Reproductive Biology and the Fundamentalist Charge That Sexual Deviants Have Caused the Collapse of Civilizations, PART THREE

By Bhakti Ananda Goswami / David M. Sherman

Part One Read more

Part Two Read more

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Introduction With Review from Part 2 of this Serial Letter

I want to make some more observations about FEMINIZED 'homosexual', intersexed, sex-reversed and/or transsexual or transgendered 'MALE' and/or XY people and their traditional places in ancient Jewish-related societies. The theology of these accepting societies recognized that the Divine cause of the world was Personal and Dynamic, and in modern physics terms, the world, while appearing static and material, was in fact wholly a dynamic phenomenon of giving-and-receiving RELATIONAL FORCES. Everything gendered and sexual was seen in the context of this perception. Thus the traditional feminine and 'receiving' 'third sex' of India, for example, was accepted and had a positive role to play within this world view.

In ancient India, this class of feminine people was identified with Shakti (Shekinah) or Prakriti as a kind of Third Feminine Sex. These people thrived in an accepting social niche. In general, like the human species, other highly organized social species have complex and symbiotic social roles, with divisions of labor reflected in the body-type and behavior of the individuals in that role or social niche. While GENES may be the remote cause of different bodies and behaviors, SEX HORMONES including PHEROMONES, their on-and-off environmental and social switches, uptake, increase, decrease, balance, chemical changing (like testosterone into estradiol), triggering/stimulus, response, presence or absence etc. are often the proximate cause and regulators of such different bodies and behaviors within the same species. And, across species certain genes, hormones, chemical signals, regulators and behaviors can be observed as being more often associated with, or as typically 'female' or 'feminine', and other hormones etc. and behaviors can be observed as being more often associated with, or observed as 'male' or 'masculine'.

Individual Differences, Species Differences, Chemical Conversions and Infinite Complexity

However, even the so-called male and female sex hormones, the androgens and estrogens, may have completely contrary effects or influences. The 'male' hormone testosterone can undergo conversion to the 'female' hormone estradiol by an enzyme called aromatase. And, sometimes these hormones have no influence at all, as in human Complete Androgen Insensitivity Syndrome (C-AIS). Since both males and females normally have a balance of these hormones, which have a variety of functions in the body, these hormones cannot really be said to be either exclusively male/masculinizing or female/feminizing hormones. In humans with the same genetic traits, the expression of those traits can sometimes range from all to none. In some species or 'races' within a species, the expression of certain genes varies widely. Sex-linked or sex-typed behaviors, including communication signaling and responding, may be remotely caused by genes, but again more immediately triggered and regulated by neurochemicals, like the sex hormones and pheromones. Still, remember that these behaviors MAY NOT BE absolutely tied to a certain phenotype, the presence of male or female genitalia, or the XX-female or XY-male general rule for karyotype or 'sex chromosomes'. There are beings including humans who do not have either XX or XY 'sex chromosomes'. Then there are also species, individuals and classes of beings who exhibit so-called sex reversed behaviors. Thus phenotypically normal female XX monkeys may exhibit exclusively male mounting behaviors, or phenotypically normal XY male mice may exhibit exclusively female-like or sexually receptive posturing. Beside such sex-reversed behavior in otherwise phenotypically physically normal animals, actual natural forms of XX-MALE and XY-FEMALE sex-reversal occur in nature. Some lemming and mouse species even have both XX females and XY females. "In at least eight species of the mouse genus Akodon, from 10 percent to 60 percent of the females carry a Y chromosome in place of one of the two X chromosomes usually found in the cells of female mammals, report Hopi E. Hoekstra and Scott V. Edwards of the University of Washington in Seattle."... The point of all this is that we seem to encounter an infinite complexity when we try to understand even the basic genetics, chemistry, anatomy and behavior of sex and 'gender', in all kinds of animals, from insects and aquatics right up to and including our own species.

Relational Forces: Masculine and Feminine Behaviors Exist Independently of Other Male and Female Characteristics

Wisdom traditions in ancient civilizations identified two co-equal aspects of the Divine, which they saw as dynamically pervading creation. They universally identified these aspects as Giver and Receiver, with the Giver as male / masculine and the Receiver as female / feminine. Often the languages of these peoples even reflected this way of viewing the world, with appropriately gendered words. Even today screws and pipes may be called male and female, but in many ancient languages the words themselves were gendered, both in the so-called flexion and non-flexion languages. For example the suffixes -i and -a in Sanskrit (a 'flexion' language) indicated if someone was female or male. In such an all-comprehending world view, the action or the dynamic relational force of the JIVA spirit-souls involved was the primary consideration, not the 'material form' of their embodiment. Thus Third Sex prakriti 'male homosexuals', intersexed, transgendered or transsexual people, whose gender identity or/and natural chosen social role was feminine, were considered to be feminine beings, just the same as women. Conversely, if a female-bodied person was masculine in identity, and chose a masculine personal and social life role, they were accepted as such and appropriately integrated into society. Later I hope to write more on this subject.

The ancient Jewish and Vaishnava-related 'Bridal Mysticism' religious cultures viewed everything, the metaphysics of Godhead, the physics of the cosmos, and the physical activity of all living things as being made-up of the dynamic GIVING-AND-RECEIVING of RELATIONAL FORCES. In the ancient origin of the Judeo-Catholic Bridal Mysticism related Theology, the Transcendent, Mediating and Immanent Persons of the TRIUNE GIVING (MASCULINE) GODHEAD have Their CO-ETERNALFEMININE RECEIVING COUNTERPARTS IN SHEKINAH-RELATED BRIDAL MYSTICISM. In Catholicism, this Tradition of Shekinah (Shakti) revelation and special veneration has been preserved and has evolved into the present HYPERDULIA OF MARY. So persistent is this Tradition of Helios / Eli-Yahu's / HRIH's / Allah's Shakti/Shekinah, that even within Islam, it exists (although in a contrary form), within some Left Hand Tantric-related Sufi sects, which today are devoted to Fatima as a form of Shekinah-Sophia.

Within this metaphysical and physical perspective there is definitely such a thing as MASCULINE and FEMININE RELATIONAL FORCES, physical law and animal and human behavior. But, in the human, as in other species, such giver-receiver masculinity and femininity are not strictly tied to a particular hormonal influence or status, or to being either genetically XY, XX, or even to being physically anatomically male or female. In terms of the dynamic flow or downstream cascade of creation, as humans we are all in the relational stream of receivers-and-givers, which means that 'spiritually' according to ALL of these related ancient traditions, we are all prakriti (receivers / feminine) in relationship to Purusha (the Plenum Source and Original Giver-God). This is why, for example the Egypto-Heleno-Semitic Jewish-related Greek Helios worshipping Philosophers like the Orphics, Pythagoreans, Socrates and the Platonists, all 'spoke' of the human 'soul' (psyche) in the feminine gender. Similarly in India even today, among the Jewish-related Monotheists, the finite spirit-soul or living-force is still always called jiva-atma (JIVA in Sanskrit is cognate with Hebrew 'HEVA 'EVE') and considered feminine or prakriti (receiving) in relationship to God, Who is the Original and Supreme or ADI PURUSHA. In fact, ADI PURUSHA is the in-common Holy Name of Pure Land Buddhism's ADI BUDDHA too.

