THE VOICE OF THE DESERT 



178 



sions'' in the human being — homosexuahty, for example — 

 should be regarded as merely "normal variations" because 

 something analogous is sometimes observed in the animal 

 kingdom. But if that argument is vahd then nothing in 

 the textbooks of psychopathology is "abnormal." Once 

 nature had established the fact of maleness and female- 

 ness, she seems to have experimented with every possible 

 variation on the theme. By comparison, Dr. Kinsey's most 

 adventurous subjects were hopelessly handicapped by the 

 anatomical and physiological limitations of the human be- 

 ing. 



In the animal kingdom, monogamy, polygamy, polyan- 

 dry and promiscuity are only trivial variations. Nature 

 makes hermaphrodites, as well as Tiresiases w^ho are alter- 

 nately of one sex and then the other; also hordes of neu- 

 ters among the bees and the ants. She causes some males 

 to attach themselves permanently to their females and 

 teaches others how to accomplish impregnation without 

 ever touching them. Some embrace for hours; some, like 

 Onan, scatter their seed. Many males in many different or- 

 ders — ^like the seahorse and the ostrich, for example — brood 

 the eggs, while others vvdll eat theni, if they get a chance, 

 quite as blandly as many females will eat their mate, 

 once his business is done. Various male spiders wave vari- 

 ously decorated legs before the eyes of a prospective 

 spouse in the hope (often vain) that she will not mistake 

 them for a meal just happening by. But husband-eating is 

 no commoner than child-eating. Both should be classed as 

 mere "normal variants" in human behavior if nothing ex- 

 cept a parallel in the animal kingdom is necessary to es- 

 tablish that status. To her children nature seems to have 

 said, "Copulate you must. But beyond that there is no rule. 



