© Peter Watson 2017 female. Observation would have been even more difficult – not to say dangerous – with wild animals. More obvious would have been the fact that, in order for intercourse to take place, the penis needed to be erect, hard. Is this where the interest in hard, piercing parts of animals comes in? Did early people, for a time at least, consider penetration as the pre-eminent element/act in reproduction? Is that why the hard parts of animals were valued, and kept, and in effect hidden inside buildings, to guarantee their security and endurance? To ensure the success and fertility of all who inhabited those houses? According to David Lewis-Williams, even at Çatalhöyük the phenomenon of birth was not fully understood. Chapter 7: Ancestors This was surely the biggest psychological change of all, the change from which all others derive. Until the principle of paternity was understood, the tribe or clan was the basic social and psychological unit. Women would have swelled up and given birth on no apparent rhythm and therefore no doubt would have seemed mysterious and miraculous creatures. As to the question of what people thought they were doing, having sex in those days, there are two answers. One, as now, it was a pleasurable activity, with no other reason needed for its occurrence. Two, we know that animals indulge in sex without, so far as we know, having any idea of its ultimate ‘purpose’. People were in the same position until the domestication of the dog. Before the principle of paternity was understood ancestors would have been those who had ‘gone before’. Some would have been more eminent than others, lived longer than others, but – presumably – everyone would have been more or less equal, though no doubt friendships would have formed, and rivalries. But the discovery of the principle of paternity changed everything. Once people knew who their fathers were, nuclear families would have formed, the concepts of brothers and sisters and cousins would have emerged, the idea of grandparents and grandchildren and dynasties would have given people an extra layer of identity beyond the clan. Children ‘belonged’ to parents as never before.