A Dynamic, Living and Personal Cosmos, Celebrated In The Sacramental Acts of Offering And Receiving

As nothing in our perceivable realm is static and everything is dynamic, with change and exchange going on at all times, everywhere and on every level of our perception, and beneath and beyond our perception as well (as known through Revelation), it is clear that to attempt to freeze this essential flowing dynamism of giving-and-receiving relational forces into some dead fixed and immovable idol of gross material sex-form, denies the very existence of the living self or soul that is animating the entire gross and subtle manifestation. So in the sacred theatre of the Catholic MASS, and in the other ancient sacramental Mass Rites (Moksha Rityas) of the East, which have traditionally celebrated the Bridal Mysticism and spiritual reunion of PURUSHA AND PRAKRITI, there has been an appropriate place for idealistic Purusha and Prakriti role-playing. However, casting for a life-time of this role-playing cannot possibly mean that the priest must now pass some kind of genetic sex testing and gonadal biopsy to play his in-Persona Christ-Purusha part in the Sacred Offering of the Mass! Neither can some genetic test or gonadal biopsy be demanded before a couple make their mutual vows of life long fidelity in their mutually-administered Sacrament of Marriage. No bit of DNA or mortal flesh should be an obstacle to the fulfillment of any human being's God-given potential ! The Church has always honored the non-reproductive life of choice as a holy option, in dignity as great as that of the reproductive life of the married. Thus the vow of celibacy, in continual practice for a life time of exclusive and even conjugal-like love with GOD, should suffice to prepare a devoted soul, regardless of their embodiment, for service in which ever role that they are SPIRITUALLY GIFTED FOR. It is the dynamic Spirit-Soul inhabiting the body, who, after-all, loves and desires to serve God and beings, not some piece of DNA or flesh, which can be collected on a spit-swab or excised and thrown away!

As We Are All Receivers, We Are All Prakriti

Other than The Plenum (Sanskrit Purnam) The Source God Himself, and His Own Personal Infinite Shakti /Shekinah, we are ALL finite receivers, and can only give what we have already proximately received from others, who have received from others, back upstream to the Ultimate Remote Giver, as God's Divine Grace flows down-stream through the various spiritual and material cosmic manifestations. Only as we receive can we in-turn give, becoming little purushas in our acts of self-sacrificial giving, in the metaphysical and physical stream of life. Thus realizing that the finite soul or self is feminine in relationship to God Purusha, is essential for us all to have a proper relationship to and with others. So the spiritual aspirant's goal of perfect 'humility' or spiritual 'emptiness', which is associated with Shakti-Prakriti (Mary) related religious disciplines, is an important practice associated with 'self-realization' in all of these related traditions. Throughout Catholic history, many Saints and Mystics have understood this perfect soul-receptivity as being revealed in Judeo-Catholic Bridal Mysticism and in the Perfect Yes of Mary. Religious Orders, all devoted in SERVICE, ideally selected the 'least' among them to lead them, recognizing that the humblest servant of all of the others, was in fact RECEIVING the greatest Divine Grace, and was therefore the most humble, self-emptied and qualified to instruct and lead others in the pursuit of a holy life of service.

The Mundane Desire to Dominate, Instead of Serve Others

Unfortunately this realization has been somewhat lost in the Church, with the sad consequence that mundane lording-it-over pseudo-purusha based competition has replaced the proper spiritual 'transcendental competition' TO BE THE HUMBLEST SERVANT. Christian leaders today, including Catholic leaders, are now more judged for their mundane talents and 'star power' than for their spiritual realization and holiness of character. Material strength and ambition, success and physical charisma or attractiveness makes lucrative religious career-men (and women) out of people who have no real spiritual gifts. Their mundane celebrity competition seeks to satisfy their ambition to achieve mastery over others. Often these people are even seriously disordered as high functioning autistic con-artist sociopaths. These people are expert manipulators who use others to get what they want, with no real concern for the way that they effect those others.

The Abuse of Power In Hierarchical Social Orders

There are different kinds of natural social orders in animals and human beings. These serve different purposes. In any group of men or women, the problems of abusive hierarchical pecking-order dominance and forced submission may exist. But, If those dominating in the order actually care about the others under their control / care, then such a system may be mutually beneficial and functional. Military orders are organized hierarchically, as are many other kinds of corporations / businesses, political and other social orders. Such organizations may be very natural and efficient for specific social purposes. Other than in the traditional religious orders of service, people generally struggle to rise to the top of these orders, to Lord-It-Over-Them as Masters. Only in the ancient Jewish-Vaishnava Shakti-mysticism related traditional religious orders was humble maturation of character, spiritual advancement, and finally personal holiness the anti-material measure of their personal and 'corporate' or communal success. The anti-material-mastery values of the early Catholic Religious Orders were recorded in their Rules, like the early Rules of St. Anthony and St. Benedict. Through time, when the problems of mundane ambition and proud abuse of authority arose in the Church, a return to the stricter observance of these rules was often sought as the cure. Along with this revival of the ancient ascetic disciplines, common to Vaishnavism, Sattvic Shaivism, Sattvic Devi worship and Devotional (Pure Land Type) Buddhism, was usually a revival of their related Bridal Mysticism and the Hyper Dulia or 'Special Veneration' of Shakti (Shekinah) or Mary.

Anti-Material Transcendental Competition

Spiritual or transcendental competition is the opposite of material competition. In material competition, souls compete to materially dominate each other. In spiritual competition, they compete to spiritually serve each other. The desire of the spiritually self-realized soul is to be a perfect conduit of Divine Love, which means that they must practice the self-lessness of emptiness, so that there is no selfish 'resistance' in them as God's stream of Grace flows through them to the rest of creation. So such self-realized souls compete to most perfectly and completely empty themselves out and use themselves up in the service of others. Now when we observe how such souls exist in the flow of life, they can only become great Givers, or successfully play the sacred ROLE of finite purushas, exactly in proportion to how humble and Receptive they are FIRST. Thus it is in developing their Shakti-inspired receptivity alone, that they can become a fount of The Godhead's divine love and mercy for others. Remember that Jesus, the Second Person of Godhead Himself, even chose to appear in this world through the Perfect Yes of Mary! Thus there is no personal revelation or realization of the Purusha, without Prakriti, and those who aspire to His Vision, and service in any flavor of Divine Love (Rasa Theology), must first practice Her empty and perfect receptivity to receive Him.

