What we can learn from stirpiculture: the eugenic cult of group marriage and seminal retention

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Genetic Engineering, Eugenics, Cloning & Non-Traditional Breeding Programs

 I have written often on this blog before about how eugenics, now associated with the social conservatism of the Nazi Reich, was at its beginning attached to much more liberal causes like birth control and free love. Indeed, outside Nazi Germany, very few people have attempted to institute a positive eugenics program (selective breeding); most successful eugenics programs have been negative eugenics programs (discouraging the breeding of some) such as birth control and abortion which early advocates wanted to direct mostly at the poor. However, the first positive eugenics program in American was not started by social conservatives but advocates of group marriage and male seminal retention. 

The Oneida Community was founded by John Humphrey Noyes in 1850. Noyes preached a Christian doctrine of "perfectionism", believing that Jesus had already returned in the year 70 AD, and so humans already had the ability to live in paradise on earth which they could build. The Oneida Community was based upon a communal lifestyle. The Oneida Community believed that traits like possessiveness and attachment were negative qualities which got in the way of their perfectionist mission, and so they encouraged group marriage where every woman was married to every man in the community and free love was practiced. 

But free love comes with the negative consequence of not knowing who the father is of the child. This was a particular snag for the Noyes because he also attempted to run a positive eugenics program which he called "stirpiclultre" where only the most spiritually (this was stressed most), physically and mentally sound would reproduce. In fact, community members who wanted to have children had to go before a committee before having the child, all children were to be planned. In order to preserve both group marriage and selective breeding, Noyes taught male seminal retention; this is the act of not ejaculating during sex or learning how to climax without ejaculating. Obviously learning to climax without ejaculating would be preferable to simply not climaxing at all due to fear of ejaculation as the former would provide more pleasure to the man. The community wanted people and especially women to enjoy sex. They were very sexually liberal with older women who were beyond the ability to produce children were allowed to have sex with younger male members, and instead of being viewed as lose women they were considered spiritual leaders. 

The practice of male seminal retention was very effective as only 12 unplanned pregnancies were recorded in the community, however, 58 planned eugenic stirpicultre pregnancies were recorded between 1869 and 1979. The community practiced non-attachment because they wanted their followers to focus on the community rather than individuals, so after breastfeeding the child, the children were raised in a communal fashion and in a separate house from the parents and were encouraged to bond with members tightly who were not their biological parents. Those who became pregnant in the stirpiculture program were advised to do with a bit of aloofness as this was a practical matter. This however caused some rifts as some parents wanted to spend more time with their own children. This along with a desire for traditional marriage was part of the reason why the community eventually broke up, along with accusations of statutory rape as the community was divided on what age sexual activity should begin. 

Today eugenicists are looking for any way to start a positive eugenics program, but this would take a large community effort. Free love is often a good way to get people involved in cults, and so the idea of group marriage could be brought forward again to entice members into the community. The idea of seminal retention is intriguing as it puts the power of birth control in the hands of the man rather than the women wich avoids chemical birth control and contraceptives and which the Oneida Community believed was more natural, and some believe seminal retention leads to heightened mental, physical and spiritual states of being. As interest in pure monogamy is waning, perhaps group marriage can be used again to entice people into a eugenics cult, and the men can especially be brought in through the ability to learn seminal retention. However, maybe strict group marriage would not be advisable as some would wish to practice monogamy or polygyny, and perhaps there should be more input from the parents in their children's lives. However, free love and seminal retention mixed in with the idea of selective breeding (which is contradictory), maybe be enough to relaunch a eugenics cult in our lifetime.