Chapter 3 Scene 1 recalling the past

There are faces in the yellowed photograph, and the distance between them and the young woman looking at it is hundreds of years.The young woman loves this picture very much.Every time she went to play at her grandmother's house, she always asked her to show her this photo.In the photo are the faces of three children, who have passed away for many years, but the antique camera captures the childhood moments long ago. Three children stand in a row, the oldest and tallest child stands on the far left, followed by taller and younger children, and line up to the right in order.The boys at the ends are about 10 and 2 years old.The girl standing in the middle is about 5 years old.

Every time she sees this picture, the young woman feels a relationship between herself and an unknown past.In the photo are her great-grandmother and her two brothers.However, if you don't know this, you can imagine that the girl in the photo is the one who is admiring the photo.Because the great-grandmother in the photo is extremely similar to her childhood face.Grandmother called this face "the face of the family," and indeed quite a few of her relatives had that face and those eyes. She stared at the photo for a moment, then asked her grandmother to "tell the family story again."The old woman fumbled to take out a large sheet of paper from the photo album, and then began to tell the story of the past.This is a family tree.Not only is her grandmother proud and pleased with her family tree, but she also likes to show the family tree and photos to her children and grandchildren.

The young woman listened attentively to her grandmother's narration, and at the same time decided to write down all her words well.In the photo, one of the great-grandmother's brothers died early and left no descendants.The great-grandmother of the young woman was born in a poor family, but she not only grew up, but also got rid of the poor family background.The great-grandmother had grown from a little girl into a beautiful maiden who was once courted by all the young men in the village.The great-grandmother later went to work as a maid in a wealthy family, and soon became pregnant with the young master's child.The baby that was in the womb of the great-grandmother at that time is the grandmother who is now telling the story.

Fortunately, the big family did not drive away my great-grandmother. They accepted her and made her a part of the family.The whole thing happened so quickly that no one could say for sure that the newborn was an illegitimate child, except that there had been a few rumors.The great-grandmother and her husband remained on good terms and they had four more children, all boys.Moreover, it was very rare at the time, and all the children were supported. Now, the grandmother pointed to the oldest boy in the photo, who was supposed to be the grandmother's uncle.But he was not as lucky as his sister. Throughout his life, he could not escape the fate of poverty.He also had five children, which is the same as his sister.But three of them died in infancy.The remaining son and daughter, the son died in the First World War when he was 18 years old.Although the daughter later got married, she had no children.When this daughter was in her fifties, she also left this world alone, following her parents who died a few years ago.The youngest boy in the photo, with big eyes and a charming smile, was his grandmother's younger brother who contracted measles and died two years after the photo was taken.

The young woman stares intently at the family tree with her grandmother.The family tree is shaped like a pyramid, with the names of the three people in the photo written on the top, and the names of more than 50 cousins ​​who were the same generation as the young woman were written on the bottom.The woman stared at the family tree, and suddenly found something that she hadn't noticed before: among the more than 50 people of her generation, no matter who they were, as long as they searched for the previous generations according to the records in the family tree, they could be traced back. It all came from the girl in the middle of the photo, their great-grandmother.And the boys at both ends, needless to say, none of the offspring belong to them.

The young woman bent down to get a better look at the family tree.She wanted to find out from the family tree whether anyone else had no offspring like the two boys in the photo.Most notably one of her grandmother's brothers, an uncle whose name she could never recall, but who was well known for his oddly shaped nose.The young woman found two more broken family tree lines, but at this point she could no longer maintain a stooped position, so she straightened up and left the family tree and photo album.Immediately afterwards, the woman felt the fetus in the womb kick a few times.She hesitated for a while, smiled and stroked her stomach.At least, the family tree line has not been broken in her.

Our individual traits are all determined by our genes—the chemical instructions that determine our growth and structure.These instructions are all encapsulated in sperm and eggs, and are passed on to offspring by family ties, and finally to us by our biological parents.Not just "familial faces" (a general term for body shape), we also inherit a variety of physical, psychological, and behavioral traits through our genes, including many traits of sexuality. The purpose of this book is to gain a better understanding of human sexuality.In this book, we try to delve into how people with certain sexual strategies (patterns of sexual behavior) are more likely to win the race to reproduce than people with other sexual strategies.The so-called winning criterion here is to judge the number of descendants of future generations.Because there must be a sufficient number to constitute the scale of the future era.

No matter in the family or in the whole social population, those who can gain an advantage must be the descendants of the superior ancestors.These descendants all inherit the traits of their ancestors.For example, in scene 1, the young woman's peers did not inherit the nose of the unknown great-uncle, but all inherited the face shape of the great-grandmother.It can be seen that the young woman's cousins ​​of the same generation also indirectly inherited the "family sexual behavior characteristics" of the founder of the family, the great-grandmother, through generations.And no one in the same generation inherited the sexual behavior characteristics of the unknown uncle.Whatever sexual strategies he had, it was clear that his strategies were not successful and were not passed on to future generations.

Whether the ancestors produced so many offspring on purpose, or by chance, is meaningless to our generation.There is only one major cause that affects the character of our generation: who among the ancestors left offspring?How many descendants are left behind?Who left no offspring?In scene 1, the great-grandparents of the young woman enjoy sex and finally bring them a baby, and they may panic at the time.However, if that baby hadn't been born then, the young woman in Scene 1 and her fifty or so cousins ​​would never have existed in this world.In fact, the members of each generation of human beings are playing a game of reproduction, and everyone is scrambling to pass on their genes to future generations.In every game there are winners, like the little girl in that picture.On the other hand, in every game there are losers, like the two boys in the photo, who are the great uncles of the young woman.Everyone we live in this world is the offspring of winners, which can also be said to be the effect of winners' sexual strategies.

The race to reproduce will continue as long as some individuals have more offspring than others within the same generation.In our generation, competition is as fierce and brutal as in any previous generation.Because it is the ancestors who have the most children who can leave their genetic characteristics on their offspring after all, not those who have no children or have few children. Whether we know it or not, or whether we want to join the race, whether we care about it or not, we are all programmed to be successful in producing offspring and doing our best. Win the race to reproduce.Our ancestors won the reproductive race, and the genetic instructions they passed on to their offspring not only compelled us to join the race, but also secretly guided us how to win.Of course, some ancestors outperformed the competition, so their descendants also inherited sexual strategies that produced many children.When our generation counts race scores, some people have far more children than others.Now, let's use this book to explore why some people reproduce more successfully than others.