Receiver and Giver are Roles in 

This Dynamic World

Throughout the ages pious souls have stepped-into their roles in sanctified religious life, to serve God and His Beloved according to the AFFECTIVE AND SPIRITUAL NATURE that they were born with. Later, God willing, I will describe how intersexed and other sex and gender atypical persons have filled traditional religious roles in various societies. For now, I would like to give some examples of the ancient, traditional and modern roles that feminized 'males' or 'Third Sex Prakriti' people have played, and still play in human societies, and how these roles are related to sex-linked behaviors in other feminized creatures. (To follow in the last half of this Letter Part 3.)

First: Growing Up Gay...What Do We Mean by 'Gay' or 'Homosexual'?

Leaving aside the issues effecting 'lesbians' and masculine XX persons for now, I want to make some observations about the idea of boys growing up 'gay' What do we mean by 'gay' in this pre-sexualized context? In childhood, nothing distinguishes the 'normally' masculine boy, who is later sexually unresponsive to the sex-signaling of women, but instead may be sexually attracted to other masculine men like himself, or to feminized XY persons. Such normally masculine boys, who have a typical male gender identity and therefore exhibit typical masculine behavior, are therefore NOT singled out for gender-related teasing by their peers, or for gender-expression related emotional, physical or sexual abuse by others. In childhood, they do not have sexual attractions to anyone, or have gender identity or behavior issues that disturb them or others. As they mature and become sexually active, unless they are 'outed' / exposed as same-sex attracted, these normally masculine male persons do not face family and social rejection like the obviously effeminate 'gay' males and other XY people do. So when we discuss the struggling and suffering of XY people who are growing up 'gay', who exactly are we 'talking' about? In the case of the feminized XY person, a sense of being different from other boys may emerge as soon as any actual social or relational self-awareness is experienced. By the age of 3 an effeminate boy may exhibit very strong play preferences for the association of feminine girls over that of boys or masculine girls. He may already identify with his feminine mother or older sisters, and be shy, uncomfortable and unhappy around masculine boys, girls and men. Is this something wrong with him? Or is he merely a normal human with a less-common variation of sex-differentiated affect and behavior?

Who are the Gay Boys Most At Risk?

I have worked with groups of very young children, and have observed striking differences in what are called sex-linked 'play preferences', even in toddlers who have not yet developed a vocabulary of as much as ten intelligible words. Left to themselves, children will choose to play with others who share their attractions, energies, abilities and mental and emotional interests. Contrary to what many feminists have asserted, sex-dimorphic behavior in children is not about some toy that was chosen for them, but rather is about their SELFHOOD and their entire INNATE way of relating and responding to the sex and gender signaling of the children and adults around them. This is most striking when an (assumed) XY male child is especially effeminate, and these poor children are usually the ones who get the most negative, disapproving attention the earliest, from both the children and adults around them. The childhood, adolescence and adult life-course of these feminized 'XY' individuals is usually entirely different than that of sex and gender 'normal' masculine 'gay' men. If we therefore want to better understand, appreciate and protect 'gay' XY children, preteens and teenagers, who exactly are the individuals that we are identifying as being in need such protection? Obviously the 'gay' boys really most at risk are those whose 'feminine' difference is the most obvious to themselves and others. These are the boys whose homophobic parents gang up on them, with other religious fanatics, trying to exorcize them by 'praying away the gay' in them. These are the poor children who get the 'sissy' beat out of them, and who as they get older may be shunned by their homophobia-indoctrinated class mates, as if what they 'had' was a disease that could be 'caught'.

How Are These Effeminate Boys Endangered by the So-Called Therapies of People Like McHugh and Zucker?

Perhaps some of the worst abuses that these children suffer, are in the names of the 'medicine', 'therapy' and the 'sciences' of psychology and psychiatry. While neurobiology and neuroendocrinology are 'hard sciences', with exacting disciplines, the fields of psychology and psychiatry are so full of pseudo-scientistic mumbo-jumbo, that practically any piece of porno-trash book, any vicious criminal, any pharmaceutical company promoting a dangerous drug, or any group promoting their bizarre sociopathic new religious movement, etc. can get some licensed psychologist or psychiatrist from somewhere to defend them in court, and/or to commercially promote them/it. Thus it is even easier for the powerful Right-Wing Fundamentalist Religious and Political Lobbies to recruit armies of self-serving pseudo-science psychologists, psychiatrists, 'Christian Counselors', educators and even 'recreational therapists' etc. to back their sexist and homophobic societal scape-goating campaigns, and run their abusive de-sissifying boot camps. These so-called experts then inflict their soul-destroying mental, emotional and physical abuse on such gentle and feminine gender-atypical helpless children, in the name of helping and healing them. These children then become the sacrificial lambs or scape-goats who are either destroyed for the projected sins of their Puritanical homophobic society, or driven out of it, with a mark on damnation on them forever. Either they must stuff their unique beingness down so deep that it can never emerge again, they must die, or they must resist being 'cured' and so be shunned for the rest of their lives.

Facts From Hard Science and the 'Expert' Knowledge Filter That Keeps Them From the Masses

Previously I have asserted that the actual facts about sex-differentiation and sex-linked behavior are not yet known to the general public. Yet if one does a web search on these subjects, they will find a lot of information, generally divided into two main categories. One is the basic research, which has been done, and continues to be done by actual scientists who study the neurobiology and related behavior of animals and humans. The other prominent category of searchable information is coming from the well-funded and well-promoted psychologists and psychiatrists, like John Money, Ken Zucker and Paul McHugh, who have ignored, misrepresented, massaged the data, abused and filtered the basic research information on sex differentiation and related behavior, coming from the actual hard sciences. Since this is the case, even after a century of foundational biological research, the general population is still in the dark about the basic 'facts of life'. Because they do not have the level of education and experience to read and understand the biological raw data and basic science studies, they therefore must rely on the so-called self-appointed and politically well-funded published experts like McHugh and Zucker to explain and interpret this information to and for them. This is where people like Mc Hugh and Zucker enter into the picture as the self-proclaimed experts that everyone must go to. As such persons have found ego-inflation, patronage and funding from the extreme right Religious Fundamentalists and their Republican political cohorts, they have become extremely powerful and dangerous to the rest of the human race. A good case in point is how Zucker and his allies misuse the research on sex-typed behavior to support their non-sense and abusive therapies for gender atypical children, who are not broken and do not need fixing. No wonder sex and gender atypical people and feminists do not want to hear about genes, hormones and sex-linked behavior, when the research on this subject in humans has been so abused by people like Zucker, to justify their cruel and worse-than-useless 'therapies'.

