Okay, this is my "Jackass" post, in which I make a jackass of myself (and hope I won't do it again for a long, long time).

I'm sorry Top-Rock's post didn't attract more attention (or, at least, more response), but it dovetails nicely with something I read a long time ago (and, no, I can't cite my source).

Supposedly, a woman is twice as likely to become pregnant from a single act of rape as she is from a single act of consensual sex. Again supposedly, women have been known to ovulate completely out of cycle during a rape.

Assuming the validity of Top-Rock's attachment thesis, could a suceptibility to "rape pregnancy" have been a survival adaptation? I would presume that a female "adoptee" would be better treated and more quickly integrated into the tribe the more quickly she became pregnant.

Also, often when a female was "adopted", her children (especially her male children) would be slain, so becoming rapidly pregnant could be a racial survival mechanism, as well as an individual one.

As an aside, shortly after the French Voyageurs made their appearance in Canada, The Five (later Six) Nations of the Iroqouis embarked on a calculated program of neighborly genocide. Supposedly, they foresaw that the white men would multiply and eventually encroach upon their territory so, like the Soviet Union in the 1940's, they decided that their best defense was to push their borders as far out as possible. Over the roughly 150 years between Champlain and the advent of large numbers of white settlers in the Mohawk valley and upper Hudson, six neighboring tribes ceased to exist. (All of them were Algonquins and, no, the Mohicans were not one of them -- in fact, Cooper to the contrary, the Mohicans still exist and they have a very profitable casino in Connecticut.) All of the males over the age of twelve were slain and the women and children were adopted (their word), which greatly increased the population of the Confederacy. Unfortunately, a change in policy resulted in the Iroqouis becoming friendly with the British, which caused their downfall in the aftermath of the American Revolution.

If anyone wishes to take issue with any of this, please feel free, since most of it could qualify as hearsay and I have no emotional investment in my position.