Definition
Sexual activity in which an individual uses their mouth to stimulate the genitals of a partner.
Introduction
Oral sex has been a prominent feature over human evolution. Oral sex occurs in many cultures, including preindustrial cultures, indicating that cunnilingus is not a culture-specific practice. Oral sex is depicted frequently in pornography, and the content of pornography is designed to appeal to evolved mechanisms (see “Pornography as a Human Product and Source of Data”). Oral sex is depicted in ancestral cave paintings. In fact, oral sex also occurs across many mammalian species, including dogs, hamsters, bovine, ring-tailed lemurs, pygmy marmosets, and Indian flying foxes. Thus, evidence suggests an evolutionary history of oral sex not only in humans but also in other mammals. Although we cannot directly observe the human ancestral ecologies in which oral sex was adaptive, modern environments provide a useful starting point for investigation.
Oral sex is a common...
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Sela, Y., Pham, M.N. (2016). Oral Sex and Human Sexual Behavior. In: Weekes-Shackelford, V., Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3624-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_3624-1
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