Posted by Steve Price on March 18, 1999 at 07:44:34:
In Reply to: Re: Rugs as a Way of "Getting Girls:" What a Concept! posted by R. John Howe on March 18, 1999 at 05:28:58:
Dear John,
If I understood Pat correctly, she wasn't saying that having a collection of rugs makes a person more attractive to a potential mate. I believe she suggests that the urge to collect colorful things is an inborn trait, and that it got that way through evolution. Brightly colored visual cues are important parts of mating rituals in many species, and obviously the more offspring an individual produces (that is, the more successful he/she is in mating), the more his/her genes become represented in the population.
We are predominantly visual creatures (in most animals the most significant sense is smell), and Pat may have identified one of the sources of the "collector drive."
As for a rug collection being an attraction to others, the fact that it requires a certain level of affluence and suggests at least a minimal sensitivity to things artistic, makes it likely that it would more often be an attractant than a repellant. Note that even this can be given a convenient evolutionary basis: affluence and sensitivity are perceived as making a person a more fit parent, hence, more desirable as a mate.
Happy hunting (for rugs, of course),
Steve Price