This prediction by Eberhard is supported by Dixson (1987) who has analysed different aspects of penile morphology in primate species and found that size and complexity are indeed related inversely to the number of males that typically mate with each female. Thus for monogamous and polygynous males the penis is smaller and simple in design whereas in multimale/multifemale, or dispersed species, it is larger and more complex. Many species of birds are of course also monogamous which would further support this theory.
If true it seems that many Indian males have it good, a noncompetetive system to find partners and a system (caste) in which they automatically acquire some status.
Update 12.12.06: The BBC article mentioned above is still among the most e-mailed articles and it appears that Indian males may have interesting times abroad. Another article on condom sizes in BBC News, this time about South Africa.
2 comments:
But, Swarup, what is the explanation for the Indian's poor, um, endowment?
Specifically, is it nature or nurture?
I am not sure what you mean? Are you thinking of fertility? As usual, I am just recording information for future reference and hoping that comments may lead to further clarification. In any case, this seems a testable hypothesis ( modulo correalation and causation problems) for which the BBC report may give some boost. There are already some statistics from Reddit site mentined in Indiauncut:
"A little searching suggests average sizes around the world is 14 centimetres (5.5 inches), with individual country averages of: France 16 cm (6.2 in) Italy 15 cm (5.9 in) Mexico 14.9 cm (5.8 in) Spain 14 cm (5.5 in) ... United States 12.9 cm (5 in) ... Venezuela 12.7 cm (4.9 in) Brazil 12.4 cm (4.8 in) India 10.2 cm (3.9 in) South Korea 9.6 cm (3.7 in)"
I do not know how reliable the numbers are. So far I have not seen any number correlating with the economic status.
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