QUOTE(ByAppointmentTo @ Sun 24th August 2008, 2:07pm)
Talking of breasts, does anyone think
this is a bit weird? Nothing to do with Wikipedia, like, but a curiousity nonetheless.
And I'm not surprised it's more common. Oxytocin, released by nipple stimulation (think of all those nipple-rings) is a powerful brain-active hormone which mediates social attachment. Interestingly, it also causes uterine contractions (and is used for this medically) and this participates both in childbirth (nursing causes contraction--> less bleeding) and in uterine contractions in orgasm, which assist sperm transport. Oxytocin is one of the few hormones whose levesl are affected by orgasm. In any case, the nipple stimulation of sex seems to be socially important in many ways whether orgasm occurs or not. In other primates and other social animals, oxytocin has been studied extensively. For example, it appears that oxytocin makes cats purr, and vice versa. People have boggled at queens (cat moms) in labor, and the fact that they're purring like mad. But it's not that mysterious once you know what's going on.
There are whole books of stuff on this. If there's a human "social bonding" chemical, the female nipple is one of the keys to it.
Think of the milk of human kindness, and that last scene in The Grapes of Wrath (the book), which is frigging brilliant in terms of what the author is getting at (and he didn't even know about oxytocin).
-Uncle Miltie
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