Paul Mc Hugh...One of the Far Right's Worst 'Experts'

Paul McHugh's influence on the Religious Right (in the Catholic Church too) has been especially damaging. He was crucially involved in the history of the pedophilia tragedy in the American Catholic Church, and in spite of this, he has still made himself a top go-to-man for sex and gender related information and medical ethics issues in the Bush Administration and at the Vatican! Dr.McHugh was appointed to provide expert advice to the Catholic Church, on the psychological treatment of clerics accused of sexually abusing children. This appointment was by United States Conference of Catholic Bishops ("USCCB") leader Bishop Wilton Gregory. At Mc Hugh's super-confidential pedophilia treatment clinic at Johns Hopkins, Dr. Berlin, an underling of Mc Hugh's, apparently avoided child abuse reporting, which was required by state law, with the approval of Mc Hugh. Since it appears that the entire confidential pedophile priest 'treatment' center at Johns Hopkins was the brain-child of Mc Hugh, and was developed and run by him, and this program was central to the philosophy and protocol of treatment for pedophile priests in America during that era, in my opinion he should be held to account for the tragic result of his fraud and mal-practice in the disastrous recycling of the offending pedophile priests. After all, It was due to his philosophy of treatment, and his actual program, in which the Church placed its trust, that these offending priests were repeatedly deemed fit to return to service, and thus were reassigned to parishes over and over again.

These Sex Experts as Quacks and Autistic Cult Leaders

So why is Mc Hugh still a hero of the far Right? This is because he and his kind, like Zucker, still have the same philosophy, and are still peddling the reparative therapy idea, that differently or atypically gendered or 'oriented' people are the product of nurture, are psychologically disturbed, sick or broken and need fixing, and can be repaired by their fraudulent psycho-therapy. Most people do not know that it was Paul Mc Hugh's pedophilia treatment program that resulted in so many so-called 'cured' or supposedly successfully managed pedophile priests being re-assigned and moved around in the American Catholic Church. Then as now, the claim from the Mc Hugh camp was that pedophilia, like homosexuality and 'gender identity disorder' could be cured or treated with his brand of psychotherapy. Well, it did not work, and the graduates of Mc Hugh's type of pedophilia therapy re-offended again and again, being protected over and over by His program's insistence on confidentiality! One would think that the Catholic Church might have disassociated itself from this colossal and dangerous quack by now, but like the true cult leader that he is, McHugh has risen in his followers' estimation above reproach. Now he and his ilk are focusing their psychological quackery on 'repairing' effeminate boys, and same-sex attracted, or 'gender identity disordered' people. This is because they have the same philosophy still, an attitude based not on the real genetic and neuro-biological 'facts of life' in nature, but based on old and disproven ideas derived from the early psychological mind 'sciences' of nurture-not-nature.

People like Mc Hugh and Zucker are analogous to the high functioning autistic cult leader guru-types in India and the West, who have made careers out of their personal charisma, powerful and grandiose self-promotion. Read M. Scott Peck's "People of the Lie", for a good description of the charming high functioning autistic sociopathic con-artist who expertly manipulates people. Such people have no real compassion for the people that they use and abuse to get what they want. In the case of men like Money, McHugh and Zucker, and their allied Right-Wing, sex 'experts', they have made name, fame and fortune by giving a patina of science to the Fundamentalist scape-goating of sex and gender atypical people. They have caused incalculable suffering to others, but consider themselves heroes and promote themselves as paragons of science and service to humanity. They conflate pedophilia with non-predatory homosexuality and male effeminism, and ignore and abuse the facts of science to promote their religio-political agendas. Collectively they create a knowledge filter that does not allow the general public to access information from the real hard sciences of sex and gender studies, which is why I prefer to by-pass the writings of such people, and go strait to the scientific research literature on the neurobiology of sex and gender.

NEW AND REAL EXPERTS NEEDED

What is needed, is the emergence of a new breed of objective interdisciplinary scholars, who can read and interpret the basic scientific literature on sex and gender for and to the masses. Dr. Joan Roughgarden (Evolution's Rainbow ) is one scholar who is attempting to give the public intelligible access to this body of newer research information.

However, I must caution that as objectivity is essential when truth is the goal, searching the literature and massaging the data with a feminist or queer-theory perspective will be no more helpful in the end, than the skewed perspectives of male-sexist ideologues like McHugh and Zucker.

Right Wing Fundamentalist America's Descent Into Homophobic Hysteria

There is a kind of Right Wing Fundamentalist National hysteria in America now. Homophobia, purposely promoted into a fevered frenzy of fear and hate by the Political Right Wing, has reached some kind of an extremity, and with it, the reactionary movement in the Magisterium and the American Catholic Church has also reached some kind of new power. This brings us back to the central theme of this series of letters. In the 1960s I first learned that main stream American Protestant Fundamentalists equated Catholicism with the unnatural (read homosexual) sins of Sodom, Babylon and the Greco-Roman Civilizations, which collapsed (or were destroyed by GOD) due to the abominable nature of these sins, especially 'sodomy'. Since then I have watched the American Catholic Church throw its voting power in-with these same anti-Catholic Fundamentalist Protestants, over the issue of abortion. This brought these Fundamentalists and their extreme Right Wing Republican Party to near absolute power in the USA. Because the social agenda of these Right Wing Protestants has always been anti-Catholic and relatedly anti-intellectual, anti-scientific, anti-woman, anti-human rights and social justice, white racist, predatory capitalist and homophobic in the extreme, the Catholic Church in America, politically allied to this dumbed-down and pathological Protestantism, has become horribly divided and has all but self-destructed in the course of the last 50 years.

The Pathological Self-Destructive Reaction of the Catholic Church

Now, one of the final tragedies of this epoch in Catholicism, is that in a reactionary movement responding to the pedophilia tragedy, sex and gender atypical people are now being hunted down, ferreted-out and purged from their religious vocations in the Catholic Church. Catholic religious orders, pious associations, congregations, communities and families, businesses and secular institutes are being torn part as homosexuals and even people with atypical gender expressions are being pathologized, devalued, fired and shunned. Catholics are now feeling the weight of a new era of sexual oppression descending on them. It seems that even the new Pope himself has now weighed-in on the side of the fix-or-reject-the-homos McHugh-ites in the Church.

The Catholic Church's New Protestant Fundamentalism...Can It Save Western Civilization From The Faggot Threat?

While people like Mc Hugh and Zucker lead the pseudo-scientific drum beat in the defensive march of their 'civilization' against the imagined 'threat' of the sexual deviants, their followers mindlessly repeat their marching chants. With these DSM 'disorders' on their lips, and their pray-away-the-gay and reparative therapies in their arsenals, the faithful of the now Catholic and Protestant Fundamentalist Churches imagine themselves to be the defenders of "the Traditional Family", our Western Judeo-Christian Civilization and the holy "American Way Of Life". As usual, the most visible and vulnerable of atypical people to be targeted for their 'prayer'/exorcism 'healing' and 'reparative therapies' are the most obviously feminized males, those boys whose most abominable sin is to be inappropriately feminine, and who their 'healers' assume will become unnaturally receptive in those worst of same-sex sex acts as they grow up. As the bullies that they are, these men like McHugh and Zucker are picking on helpless little 'sissy' boys, who just want to be left alone to play with their little girl friends, and to imagine the fun things that they want to do when they grow up. Tragically, the whole of these mens' supportive Right Wing Christian Taliban Society is aiding and abetting in their emotional and psychological cruelty and CRIMES against these helpless and inoffensive children.

Are Feminized Boys and Men Really Any Threat to Our Civilization?

