Paedophilia understood as temporary phase in ancient times

Disclaimer: Pedophiles are often divided into several groups. Pedophilia is thought to be caused by several factors, and each group might have it's own explanation. It could be that what we call pedophilia actually are several distinct phenomena. The following text is an attempt to explain fixated, friendly and social pedophiles.

Assumption 1: Human sexuality is the base mechanism for establishing relationship.

Assumption 2: There exists a human nesting instinct aimed at a social setting.

Assumption 3: Boys in puberty are forced to establish a social framework for their offspring.

Assumption 4: Cognitive distortions can block psycho-sexual development.

Assumption 5: Current laws interfere with genetic coded behavior.

Hypothesis: Paedophilia is triggered by social factors during childhood which the boy unconsciously perceives as a danger to the future of his offspring. Having a paedophile phase had an evolutionary advantage.

Corollary 1: Prepubescent boys are the best option.

Corollary 2: The attraction to boys is primarily not sexual.

Corollary 3: Ancient Greeks modified behavior into ritualized pederasty.

Corollary 4: Boy-wives of Africa, Japanese wakashūdo, master and apprentice, etc are remnants of it.

Corollary 5: Being surrounded by boys is a sign of status.

Reasoning to assumption 1: Men do not have penis bones while women have concealed ovulation. Both are a major disadvantage with respect to simple procreation. The concealed ovulation allowed multi-male communities and is a requirement to get the father involved in child rearing. The role of oxytocin as a contact barrier lowering hormone and its release during sexual arousal indicate this. We know from our youth that unreplied love made us hornier and hornier. Sexual arousal can be interpreted as an enforcement to seek intimate contact.

Reasoning to assumption 2: The human brain consumes 20% of all energy, when we are resting. Much of our skill is learned over a long period. Successful child rearing is only possible in a bigger community. If so, we must seek favorable conditions before we start procreation. This behavior must have a genetic base, since it was necessary with the evolution of homo sapiens.

Reasoning to assumption 3: Similar to other species, the male attracts the female and invites her into a proper home. For homo sapiens this means that boys have to form a social group for girls/women to enter. Gender roles became specialized, requiring men to be more social with each other than women. During the hunt of larger animals, communication between men is required, while women might learn from each other by imitation. For spreading over larger territories, new groups must be formed. The logical consequence is for boys to form a new group and wander off. The related social mechanism must have been genetically coded. There must be a trigger for that behavior, a threshold of some form. Then an urge of independence from the family is developed.

Reasoning to assumption 4: Malignant mothers can severely disrupt the sexual development of sons. According to G. Bleibtreu-Ehrenberg, sexual behavior is learned. This learning process depends on the conditions. Intimacy requires the exchange of emotions. Emotional blindness and fear of reprisal will stun any approach toward the opposite sex. This learning process is related to the development of the frontal cortex with the optimal period during and shortly after puberty, see Michael Griesemer's Integrative theory.

Reasoning to assumption 5: Sexual repression was established with the ancient Rome. Christianity imposed drastic restrictions on sexual behavior.

Explanation to hypothesis: A boy grows up in his tribe. As a human his maturation is delayed as a consequence of cooperative breeding, obligate monogamy and concealed ovulation. As he grows up he is assigned a role in his community. Unconsciously he evaluates the situation with respect to the situation of his future offspring. This is as simple as answering questions like: Do I have self-esteem? Am I important? Do they invest in me? If it seems unreasonable to continue in the tribe and to raise offspring in the tribe, then the boy has to act when sexual urges get strong. 

This means during or shortly after puberty the youth has to leave the tribe. However, he has to assemble a group of like-minded fellows. This means establishing strong bonds and then setting off and leading them into wilderness. Selecting the right fellowship advances his personal status so much that he perceives himself as unthreatened. The trigger finished firing and his development continues. This allows him to proceed with procreation.

Reasoning to corollary 1: The right selection of the fellowship must somehow be genetic coded. The fellows should be of support, but not interfere with own procreation at least in the beginning. The first son will inherit the tribe. This means to select the oldest boys that are not yet sexually mature, ergo prepubescent. Moreover, they should be intelligent, healthy, robust, similar to oneself. Some kind of kin-selection could take place. Moreover, since the ovulation is concealed, selecting the right bunch of boys reduces the consequences of infidelity. Loyalty of the selected fellows to the future son is advantageous.

Reasoning to corollary 2: The attraction to boys by paedophiles is aimed at establishing a relationship. There is an genetically dictated urge to surround oneself with prepubescent boys. Not being allowed to do so increases the force of underlying relationship building mechanism - sexual arousal. Since sexuality is poorly understood, the only obvious next step is sexual behavior. However, in reality boy lovers are confused, when they get into contact with boys. The sexual arousal that existed before the meeting disappears and some kind of responsibility and care takes over. Moreover, boy lover and the boy see each other as equivalent. Judith V. Becker reports that paedophiles are juveniles in their fantasies.

Reasoning to corollary 3: Ancient Greeks lived in small villages on small islands and were divided into many small tribes. Fights between tribes were frequently. Hence new tribes had to be established. The introduction of laws ritualized the courtship between erastes and pais. The established strong bonds were beneficial for the son of the erastes, since he got older semi-relatives to rely on. This must have been an advantage when fighting neighbors.

Reasoning to corollary 4: The acquirement of a younger one increased ones status. Instead of forming a new tribe and setting of, a new institution was build, which had to be beneficial in order to survive. Teaching the younger one takes over some of the burden of child rearing. This can be seen similar to a symbiosis.

Reasoning to corollary 5: Bacha bazi, the eunuchs of ancient Asia can be seen as such. Moreover, even in current culture the theme of surrounding boys is recurrent. Even the alien in "Star Gate" was surrounded with boys.

Conclusion and possible explanation of today's paedophilia: A boy grows up in his family. He might have several older siblings, or his family is very small. Probably he does not have a father figure that supports him. He might be trying to break out of his family, rendering him a run-away or child criminal. Or he submits himself to the current rules of society, which demands him to stay in his family. Staying in his family creates a cognitive dissonance with his genetically programmed urge to escape his family. The urge requires him to establish relationship with boys, hence he start chasing them. He develops cognitive distortions that blind him for the effects his family has on him. A google search for malignant narcissistic mother gives plenty of results showing the effect of these distortions. The boy can not admit to himself that he would prefer to build an own family with the admired boys, since he has to show the right emotions to his family in order to survive. Blinded for the real aim of his chasing efforts, he assumes that he has a sexual interest in them. During puberty and young adulthood, the stigmatization of paedophilia, uncertainty about oneself, and the constant reminder burns the perceived sexual orientation as a convincing pattern into his brain.

Discussion of the evolutionary advantage of having a paedophile phase: This is based on the uncle-chester-theory in "The descent of chester" by ironclad. This theory however does not assume that uncle chester has offspring and applies to chimps and other primates as well, since no special human qualities are used during the explanation.

Being a paedophile when assembling the fellowship has benefits. Uncle Chester selects the most able, but not yet mature boys. He performs some kind of kin-selection by selecting only certain boys. He is also able to establish strong emotional and social bonds with them, enabling them to withstand attacks more easily. Outsmarting the enemy is also a very strong selector. Acquiring a group of loyal friends is beneficial to the own offspring, which will carry either the own genes, or in case of an unfaithful wive, the genes of one of the selected friends. Since most skills are learned, the intelligence of a potential fellow must be tested before admitting him into the fellowship. Hence grooming and close interaction is required. Being a temporary paedophile before creating own offspring is beneficial for the latter.