Medieval tournaments replaced actual battle as the arena for sexual selection among knights
Evidence
Actual battle was the best test of a knight’s mettle, but it did not lend itself to the attention of women. There simply were not enough battles to go around, so the focus of male aggression turned to tournaments. Tournaments afforded knights with opportunities to demonstrate their strength and courage in front of noble women, and everything about these spectacles reeked of sexual selection. Men fought each other in ritualized battles of strength, often charging from opposing directions on horseback with leveled lances in high-speed clashes that shattered wood and knocked contestants to the ground. — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 175
Categorization
- XREF: Direct human-animal parallel: tournaments as ritualized display analogous to animal combat displays discussed elsewhere in the book. — connects to: Medieval lords sequestered women to monopolize reproduction — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 699; Excess rival males over scarce fertile females drove knightly combat in medieval Europe — Emlen, Douglas J, Animal Weapons_ The Evolution of Battle, 169
- QUESTION: How much did tournament frequency and rules evolve precisely to enable more males to demonstrate worth?