This brings us back to these most at-risk feminized boys, and what could or should be the accepting, valuing and empowering place for them as adults in an enlightened society. Are such feminized boys and men really any threat to our Civilization? Globally and throughout history, these feminized and gifted individuals have had a special niche in countless stabile societies, where they have NEVER POSED ANY THREAT TO THE HETEROSEXUAL SOCIAL ORDER. Recent studies have shown that most very feminine boys do not grow up to be male-to-female transgenders or transsexuals, but rather grow up to be 'homosexuals'. Again what is actually meant by this term? How accurately descriptive is it? Do these people remain effeminate after the onset of puberty? And, how does 'therapy' effect them? Curtis Hinkle of the OII has shown the fraudulent nature of Zucker's claim that he has a successful therapy for these boys, that will avoid an undesirable gender identity outcome for them as they mature.

A 'Third Sex'?

Do these children make up a distinct class of persons who will become, when sexually active, primarily receptive in masculine-feminine donor-receiver sex acts, such as anal intercourse? If so, then why do we continue to lump-in such a specific class of feminized people, with the other (assumed) XY people, who are exclusively attracted to mount them? In animal studies, feminized 'males' are rightfully treated as an entirely different phenomenon than the otherwise normal males who try to mount them. On neuroendocrine investigation, the causes of such feminine and masculine 'gay' behavior are entirely different. Thus it is frankly ridiculous for Gay rights advocates to be looking for a 'gay gene', or some other single 'gay' causality, when the terms 'gay' or 'homosexual' as commonly used, are so broad as to be scientifically meaningless. We need some socially relevant research and applied science and clinical medicine to diagnose and care for the emotional and physical needs of these very different people. Regarding exclusively receptive homosexuals, if Zucker was in India, or another traditional society that accepts its feminine males, how socially relevant would his so-called therapy be?

In humans, if we look at the traditional class of Hijras in India, these people have a more-or-less feminine persona, ranging from very mildly effeminate homosexuals to completely so-called 'male-to-female' transgendered and transsexual people, with most of them exclusively receptive in sex acts with otherwise 'normal' masculine males. In ancient Indic civilization, this class was accepted as a kind of third feminine sex ("Tritiya-Prakriti: People of the Third Sex" ), and it included the mildly effeminate 'homosexuals' who were primarily sexually receptive, but definitely had a male gender identity.

Prakriti 'Third Sex' People in the Physics and Dynamic Cosmos of Giving and Receiving (Summary of Points From Parts 1, 2 & 3)

In the devotional Indic religions, all of the cosmos is a manifestation of the dynamic giving-and-receiving of Purusha and Prakriti. Thus whatever or whoever dynamically sexually or otherwise manifests the giver-ness of Purusha is/ was seen as masculine, and whatever or whoever dynamically manifests the receiverness of Shakti-Prakriti is/was seen as feminine. In Biophysics terminology, this is the DONOR and RECEPTOR of RELATIONAL FORCES. This Indic Vaishnava, Shaivite and Shakti world view, and its related transcendental metaphysical system of RASA THEOLOGY, was related to Pure Land Buddhism, the YUM-YAB concept in Nepali-Tibetan Buddhism, the Yin-Yang concept of Theistic Devotional Taoism, and to many other major and minor religious traditions, including that of the Heliopolitan Eli-Yahu and Shekinah Monotheism-related Judeo-Catholic Tradition. By referring to feminized 'males' as "TRITIYA-PRAKRITI", or by an equivalent third feminine term, these related religious cultures recognized the essentially receptive 'nature' or PRAKRITI of this class of persons. This gave such feminine persons an accepted place in these ancient societies, before outside Muslim, Puritanical Christian or 'modern' influences demonized them and reduced them to a socially despised and low caste/class of 'male prostitutes'.

I have a chapter in the below publication by Amara Das Wilhelm, a Hindu Vaishnava Monk, who is same-sex attracted, and who founded the Gay and Lesbian Vaishnava Association (GALVA). While I do not agree with Amara Das in everything that he says, he is correct about the generally respected role of the feminized 'third sex' people in ancient 'Hindu' society.

http://www.galva108.org/ The Gay and Lesbian Vaishnava Association

"Tritiya-Prakriti: People of the Third Sex"

By Amara Das Wilhelm

"A detailed study into the Vedic concept of a third sex that defines homosexuality, transgender identity and intersexed conditions as a third category of nature apart from ordinary heterosexual males and females. The various types of third-gender people are all described, along with their social roles in Vedic society and accompanied with Sanskrit references and terminology. The original GALVA research that started it all!"

THIS IS MY CHAPTER:

"Modern Biology and the Concept of a ‘Third Sex'"

"By His Holiness Bhakti Ananda Goswami"

"A thorough and scientific analysis of the various types of intersex and homosexual conditions as understood by modern science, and how such people should be treated according to moral and ethical standards in today’s society."

In my above chapter entitled "Modern Biology and the Concept of a 'Third Sex'", I make a distinction between exclusively feminine or receptive, and exclusively masculine or mounting-behavior 'homosexuals'. Since such classes of persons occur across the so-called races, cultures and time, it is clear that no single social situation of 'nurture' produces such beings. However, across cultures and time, there are striking similarities in the occupations and social niches inhabited by the feminized class of male homosexuals, intersexed, transgendered and transsexual people. These in turn show amazing parallels with certain of the most well known feminine sex-linked behaviors in other species.

Some of these well known sex-linked behaviors are...

Self-preening, which may be done for health maintenance or as a display to attract, or to impress others.

Allied to self preening, self-decorating or self-m

odification.

The grooming of others: Such grooming behaviors can have specific bonding, nurturing, age or 'pecking order' stimuli and effects.

Allied to preening and grooming, other care-giving behaviors, such as stroking, holding, washing and wound cleaning.

Nurturing behaviors such as feeding and incubating eggs.

Singing

Dancing

Nest building and Habitat modification.

Attending a Queen, or reproductive female, as part of her retinue.

General Displaying and purposeful (not unconscious) sexually receptive or submissive sex-signaling.

Accepting the sexual advances of males

GENERAL REFERENCES TO MY SERIAL LETTER PARTS 2 & 3

Edited references with explanatory foreword 

In general, we humans share our genetics and biochemistry with as varied life-forms as mammals, birds, insects, microbes and even plants.  Objectively studying other life forms, and especially other social species, can teach us a lot about our own species. Why, how and what is communicated within and between species in earth's community of creations?  What are the sex-linked behaviors, messages and media that we may observe within and across species?

Other species communicate with sight and visual signaling / display / movement, with sound / vibration, touch, and smell / chemical signaling, and so do we.  They have languages, and so do we. They sing and we sing.  They have their pre-mating rituals and we get all fixed-up before going out on a Friday night. They groom, preen, display and then dance, and we groom, preen, display and then dance. 

They teach their young.  They learn, and so do we.  Some of them care for their elders, and others abandon them...and so do we.  Some of them are devoted parents and others abandon their young.  

