Eve's Farm

Mae's outburst elicited a storm of mumbling and gesturing among the male leaders. Finally, raising his hand for calm, Walter stood. "Mae, there is no point in insulting us just because nobody wants your body anymore. Maybe if you got some exercise once in a while, like pushing yourself away from feed trough, somebody might get interested again."

Walter's retort drew loud laughter from the male members. Mae's face turned an angry red. "Look, you old goat, you have as much trouble with this sex thing as I do. Don't even think about pretending you don't! Furthermore, all of the older people are having the same problem. None of the sexy young people who appeal to us wants anything to do with us. What we need are partners! Wouldn't you be a lot happier if there was a woman who cared about you - a woman who would clean your clothes, help you bathe, or feed you? A woman might do those things for you if you did similar things for her -- took care of her, held her at night, had sex with her occasionally. However, you can't just grab a partner when you start getting old. You have to start when you're still young, and you can build a whole lifetime of shared experiences together that will sustain both of you when you're getting older. Wouldn't that be a beautiful way to live?"

"Look, Mae, you're right," Walter replied as Mae sat back down in the circle with the others. "I thought this tribal council thing would do it for me with the chicks, but it hasn't. Sure, I can throw my weight around a bit, and I get extra food at the feasts, but it's just not enough with the girls. So, let's go over this again. Even if I wanted a partner, and it does sound nice by the way, how is it supposed to work?"

"Okay, here's what I see. First, we have to stop the kids from having sex until they're sixteen or so..."

"Why sixteen? The kids are ready by fourteen. Most of them start even before that!"

"That's the point. If we make them wait for a few years, they will get good and horny. By sixteen, they'll be ready to climb trees upside down to get sex. So, they'll be more than willing to play nice with each other and pick a good partner. Beside which, we can turn that extra sexual energy to lots of good uses."

"But, Mae, how are we going to do that? This short-term thing we're doing now will not hold for very long. I'm surprised that it has even lasted this long. If we try to extend it for years, they'll just ignore us. Even if we punish a few of them, the rest will just get better at hiding it."

Just then, there was a loud belch from the corner where George, the storyteller, was just arising from his usual drunken stupor. "The Great Mother can make them do it," he said.

Walter was annoyed. "George! Thanks for finally joining us. You know, you should ease up on that fermented juice a bit. What is all this 'Great Mother' crap you keep babbling about? Are you having more of your 'visions'"?

On wobbly legs, George drew himself up proudly. "Do not insult the Great Mother! She is the creator and mother of all things, and She is all-powerful. Bad things happen to people who aren't courteous to her," he hinted darkly. "And, yes, she speaks to me through the sacred drink."

Walter was unmoved by the threat. "It seems to me, George, that the 'Great Mother' was speaking to a quite number of people a few nights ago."

"Yes, it is true that a gang of young ruffians stole some of the sacred drink while I was meditating, but that's what I was talking about. It was the Great Mother that made them stop."

Suddenly Walter remembered the unusually contrite demeanor of the young men when he, himself, had confronted them the following day about their unruly behavior. "What exactly did you say to them?"

A smug grin spread across George's face. "I explained the Great Mother's powers to them in great detail, and I told them that while the She was merciful, if they ever did it again, She would fry their asses. You should have seen their faces. I scared the crap out of them. It was great! They've been really respectful ever since."

Even Walter was impressed. "Respectful? That crew? Wow!"

Suddenly Mae jumped back up, very excited, all sorts of possibilities bubbling around in her mind. "So, we can use the Great Mother to control their behavior, right? That means that not only can we stop them from having sex, but we can make them respectful and obedient while they're doing it. This is wonderful news, George! I take back every nasty thing I ever said about you."

George looked a bit confused. "Thanks...I think." Then he dismissed that thought and continued. "Look, we shouldn't wait until they're twelve or thirteen to start training them in the ways of the Great Mother. We need to start when they are much younger and build them up gradually. Then, by the time they are old enough for sex, we already have them firmly in hand. I'll have to put together some good stories about why this is so important to the Great Mother and to them, but that won't be hard. There is another thing, though. We need to start clamping down on all this sex in public. It will be a lot easier to control the kids if they aren't seeing the adults having fun. We also need to make sure that everybody keeps their butts covered. We don't want them running around advertising their wares, so to speak."

"Amen to that, George." Mae chimed in. "I'm so sick of watching those young sluts rolling around in the dirt, moaning and hollering, that I could spit. It's disrespectful to the older folk. On that butt-covering point, I don't think that will be a problem with the girls. They like dressing. On top of that, it's gotten so bad out there recently that if a girl even bends over to scratch her foot, she's likely to have some idiot stuff his pole up her hole -- and she considers herself lucky if he just gets the right hole. The cloth covering helps with that problem a lot."

Walter suddenly jumped back into the conversation. "You know, I'm beginning to like this Great Mother thing. One of the problems that we have with military training is that it is hard to motivate a young man to risk his life in battle just because we tell him to. Maybe if you convince him that he's fighting for the Great Mother, he'll fight a lot harder. He'll still fear death, of course, but maybe not so much."

"I think I can help with that, too." George responded. "Nobody likes to think about death, least of all me, but last night the Great Mother sent me a vision. She told me that death isn't the end, that after our body dies we go to a wonderful place if we've been faithful to the Great Mother. So, if he's been faithful and a good soldier, his death will be his entrance into the Great World Beyond forever."

Walter raised his eyebrows. "George, I'm with Mae on her new opinion of you. I'm very impressed. Not only can we control the people while they are young, but we can control them later, too, because they will always have their passage to the Great World Beyond hanging over their heads. This is incredible work!"

George absolutely preened in their newfound admiration for him. "Thank you. It's nothing, really. Any good visionary could have done it."

~~~~~~

Thus was marriage invented on Eve's Farm - not for love, nor for possessiveness, nor for support, though all of those played a role - but because society's leaders needed a tool to control their villagers' behavior and dreams. It found that tool in the strict control of sexuality, aided immeasurably by the mind-control tactics of religion. This sexual behavior control -- marriage - though it has evolved over the thousands of years since that time, is the foundation of our modern civilization.