For the vast majority of living things, sex is a tedious duty, with the goal of producing offspring. This process is associated with a host of different actions, including not only the copulation process as such, but also intraspecific competition, which consists in winning the right to reproduce, preparatory stages in the form of capturing territory, inviting creatures of the opposite sex to the territory, courtship, and so on. We can say that all life in the animal kingdom is a long preparation for sex, which, in fact, is also just one of the stages in the existence of a species: the production of the next generation. And only a few species of mammals on our planet have sex not only for procreation, but also for pleasure. These include some types of dolphins,great apes and people.
What was the sex life of our distant ancestors? This question divided scientists involved in anthropogenesis into two irreconcilable camps: some argue that complete freedom of sexual life reigned in primitive society, others, on the contrary, say that sex issues in most cases were strictly limited, and often taboo. Each of the points of view is confirmed by one or another evidence, however, the discoveries of recent decades tend, rather, to the first statement.
Even from the point of view of the quality of the genetic material, so as not to degenerate over several tens of generations, people had to recruit the maximum possible number of combinations of genes in their offspring to realize their diversity. And this, frankly, is very problematic to do if sex life is restrained, "puritanical" in nature. Evidence of polygamy in humans, and, often, promiscuity, abounds not only in the material found by archaeologists, but also in the currently existing people as a species. That is, what we are now is the product of the freedom of sexual relations of our distant ancestors, no matter how blasphemous it may sound to modern moralists.
One of the indirect evidences of polygamy (moreover, by this term one must understand both polygamy and polyandry) among the ancients is the fact that all species with pronounced sexual dimorphism (difference in height, weight, strength, and so on between males and females) are more likely to be polygamous than monogamous. And in humans, sexual dimorphism is quite pronounced. In addition, observations of modern wild tribes, in which polygamy continues in our time, show that the less developed a society, the more polygamous it is.
Another proof of polygamy and freedom in sexual relations is matriarchy, according to many researchers, prevailing in almost all peoples, before the advent of agriculture. This is confirmed by a huge number of cult objects of that time, where a woman was practically deified. And it doesn't matter that the men were stronger. Their lifespan played a much larger role. At that time, the man was like a consumable, and the survival of the race depended much more on women than on men. Naturally, the selection of males for procreation was carried out by women.
And finally, the most interesting, anatomical aspect. Any organs with frequent use play a significant role in evolution; it is due to a change in the appearance or functions of certain organs that natural selection is subsequently made. If we analyze the appearance of the genitals in modern people, we can draw a funny conclusion: the penis and vagina are designed in such a way that with each friction the sperm in the vagina is pumped out. Why is this necessary and where could the sperm come from? The answer is very simple: from the woman's previous sexual partner; and it is possible that this woman had a previous sexual intercourse quite recently. Two conclusions follow from this; first: our distant ancestors were not only polygamous, but also practiced group sex. And the second: natural selection has retained this shape of the penis to this day,which made it possible to get rid of the sperm of other partners, the shape of the genitals of which could not cope with this task.
But that's not all. As now there is a sex industry in the form of various sex toys, so in the Stone Age this product was used and found its direct application. Found a huge variety of different items for sexual pleasure. For the first time, such stone phalluses were discovered in Germany at the end of the 19th century; later, they began to be found in almost all sites of ancient people. The age of such products is from 30 thousand years and more. Contraception was not alien to our ancestors. Drawings have been found in the Combarrel Cave, possibly depicting the first condoms; they are about 15 thousand years old.
With regard to creativity dedicated to sex, then, in the Stone Age, as in our days, this topic was very popular. A huge number of drawings, sculptures, sometimes entire complexes, in one way or another depicting sexual acts and other aspects of sexual relations, have survived. For example, the drawings found on the walls of the La Marche Cave on the Atlantic coast of France show how free sex life was at that time. They are about twenty thousand years old and in their content and frankness they far surpassed the plots depicted on the walls of the ancient Roman Lupanaria or the sculptural bas-reliefs in Khajuraho.
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However, all beautiful things come to an end. Tens of thousands of years of sexual freedom ended as soon as mankind left the nomadic way of life. Agriculture has given people such a thing as property and fundamentally changed the relationship between the sexes. And sexual dimorphism, which previously gave both sexes equal rights in freedom of relations, now played a cruel joke with them: it clearly limited the role of each of the sexes (unfortunately for women, their role became completely insignificant) and actually introduced the institution of monogamous marriage into practice, where each individual one sex was assigned only one individual of the other. But that's a completely different story …