They form heterosexual monogamous pair-bonds and so do we.   They form same-sex monogamous pair-bonds and so do we.  Their sexual activity is both reproductive and non-reproductive.  They exhibit sex dimorphic related sex-typed play and social behavior, and so do we.  They genetically transmit sex-linked traits and so do we.  They have both reproductive classes and non-reproductive and intersexed 

classes of beings within their species, and so do we.  They have exclusively same-sex attracted members in their species and so do we.  They have genetically, hormonally and behaviorally sex-reversed members in their species and so do we.  They dominate and we dominate. They submit and we submit.  The use sex to dominate, seduce, trick, trap, threaten, intimidate and kill each other, and unfortunately so do we. 

Other species form families, tribes and complex mega societies and so do we. They create matriarchal and patriarchal families and so do we. They create male and female hierarchical social systems and 'pecking orders' and so do we.  They create juvenile peer bonding social groups and so do we.  They form alliances and symbiotic relationships with other groups of their own species and even other species. They govern by consensus.  Sometimes they gather in great numbers, traveling great distances, and so do we.  They return to their 'childhood' and ancestral homes and so do we.  They have rituals for their dead.  They dream.  They can be vicious and/or gentle, selfish and/or altruistic.  They can struggle or give up.

They get tired, frustrated, confused, hysterical, terrified, bored and depressed.  They threaten.  They bluff.  They mock and mimic. They court and break-up.  They groom, preen, adorn/decorate, modify and camouflage themselves, and so do we.   They suffer, weep and celebrate, grieve, compete, protect, argue and make-up, nurture, aggress and defend.  They nest-build, modify and decorate habitat, use tools and even farm (fungus farming ants) and tame and use other species the same way that we milk cows (ants that keep and 'milk' sugar aphids). They adapt, collect food, migrate, war, etc. and so do we humans.

Much of the essential behavior of many other species is paralleled in our own, and we share many of the same type of neuroendocrine regulating genes, bio-chemical developmental and control mechanisms that are known to be involved in this essential behavior.

It is far past time for the human race to get out of its collective religio-political and pseudo-scientific 'mind-sciences' denial of the plain truth of our physicality.  Our bodies are made of the same stuff as all other life on earth, and obey all of the same basic laws of biochemistry and 'nature'.  Admitting this does nothing to diminish the uniqueness and sanctity of human life, or to deny the moral and physical freedom, autonomy, integrity and dignity of each precious human being. 

EXAMPLES:

 DISCIPLINES, FIELDS OF STUDY, DEPARTMENTS AND PROGRAMS

Life Sciences, Medical, Veterinary and Health Sciences, Earth and Environmental Science, Humanities and Social Sciences, Psychology

Neurobiology,   Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology,   Behavioral Neuroendocrinology,  Biological Sciences, Insect Biochemistry and Physiology ,  Comparative Neurology,  Social Psychology,  Physiological Entomology,  Developmental Neurobiology, Entomological Science, Microscopy Research and Technique, Developmental Genetics,  Psychiatric Genetics, Neuropsychiatric Genetics,  Human Genome,  Human Mutation, Experimental Zoology, Ecological Genetics and Physiology, Department of Behavioural Neurobiology, Department of Biological Rhythms and Behaviour,  Department of Zoology, Department of Entomology,   Department of Anatomy, Pharmacology, and Forensic Medicine,   Department of Psychology,   Laboratory of Biochemistry,    Federal Research Center of Agriculture, Institute for Ornithology,   Institute for Small Animal Research,   Agricultural Experiment Station,   Entomology and Neuroscience Program, ...

  

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE INTERDISCIPLINARY LANGUAGE OF THIS STUDY

EXAMPLE OF GENERAL VOCABULARY :  influences, markers, control, responses, behavior, rationale, study, explain, summary, abstract, determine, confirmed, origin, analysis, separate, demonstrate, incontrovertibly,  discovery,  current status,   signal transduction,  stimulation,  evidence,   relationship,  simultaneously, recorded,   dynamics,  recent, advances,  distribution,  effects,  experience,  organization, theory, application,  comprehensive,  survey,  state of knowledge,  occurrence,  identification,  appreciation,  description,  reveal, ...

EXAMPLES OF SOME SEARCH TERMS AND IMPORTANT PHRASES

genetic basis of male sexual behavior, genetic analysis,  genes and circuits that govern behaviors, motivation, mate-searching, courtship,  copulation,  genes have counterparts,  related functions in higher animals, correspondences can be expected,  analysis of mutations in mammals,  monogamous versus promiscuous sexual behavior,  sexual orientation,  nervous system generates and controls a complex behavior,  behavior is encoded by genes and their regulatory sequences,  sex-linked control, behavioral responses,  marker gene,  behavioral phenomena,  social insects,  genes that influence social behavior,  insect societies,   molecular biology of social behavior,   molecular genetic study of social behavior,  social insects are good models,  emerging field,  races (of insects),  sex pheromone,  male and female sexual pheromones,  pheromone blend,  sex pheromone blend,   pheromone production,   sex pheromone changes,   pheromone biosynthesis activating neuropeptide,   genetics of female sex pheromone production,   female pheromone production,  pheromone blend production in females,  blend ratio,  intermediate blends,  pheromone glands,  stable mimics of aldehyde pheromones,   pheromonal gland,   sex pheromone blend discrimination in two races and hybrids,   sex pheromone suppression,  pheromonotropic stimulation,   pheromone gland cultures in vitro,   sex pheromone biosynthesis,  control of a major autosomal locus,  sequence,  male upwind flight responses,  controlled by a sex-linked locus,  sex-linked control of behavioral responses,  phenotypes,  sex chromosomes,  populations,  behavioral-response profiles,  wind-tunnel studies,  hybrids,  paternal profiles,  allozyme differences,  homozygotes,  originating from each grandparent,   heterozygous fathers,  sex-linked gene,  tightly linked,  independent of the locus controlling,  genetic basis,   male sexual behavior,   glandular lipids,   hormonal regulation,   juvenile hormone-mediated gonadotropism,   neuroendocrine control,   genetic isolation,   sympatric host-plant races,   mothemergence timing,  endogenous control,   circadian rhythms,  male behavioral response,  natural product analogs,  morphology,  innervation,  electroantennogram,  sensillum response,  antennal sensilla,  insect olfaction,  sensory physiology,  photoperiod,  age,  competence,   immunoreactive,  canalization,  nongenomic,  ecdysteroids, physiological control,  sex-peptide-like peptides,  PBAN-like substance,  combinatorial odor discrimination in the brain,  attractive and antagonist odor blends,  identifiable glomeruli,  behavioral and neurobiological implications of sex-determining factors,  sexual differentiation,  identified motor terminals,  juvenile hormone,  chemical signals,  hydrochemical,  hydrobiological,  chemical structure elucidation,  biological importance,  fright and alarm substances,  intrasexual stimulants,  school formation,  social structure,  individual recognition,  pheromones and fish migration,  chemoreception,  changed environmental conditions,  sex determination, primary sex differentiation,  genetic and developmental mechanisms,  anatomical and neurochemical definition of the nucleus,  probably homologous,  mammalian brain,  sexually dimorphic vasotocinergic neurons, estradiol, key endocrine signal, sexual differentiation, activation of reproductive behavior,  calbindin-positive neurons,  sexual dimorphism,  songbird analogue, mammalian auditory cortex,   gene regulation,  song circuit development,  song learning,  song rate,  dyads,  pair bond,  social context,    testosterone-induced singing,  volume of song control nuclei,...     

