one of the capacities which the human female shares with the females of the whole class Mammalia. But it should be recognized that masturbation among the females of most mammalian species occurs less frequently than among the males, perhaps because the incentives for masturbating are much less among the females. Outside of the human species, orgasm is infrequent and possibly absent among females of most species of mammals. The females of most of the species do show signs of erotic arousal during sexual activity, and some of them may be very much aroused, but it is not certain how many ever reach orgasm. This would considerably reduce the incentive for a lower mammalian female to masturbate. The capacity of most human females to achieve orgasm as the culmination of an appreciable proportion of their sexual activity is one which sharply distinguishes them from the females of most of the lower species of mammals.

Masturbation among Primitive Human Groups
The anthropologic record indicates that masturbation is widely known among the females of many human groups. It did not originate in our European culture. The published studies record masturbatory activity among the females of some thirty-five or forty primitive groups, including in particular those in the Pacific area and in Africa where the anthropologists have made the most extensive studies.
To illustrate the widespread incidence of female masturbation in pre-literate     societies, the following examples may be cited for Africa: Bryk 1933:224-225. Laubscher 1938:78. Ward 1938:46. Schapera 1941:183. For India: Elwin 1947:447. For North American Indians: Devereux 1936:33. Hallowell in Hoch and Zubin 1949:109. Ford and Beach 1951:158. For South America: Nimuendajú 1939:73-74. For Oceania: Malinowski 1929:340, 476. Powdermaker 1933:276-277. Firth 1936:494-495. Mead 1949:216. For Siberia: Ford and Beach 1951:158. Descriptions of masturbation among females are to be found in classical, Biblical, and Oriental literature. Descriptions of the use of vaginal insertions ( dildoes ) are a chief feature of such accounts, as in: Ezekiel 16:17. Makurabunko (ca. 1840) (Japan). Karsch-Haack 1906:45 (China). Krauss 1911:ch. 14 (Japan). Stern 1933:295, 300-301. For Greek and Roman literature, see: Aristophanes [5th-4th cent, b.c.]: Lysis-trata, 108-110, 158 (1912(1):240, 243; 1924(3):15, 19). Aristotle [4th cent. B.C.]: 7(1):581b (Oxford 1910) (girls of 14 may develop habits of erotic indulgence). Herondas [3rd cent, b.c.]: 6(1921:83-92). Petronius [1st cent. A.D.]: Satyricon, 138 (1913:313; 1927(2):339). Vorberg 1926, pi. XXI, XXII, show female masturbation with dildoes in Greek art.

Once again, however, the record is notably fragmentary and probably gives no idea of the true spread of the phenomenon. The anthropologist's informant may neglect to refer to female masturbation, or only incidentally remark that it occurs, but a more systematic survey might disclose that the activity was widespread in many of these groups. Human males throughout history and among all peoples have been most often concerned with the sexual activities of the female when those activities served the male’s own purposes, and her solitary and even homosexual activities have often been ignored.

Typical of this lack of interest in the female’s solitary activities is the fact that practically none of the anthropologic literature ever records the presence or absence of orgasm in the female’s masturbation, and sometimes leaves it uncertain whether she does anything more than touch her genitalia as she might touch any other part of her body. Certainly it would be unwarranted to conclude on the basis of the available information that the incidences or frequencies of masturbation among European and American females are any higher or any lower than they are in other cultures elsewhere in the world.

Phylogenetic Interpretations
An animal inherits much of its morphologic structure and the physiologic capacities of those structures. Since its behavior may depend, to a considerable degree, upon the nature of its structure and its physiologic capacities, the ultimate bases of the behavior of any species or of any individual within the species may be a matter of heredity. This being so, it is not surprising to find that closely related species of animals show similar patterns of behavior. For instance, the rat, the guinea pig, the chinchilla, squirrels, and various other rodents assume similar positions in coitus, and make a relatively few pelvic thrusts, clean their genitalia with their mouths before they make a second series of thrusts, and continue to make such limited series of thrusts until they finally reach orgasm; and this pattern is more or less uniform throughout most of the species of the order Rodentia because all of these species are evolutionarily related. On the other hand, the mink, ferret, marten, and skunk make very rapid copulatory movements with a perfect flutter of pelvic thrusts which may be carried through continuously to orgasm, because all of these species are members of the family Mustelidae and therefore evolutionarily related. Similarly, there are numerous other aspects of the sexual behavior of these related species which are remarkably similar.

Just which aspects of any behavioral pattern are inherited, which aspects are unique developments within the particular species, and which are the result of learned behavior in the pattern of a particular individual, may be determined by examining the distribution of the pattern among closely related species.

Whenever phenomena occur widely in an evolutionarily related group of species, and also occur widely among the individuals or groups of individuals within the species which is being examined, we have the best sort of evidence that those phenomena are part of the evolutionary heritage of the species. For that reason it has been exceedingly important in the present interpretations of human sexual behavior to examine the distribution of each phenomenon among the various species of the class Mammalia, which is the class to which the human species belongs. It has been similarly important to examine the distribution of each phenomenon, as far as anthropologic data will allow, in various cultural groups of the human species. Our present interpretations of the evolutionary backgrounds of masturbation in the female, and of the various other aspects of sexual behavior, are based upon such phylogenetic (evolutionary) data. We shall find that a great many of the aspects of human sexual behavior, including many which various religious and cultural codes have considered the most abnormal, are, in actuality, basic to the whole mammalian stock. Moreover, by determining what are the basic mammalian characteristics in human behavior, it has become possible to identify the new phenomena which have developed in human evolution, and to identify which aspects of the behavior of any individual are a product of the learning and conditioning processes which have shaped the history of the particular individual.

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