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Those aphrodisiacs which affect the brain and senses in other ways - erotic images, descriptions or performances - certainly do work. So do the sexual postures which have formed the basis of hundreds of sex manuals - good and bad - down the ages. Variety is the best aphrodisiac and that is what all the concern with sexual posture is really about.
Variety as an aphrodisiac is easily understood. Since the beginning of time couples have needed an interesting and varied sexual diet to avoid boredom in what is essentially a repetitive activity. Strengthening one loving relationship by the simple expedient of using a little imagination is infinitely to be preferred to seeking variety in promiscuous and inevitably shallow relationships. The bewildering array of foods, drinks, herbs and spices which have been credited with aphrodisiac qualities is a much more difficult area. There is no proof that any of them work: the principles employed in making a selection for inclusion in this website will be explained in a moment. First there is the question of why people needed them, or felt they did. Here are a few tentative suggestions: 1. Most of us (at least most of us visiting this website) are fortunate enough to have a well-balanced diet. Those who choose to live on cakes or fast food at least know, if only in a general way, that these things do not constitute a healthy diet. Until relatively recently no such knowledge existed. The rich had the choice of everything, and ate badly by concentrating on meat. The middle class, where one existed, wished only to emulate the rich. The poor had vegetables - often only one vegetable - and insufficient meat. Nobody had the balanced diet with vitamins, minerals and protein which we (and our pets) now take for granted. The 'aphrodisiacs' of the rich, in which the medical books of the ancient and medieval wourld abound, and the folk recipes of the rural poor may represent an attempt to balance their respective diets. 2. Over-population was not always a problem. Most of the early religions were concerned (and some still seem to be) with increasing population. The fertility cults had animals associated with them and often plants of various kinds. Time seems to have transmuted some of these totemic animals and sacred plants into 'aphrodisiacs'. This does not necessarily rule out the possibility that they have aphrodisiac qualities since the protracted orgies and feats of copulation which gods like Dionysus demanded of their followers made San Fransisco in the early 1970s look like a quiet place. 3. Male dominated societies are very concerned with virility. Virility means succession because it produces sons. The symbol and instrument of all this is the penis: the magic wand which men have and women do not. Unfortunately the rigours of excessive endeavour - either in traditional warrior societies or in modern commerce - mean that the wand can sometimes lose its magic. Although an adjustment of priorities would have probably been sufficient to restore vigour, generations of high achievers have relied instead on quack remedies and fashionable stimulants. The inescapable biological differences between the sexes and the natural limitations of male sexual performance are another reason for the universal interest in aphrodisiacs. In India these matters have been the subject of serious study for thousands of years which is why no book on human sexuality can ignore Hindu erotology. 4. Until the advent of modern dentistry tooth decay was a problem and with it went halitosis. Many 'aphrodisiacs' had an aromatic, astringent and even anti-septic quality evidently intended (though this was never made clear) to overcome the ageold anaphrodisiac of bad breath.
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