 

AN IMPORTANT SOURCE FOR BEHAVIORAL NEUROENDOCRINOLOGY RESEARCH:

Jacques Balthazart, Center for Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology, Research Group in Behavioral Neuroendocrinology, University of Liège, 1 Avenue de l'Hôpital (Bat. B36), B-4000 Liège 1, Belgium

THE SOURCE FOR THE VARIOUS JOURNAL ABSTRACTS BELOW:

 

WILEY INTERSCIENCE 

http://www3.interscience

Life Sciences

Medical, Veterinary and Health Sciences

Earth and Environmental Science

Humanities and Social Sciences

Psychology

*******

 

EXAMPLES OF SCIENTIFIC REFERENCE ABSTRACTS

GENERAL: USING THE BEE AND WASP-ANT SOCIAL SPECIES AS MODELS  

Insect societies and the molecular biology of social behavior

BioEssays Volume 19, Issue 12, Date: December 1997, Pages: 1099-1108

Gene E. Robinson, Susan E. Fahrbach, Mark L. Winston

Abstract  |  References  |  Full Text: PDF (2868K)

"...honey bees and fire ants, are presented to illustrate the richness of the behavioral phenomena that can be addressed with social insects and to show how they are beginning to be used to study genes that influence social behavior."

********

 Genetic basis of male sexual behavior

Journal of Neurobiology

Volume 54, Issue 1, Date: January 2003, Pages: 93-110

Scott W. Emmons, Jonathan Lipton Abstract  |  References  |  Full Text: PDF (537K)

Abstract

Male sexual behavior is increasingly the focus of genetic study in a variety of animals. Genetic analysis in the soil roundworm Caenorhabditis elegans and the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster has lead to identification of genes and circuits that govern behaviors ranging from motivation and mate-searching to courtship and copulation. Some worm and fly genes have counterparts with related functions in higher animals and many more such correspondences can be expected. Analysis of mutations in mammals can potentially lead to insights into such issues as monogamous versus promiscuous sexual behavior and sexual orientation. Genetic analysis of sexual behavior has implications for understanding how the nervous system generates and controls a complex behavior. It can also help us to gain an appreciation of how behavior is encoded by genes and their regulatory sequences. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Neurobiol 54: 93-110, 2003

 ***********

 

(SEX PHEROMONE RESPONSES IN INSECTS) SPECIFIC EXAMPLE OF HOW A COMPLEX SEX-SIGNALING RESPONSE SOCIAL BEHAVIOR CAN BE CONTROLLED BY A SINGLE SEX-LINKED GENE: Archives of Insect Biochemistry and Physiology

Volume 15 Issue 2, Pages 67 - 77 Published Online: 7 Feb 2005  Copyright © 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc., A Wiley Company

Sex-linked control of sex pheromone behavioral responses in European corn-borer moths (Ostrinia nubilalis) confirmed with TPI marker gene

Thomas Glover *, Marlene Campbell, Paul Robbins, Wendell Roelofs

Department of Entomology, New York State Agricultural Experiment Station, Cornell University, Geneva, New York  "These results demonstrate incontrovertibly that the response to sex pheromone in male ECB is controlled by a sex-linked gene that is tightly linked to the TPI locus and therefore is independent of the locus controlling pheromone blend production in females."

 **********

(SEX PHEROMONE RESPONSES IN FISH) THE COMPLEX SOCIAL SIGNALING AND RESPONSE OF CHEMICAL COMMUNICATION IN FISH

 Chemical Signals in Fishes: Theory and Application

Acta Hydrochimica et Hydrobiologica

Volume 12, Issue 5, Date: 1984, Pages: 463-478

A. K. Pandey Published Online:

 Dec 2006                                                                                                                           Copyright © 2006 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim 

Abstract In this paper, a comprehensive survey is presented of the state of knowledge of the occurrence, chemical structure elucidation and biological importance of pheromones in fishes: fright and alarm substances, male and female sexual pheromones, intrasexual stimulants, school formation, social structure and individual recognition, pheromones and fish migration. Especially treated are the problems connected with the chemoreception under changed environmental conditions as well as the possibilities of utilizing pheromones or substances with a similar effect in fishery.

 ************

SEX DETERMINATION AND PRIMARY DIFFERENTIATION IN AMPHIBIANS

Sex determination and primary sex differentiation in amphibians: Genetic and developmental mechanisms
The Journal of Experimental Zoology
Volume 281, Issue 5, Date: 1 August 1998, Pages: 373-399
Tyrone B. Hayes
Abstract  |  References  |  Full Text: PDF (517K) 

********

SIMILAR QUAIL BRAIN AREA IS "PROBABLY HOMOLOGOUS" TO A PART OF THE MAMMALIAN BRAIN 

Anatomical and neurochemical definition of the nucleus of the stria terminalis in japanese quail (Coturnix japonica)  N. Aste 1, J. Balthazart 2, P. Absil 2, R. Grossmann 3, E. Mülhbauer 3, C. Viglietti-Panzica 1, G.C. Panzica 1 * 1Department of Anatomy, Pharmacology, and Forensic Medicine, University of Torino, 10126 Torino, Italy 2Laboratory of Biochemistry, University of Liège, 4020 Liège, Belgium 3Institute for Small Animal Research, Federal Research Center of Agriculture, 29223 Celle, Germany  "....data support the notion that this area is similar and is probably homologous to the medial part of the nucleus of the stria terminalis of the mammalian brain."... ...  "Cytoarchitectonic, immunohistochemical, and in situ hybridization data support the notion that this area is similar and is probably homologous to the medial part of the nucleus of the stria terminalis of the mammalian brain. The present data provide a clear definition of this nucleus in quail: They show for the first time the presence of sexually dimorphic vasotocinergic neurons in this region of the quail brain and provide the first detailed description of this region in an avian species. J. Comp. Neurol. 396:141-157, 1998. © 1998 Wiley-Liss, Inc."  ******* QUAIL: SEX HORMONE INFLUENCE IN SEXUAL DIFFERENTIATION AND REPRODUCTIVE BEHAVIOR

Estradiol, a key endocrine signal in the sexual differentiation and activation of reproductive behavior in quail

Journal of Experimental Zoology Part A: Ecological Genetics and Physiology

Early View

Jacques Balthazart, Charlotte A. Cornil, Thierry D. Charlier, Mélanie Taziaux, Gregory F. Ball

