Sex at Dawn: the Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality Free

FREE SEX AT DAWN: THE PREHISTORIC ORIGINS OF MODERN SEXUALITY PDF

Since Darwin's day, we've been told that sexual monogamy comes naturally to our species. Mainstream science—as well as religious and cultural institutions—has maintained that men and women evolved in families in which a man's possessions and protection were exchanged for a woman's fertility and fidelity. But this narrative is collapsing. Sex at Dawn: the Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality and fewer couples are getting married, and divorce rates keep climbing as adultery and flagging libido drag down even seemingly solid marriages. How can reality be reconciled with the accepted narrative? While debunking almost everything we "know" about sex, they offer a bold alternative explanation in this provocative and brilliant book. Weaving together convergent, frequently overlooked evidence from anthropology, archaeology, primatology, anatomy, and psychosexuality, the authors show how far from human nature monogamy really is. Human beings everywhere and in every era have confronted the same familiar, intimate situations in surprisingly different ways. The authors expose the ancient roots of human sexuality while pointing toward a more optimistic future illuminated by our innate capacities for love, cooperation, and generosity. They explore why long-term fidelity can Sex at Dawn: the Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality so difficult for so many; why sexual passion tends to fade even as love deepens; why many middle-aged men risk everything for transient affairs with younger women; why homosexuality persists in the face of standard evolutionary logic; and what the human body reveals about the prehistoric origins of modern sexuality. In the tradition of the best historical and scientific writing, Sex at Dawn unapologetically upends unwarranted assumptions and unfounded conclusions while offering a revolutionary understanding of why we live and love as we do. Though this book wasn't able to respond to the regular criticism of evolutionary psychology the big question of "so what? Fantastic book. Those who feel threatened by the information in this book aren't actually reading it, they are just reacting to the idea that what they've always believed -- namely, that humans are Christopher RyanCacilda Jetha. He lives in Barcelona, Spain. She lives in Barcelona, Spain. Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality by Christopher Ryan

Christopher RyanCacilda Jetha. Hardcover List Price: By examining the prehistoric origins of human sexual behavior the authors are able to expose the fallacies and weaknesses of standard theories proposed by most experts. This is a provocative, entertaining, and pioneering book. I learned a lot from it and recommend it highly. The more dubious its evidentiary basis and lack of connection with current reality, the more ardently the scientific inevitability of monogamy is maintained—even as it falls away around us. A controversial, idea-driven book that challenges everything you think you know about sex, monogamy, marriage, and family. A book sure to generate discussion, and one likely to produce more than a few difficult conversations with family marriage counselors. A must-read for anyone interested in where our sexual impulses come from. These authors have a gift for making complex material reader-friendly, filling each chapter with humor and passion as well as dozens of revolutionary insights. Christopher Ryan, PhD, is a research Sex at Dawn: the Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality. He lives in Barcelona, Spain. She lives in Barcelona, Spain. Buy at Local Store Enter your zip code below to purchase from an indie close to you. 'Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality'

Forget what you think you know about the origin of species. Sex at Dawn sets out to prove that our prehistoric ancestors were happy and healthy, thanks in no small part to lots of egalitarian, polyamorous, noisy group sex. This book takes a swing at pretty much every big idea on human nature: that poverty is an inevitable consequence of life on earth, that mankind is by nature brutish, and, most important, that humans evolved to be monogamous. We've discussed the perils of evolutionary biology in this space before, but this book sets out to destroy almost each and every notion of the discipline, turning the field on its head and taking down a few big names in science in the process. Among the scientific set and the intellectuals who think our culture has too Sex at Dawn: the Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality sexual hangups, this book is buzzing. Andrew Sullivan Sex at Dawn: the Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality Dan Savage spent days on their blogs extolling the virtues of this book, leading to several heated discussions among commenters. Ryan is a research psychologist, and has a blog at Psychology Today. Whither the bonobo? When discussing our evolutionary origins, science has a habit of focusing on chimps alone, which are aggressive and cruel. But the Sex at Dawn: the Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality point out that the peaceable bonobo is just as closely related and may actually have more in common with humans in terms of "socio-sexual behavior and infant development" page The libidinous bonobos, however, are routinely ignored by researchers, "simply because bonobos raise doubts about the naturalness of human long-term pair bonding" page Life in the Stone Age was pretty fantastic. Our ancestors were foragers, wandering to find the next savanna when food got scarce. Humanity was so scattered that they rarely had to fight over the best feeding grounds. A varied diet and constant roaming resulted in excellent health: adults grew to be about six feet tall and live long into their 60s and 70s. Foraging tribes show "no evidence of hypertension, heart disease, or cancer. No anemia or common cold. No internal parasites. No sign of previous exposure to polio, pneumonia, smallpox, chicken pox, typhus, typhoid, tuberculosis, malaria, or serum hepatitis" page The nomadic lifestyle meant they had no sense of property or ownership, so few real reasons for conflict. John Lennon, are you listening? Also: group sex. And now we come to the orgy. If the sperm of more than one male are present in the reproductive tract of the ovulating female, the spermatozoa themselves compete to fertilize the ovum. Rather than men competing with one another to win "entrance" to a coy female looking for the best mate, the book argues that lots of men had sex with the same woman and let their sperm duke it out in the vaginal canal. Even to this day, the initial spurt of human ejaculate contains chemicals that "protect the sperm from chemicals in the later spurts of other men's ejaculate. These final spurts contain a spermicidal substance that slows the advances of any latecomers" page That explains, the authors argue, why women take so long to get revved up and men finish so quickly. It explains why women are louder during sex the so- called female copulatory vocalization [page ] —it served as a mating call of sorts for men in the area. The survival benefits were immense: since there was no way of telling who fathered which child, children were raised by the community of foragers rather than single monogamous pairs. Everyone had lots of orgasms women most of all. Women weren't used as property or bartering chips, Sex at Dawn: the Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality led to more equality between the genders. That's why men today are more interested in pornography featuring group sex scenes with multiple men and one woman, and why many people have a hard Sex at Dawn: the Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality staying faithful. It's just not natural. It's not so much hidden: the authors want people to stop deluding themselves about the ease of lifelong commitment. As Ryan said in one of his guest "Savage Love" columns, "Our greatest ambition for Sex at Dawn is that it will encourage young people like you to clarify their sexual nature before signing on to long-term commitments they can't get out of later without making a huge mess. Evolutionary psychology was on shaky ground before this book came out, and Sex at Dawn further rattles the foundations—not by irrefutably disproving those theories men rape because it's in their genetic blueprint to spread their seed; women have sex just to keep their sole mate from strayingbut by showing how easy it is to piece together prehistoric clues to Sex at Dawn: the Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality a variety of competing conjectures. That doesn't mean their thesis is bulletproof. But it does mean there's a lot of value in reconsidering basic assumptions about our beginnings that we widely accept today as gospel. Prose: Funny, witty, and light, it makes the plus pages of genetic and anthropological interpretation fly by. Construction: The authors spend a fair amount of time establishing how life might have existed for prehistoric humans when they weren't having sex, providing their theories with more depth and nuance. Shock Value: This book is a scandal in the best sense, one that will have you reading the best parts aloud and reassessing your ideas about humanity's basic urges well after the book is done.