How did human female breasts evolve into such an important sexual organ?

[jobyts]

Sorry, this is a question on evolution.

How did human female breasts evolve into such an important sexual organ? No other mammals other than humans seem to be interested in their corresponding female counterpart's breasts. They may be getting visually attracted, but do not seem to be interested in touching the breasts while having sex.

 

[Doug Huffman]

Sexual dimorphism is common particularly in mammals. Why is the more general question. Humans suffer from a wide range of paraphilia.

 

[epenguin]

The explanation I read in a Desmond Morris' book 'The Naked Ape', I don't know whether it is his own original, is that they are false buttocks and have to do with bringing the copulating position round from the usual mammal ('doggy') one to face-to-face, thus giving role to individual personal relationship and bonding with advantage for the lengthy infant-rearing, another essential peculiarity of humans.

 

[Borek]

I have read about several theories. They all assumed the sexual selection as the driving force. Neither of them was convincing for me.

See for example http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2460501?sid=21105929082701&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3738840

 

[Greg Bernhardt]

How did human female breasts evolve into such an important sexual organ?

Is it important and is it really biological or cultural? Take african or amazon tribes for example.

 

[Doug Huffman]

Desmond Morris indulges the fallacy of teleology. (Wright, Robert. The Moral Animal: Why We Are, the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology. Vintage. 1995.)

 

[Talleyrand]

Sorry, this is a question on evolution.

How did human female breasts evolve into such an important sexual organ? No other mammals other than humans seem to be interested in their corresponding female counterpart's breasts. They may be getting visually attracted, but do not seem to be interested in touching the breasts while having sex.

While Walking outside of Philadelphia with my brother we were discussing this very topic. The year was 1973 and he postulated that as with most apes it all began with the visual cues revolving around the sexual attractiveness of buttocks. When we became upright another cue was needed and human breasts were favored as attractive and desirable. Taking this line of inquiry a step further it is tempting to think that relationships - to date our most powerful adaptation - may also have evolved from this new, face-to-face lovemaking. Of course, back then it was just reproduction!

 

[FainAvis]

Neoteny. The retention of juvenile features in the adult. Among the first things a newborn mammal seeks is the nipple. At first we humans nuzzle about with our mouth. Later, we become adept at gathering information with our hands. On occasion, I have probed the interest of a female with a gentle and quite deliberate touch to her nipple with the back of my hand. Careful though, there is some danger in that.
So the next question maybe, from whence comes our neoteny? Perhaps Eugene McCarthy has the answer: (Paraphrasing to be concise.) We are hybrids. One day a chimp walked out into the world and met her prince. Their offspring, F1, was the ugliest little runt. But that little runt was the royal vessel carrying to us a basket of genes from which we could select the most incredible combinations. Follow his logic at macroevolution.com and find her prince.

 

[256bits]

Sorry, this is a question on evolution.

How did human female breasts evolve into such an important sexual organ? No other mammals other than humans seem to be interested in their corresponding female counterpart's breasts. They may be getting visually attracted, but do not seem to be interested in touching the breasts while having sex.

Not too many other mammals other than humans have large protruding breasts, that remain visible before, during pregnancy ( with some size increase ), and after weaning.
The evolutionary aspect of that is not known.

And why only 2 nipples.