I recently challenged TIPSters to provide the name for a scientific concept. The phenomenon is that subordinate males can gain access to females for copulation while the alpha males are competing with each other. What do we call these sneaky f*ckers and their opportunistic strategy?
I said it was easy but I was devious, sneaky even, hiding the answer in plain sight. So no one aced the question. Beth Benoit suggested "sneak and rape", and "sneakers", which is part of the way there. Tim Shearon advanced "sneaky copulations" and "sneaks", which is also close, but the former is euphemistic for the real term. And I think Kathy Morgan actually knows the word I´m looking for, but being a modest and polite person, she sensibly declined to state it. So here it is, gentle readers. The scientific term for those sneaky f*ckers is... "sneaky f*ckers", and the strategy is the "sneaky f*cker strategy". Yes. Believe me. And I must thank Hugh Foley for first pointing out this refreshingly candid and accurate term to me, one that is taboo in polite company. The term does appear in a number of academic publications. One example is a report by Guth and Guth (1998) on baboon fights, where they say, "Of course, j(.) [a mathematical function] may be identically 0 if there are no kin relationships...or no opportunities for "sneaky f*ckers" (p. 4). But who originated it? One frequent nomination is the great evolutionary biologist John Maynard Smith, and indeed Steven Rose, the activist British biologist told me (personal communication) that he had heard Maynard Smith use the term in a lecture and was "pretty sure" it was somewhere in his papers. But I could not find it there. Another name sometimes mentioned is Tim Clutton-Brock, a high-profile British biologist who studied roaring contests among alpha male red deer. He observed the phenomenon, but I could not find a paper where he used this term to describe it. So my nomination is neither of these people but the famous (or infamous, take your pick) Richard Dawkins (with J.R. Krebs). Notorious as an aggressive atheist and a dedicated evolutionist, it is not a stretch to imagine Dawkins as a daring potty-mouth academic as well. Dawkins and Krebs (1978) provide the earliest mention of this term that I can find in print. They do so in describing Clutton-Brock´s work, noting that in roaring contests of red deer stags,"Escalated contests are rare...because subordinate males, known as sneaky f*ckers, may steal matings during a prolonged fight (p. 294)." Perhaps they got it from Maynard Smith. But unless someone can come up with an earlier cite, I think Dawkins and Krebs must be provisionally credited with originating it. It makes its first audacious appearance in a chapter in the first edition of a textbook of behavioural ecology but seems to have been bowdlerised from the later 1993 edition, which is a pity. I recommend that everyone teaching evolutionary psychology make sure to discuss the concept and to utter the term which dares not speak its name. That oughta make those little f*ckers sit up and pay attention. Note: I used the * form of the word throughout, not from prudish concern but to avoid naughty-word filters. The authors whose use I cited made no such compromise. Stephen Guth, S., & Guth, W. (1998). Male fights of Hamadryas baboons. _Journal of Theoretical Biology_, 190, 1-14. Dawkins, R. & Krebs, J. (1978). Animal signals: information or manipulation? In: J.r. Krebs & N.B. Davies (eds), _Behavioural Ecology: an Evolutionary Approach, Blackwell Scientific, pp. 282-309. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Stephen L. Black, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, Emeritus Bishop's University e-mail: sbl...@ubishops.ca 2600 College St. Sherbrooke QC J1M 1Z7 Canada ----------------------------------------------------------------------- --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu)