Abstract  |  References  |  Full Text: PDF (291 K) 

************ 

 

SONGBIRD ANALOGUE OF THE MAMMALIAN AUDITORY CORTEX OF THE BRAIN

Calbindin-positive neurons reveal a sexual dimorphism within the songbird analogue of the mammalian auditory cortex
Journal of Neurobiology
Volume 66, Issue 2, Date: 5 February 2006, Pages: 182-195
Raphael Pinaud, Antonio F. Fortes, Peter Lovell, Claudio V. Mello
Abstract  |  References  |  Full Text: PDF (341K) 

******

GENE REGULATION IN SONG CIRCUIT DEVELOPMENT AND SONG LEARNING

Role of gene regulation in song circuit development and song learning
Journal of Neurobiology
Volume 33, Issue 5, Date: 5 November 1997, Pages: 549-571
David F. Clayton
Abstract  |  References  |  Full Text: PDF (225K) 

*******

 

THE NEUROENDOCRINE AND SOCIAL REASONS WHY BIRDS SING: WHY AND WHAT ARE THEY SINGING ABOUT?

"...song rate was measured in dyads composed of one male and one female (M-F) or two males (M-M)."

Social context affects testosterone-induced singing and the volume of song control nuclei in male canaries (Serinus canaria)

Journal of Neurobiology

Volume 66, Issue 10, Date: 5 September 2006, Pages: 1044-1060

Géraldine Boseret, Claudio Carere, Gregory F. Ball, Jacques Balthazart

Abstract  |  References  |  Full Text: PDF (377K)

..."In many songbird species, testosterone (T) enhances singing behavior but elevated plasma T concentrations are not absolutely required for singing to occur. Singing is generally produced either to defend a territory or to attract a mate and it is therefore not surprising that singing rate can be influenced by the sex and behavior of the social partner. We investigated, based on two independent experiments, the effect of the presence of a male or female partner on the rate of song produced by male canaries. In the first experiment, song rate was measured in dyads composed of one male and one female (M-F) or two males (M-M)."... 

... 

"A second experiment, carried out with castrated males that were all treated with T and exposed either to another T-treated castrate or to an estradiol-implanted female, confirmed that song rate was higher in the M-M than in the M-F condition and that HVC volume was larger in heterosexual than in same-sex dyads. The effects of T on singing rate and on the volume of the song control nuclei are thus modulated by the social environment, including the presence/absence of a potential mate and dominance status among males. 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Neurobiol, 2006" 

*******

 

AGGRESSION MAY BE MODULATED BY THE SAME HORMONES IN BOTH FEMALES AND MALES OF A BEHAVIORALLY SEX-REVERSED BIRD SPECIES 

" Hence, aggression in females and males may indeed be modulated by the same hormones, but regulated at different levels of the neuroendocrine cascade." 

Developmental Neurobiology

Journal of Neurobiology

Volume 67 Issue 12, Pages 1560 - 1573

Published Online: 31 May 2007 Copyright © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company

Sex-role reversal is reflected in the brain of African black coucals (Centropus grillii)

Cornelia Voigt 1, Wolfgang Goymann 1 2 * 1Department of Behavioural Neurobiology, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, D-82319 Seewiesen, Germany 2Department of Biological Rhythms and Behaviour, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, D-82346 Andechs, Germany

"In most bird species males compete over access to females and have elevated circulating androgen levels when they establish and defend a breeding territory or guard a mate. Testosterone is involved in the regulation of territorial aggression and sexual display in males. In few bird species the traditional sex-roles are reversed and females are highly aggressive and compete over access to males. Such species represent excellent models to study the hormonal modulation of aggressive behavior in females. Plasma sex steroid concentrations in sex-role reversed species follow the patterns of birds with traditional sex-roles. The neural mechanisms modulating endocrine secretion and hormone-behavior interactions in sex-role reversed birds are currently unknown."

...

 

In the nucleus taeniae, however, we show for the first time, that females have a higher mRNA expression of androgen receptors than males. These results suggest that the expression of agonistic and courtship behavior in females does not depend on elevated blood hormone levels, but may be regulated via increased steroid hormone sensitivity in particular target areas in the brain. Hence, aggression in females and males may indeed be modulated by the same hormones, but regulated at different levels of the neuroendocrine cascade. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Develop Neurobiol, 2007" 

**************

 

(SEX PHEROMONE RESPONSES IN MAMMALS) SEX-LINKED PHEROMONE RESPONSES IN MICE

Vomeronasal neuroepithelium and forebrain Fos responses to male pheromones in male and female mice
Journal of Neurobiology
Volume 39, Issue 2, Date: May 1999, Pages: 249-263
H. A. Halem, J. A. Cherry, M. J. Baum
Abstract  |  References  |  Full Text: PDF (430K)

*********

CONTEXT FIELD: HUMAN-CHIMPANZEE GENOME COMPARISONS

Understanding the recent evolution of the human genome: insights from human-chimpanzee genome comparisons
Human Mutation
Volume 28, Issue 2, Date: February 2007, Pages: 99-130
Hildegard Kehrer-Sawatzki, David N. Cooper
Abstract  |  References  |  Full Text: PDF (453K)


*************

CONTEXT FIELD: NEUROPSYCHIATRIC GENETICS

Abstracts for the IXth World Congress of Psychiatric Genetics, Saint Louis, Missouri
Neuropsychiatric Genetics
Volume 105, Issue 7, Date: 8 October 2001, Pages: 579-595
Abstract  |  Full Text: PDF (175K) 

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CONTEXT FIELD: SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY STUDIES [BELOW]

" ...budding efforts on neural mechanisms of..."

European Journal of Social Psychology

Volume 30 Issue 3, Pages 299 - 322, Published Online: 22 May 2000, Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. 

Abstract |  References  |  Full Text: PDF (Size: 138K)  | Related Articles | Citation Tracking 

 Research Article

Stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination at the seam between the centuries: evolution, culture, mind, and brain Susan T. Fiske * Princeton University, USA

*Correspondence to Susan T. Fiske, Correspondence to: Susan Fiske, Department of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08544-1010, USA.

Abstract Social psychologists possess considerable enthusiasm and expertise in the study of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination, having commenced in the 1920s and 1930s. Research and theory in the next three to four decades focused on motivation, followed by a reactively exclusive focus on cognition in the 1970s and early 1980s, in turn followed by a 1990s joint focus on cognition and motivation. Throughout, intra-individual conflict analyses have alternated with contextual analyses, though both clearly have merit. Based on a social evolutionary viewpoint, a few core social motives (belonging, understanding, controlling, enhancing, and trusting) account for much current research on interpersonal category-based responses. Trends for the future should entail more emphasis on behavior, more sensitivity to cultural specificities and universals, as well as budding efforts on neural mechanisms of stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

 

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

10.1002/(SICI)1099-0992(200005/06)30:3<299::aid-ejsp2>3.0.CO;2-F  About DOI 

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