That is quite interesting - I had somehow missed the evolutionary arguments around "concealed ovulation". The thing is that it is not so concealed when you learn how. (When I learned to do this I was able to "contracept" quite effectively, using only the odd condom, and that only when necessary, and I only ever became pregnant twice, at times of my own choosing).
I do think much of this knowledge has been kept, at various times and places, by the older women, who, no doubt passed it on when needed. It is well known that most modern hunter gatherer women space their births very effectively, and it seems likely that women may have known how to do this in a great many cultures. Farming women, for their part, mostly have not spaced their births. (Whether they simply lost the necessary knowledge, or decided it was more useful to aim for a larger number of children, so the knowledge could be dispensed with, is an interesting question we may never be able to answer).
But ultimately, yes, what we learn about sex and conception nowadays is geared mainly around the sale of products, and encouraging learned helplessness and self-ignorance, in exchange for "convenience".
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branchandroot
(no subject)
Date: 2022-03-11 11:16 am (UTC)I do think much of this knowledge has been kept, at various times and places, by the older women, who, no doubt passed it on when needed. It is well known that most modern hunter gatherer women space their births very effectively, and it seems likely that women may have known how to do this in a great many cultures. Farming women, for their part, mostly have not spaced their births. (Whether they simply lost the necessary knowledge, or decided it was more useful to aim for a larger number of children, so the knowledge could be dispensed with, is an interesting question we may never be able to answer).
But ultimately, yes, what we learn about sex and conception nowadays is geared mainly around the sale of products, and encouraging learned helplessness and self-ignorance, in exchange for "convenience".