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Sex at dawn : how we mate, why we stray, and what it means for modern relationships / Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá.
Author
Ryan, Christopher, 1962-
[Browse]
Format
Book
Language
English
Εdition
Kindle edition.
Published/Created
New York, NY : Harper, [2011]
©2010
Description
1 electronic book (420 pages) : illustrations, map
Availability
Available Online
Available only on a library iPad. Click here for information about iPad lending at Princeton University Library:
libguides.princeton.edu
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Location Service
Notes
Engineering Library - Stacks
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Details
Subject(s)
Sex
[Browse]
Sex
—
History
[Browse]
Sex customs
[Browse]
Marriage
[Browse]
Monogamous relationships
[Browse]
Primates
—
Sexual behavior
[Browse]
Sexual behavior in animals
[Browse]
Social evolution
[Browse]
Human evolution
[Browse]
Author
Jethá, Cacilda
[Browse]
Summary note
"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. Fewer 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? It can't be, according to renegade thinkers Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethå̊. While debunking almost everything we "know" about sex, they offer a bold alternative explanation in this provocative and brilliant book. Ryan and Jethå's central contention is that human beings evolved in egalitarian groups that shared food, child care, and, often, sexual partners. 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. With intelligence, humor, and wonder, Ryan and Jethå show how our promiscuous past haunts our struggles over monogamy, sexual orientation, and family dynamics. They explore why long-term fidelity can be 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."
Notes
Sold by: HarperCollins Publishers.
Originally published in hardcover in 2010, with a different subtitle.
Bibliographic references
Includes bibliographical references (pages [317]-382) and index.
Source of description
Description based on print version record.
Contents
Preface: Primate meets his match (a note from one of the authors)
Introduction: Another well-intentioned inquisition
Few million years in a few pages
Part 1: On The Origin Of The Specious:
Remember the Yucatan!
You are what you eat
What Darwin didn't know about sex
Flintstonization of prehistory
What is evolutionary psychology and why should you care?
Lewis Henry Morgan
Closer look at the standard narrative of human sexual evolution
How Darwin insults your mother (the dismal science of sexual economics)
Famously flaccid female libido
Male parental investment (MPI)
Mixed strategies in the war between the sexes
Extended sexual receptivity and concealed ovulation
Ape in the mirror
Primates and human nature
Doubting the chimpanzee model
In search of primate continuity
Part 2: Lust In Paradise (Solitary?):
Who lost what in paradise?
On getting funky and rockin' round the clock
Who's your daddies?
Joy of S E Ex
Promise of promiscuity
Bonobo beginnings
Mommies dearest
Nuclear meltdown
Making a mess of marriage, mating, and monogamy
Marriage: the "fundamental condition" of the human species?
On matrimonial whoredom
Paternity certainty: the crumbling cornerstone of the standard narrative
Love, lust, and liberty at Lugu Lake
On the inevitability of patriarchy
March of the monogamous
Jealousy: a beginner's guide to coveting thy neighbor's spouse
Zero-sum sex
How to tell when a man loves a woman
Part 3: Way We Weren't:
Wealth of nature (poor?)
Poor, pitiful me
Despair of millionaires
Finding contentment "at the bottom of the scale of human beings
Selfish meme (nasty?)
Homo economicus
Tragedy of the commons
Dreams of perpetual progress
Ancient poverty or assumed affluence?
On Paleolithic politics
Never-ending battle over prehistoric war (brutish?)
Professor Pinker, red in tooth and claw
Mysterious disappearance of Margaret Power
Spoils of war
Napoleonic invasion (the Yanomami controversy)
Desperate search for hippie hypocrisy and bonobo brutality
Longevity lie (short?)
When does life begin? When does it end?
Is 80 the new 30?
Stressed to death
Who you calling a starry-eyed romantic, pal?
Part 4: Bodies In Motion:
Little big man
All's fair in love and sperm war
Truest measure of a man
Hard core in the Stone Age
Sometimes a penis is just a penis
Prehistory of O
"What horrid extravagancies of Minde!"
Beware the devil's teat
Force required to suppress it
When girls go wild
Female copulatory vocalization
Sin tetas, no hay paraiso
Come again?
Part 5: Men Are From Africa, Women Are From Africa
On Mona Lisa's mind
Pervert's lament
Just say what?
Kellogg's guide to child abuse
Curse of Calvin Coolidge
Perils of monotomy (monogamy + monotony)
Few more reasons I need somebody new (just like you)
Confronting the sky together
Everybody out of the closet
Marriage of the Sun and the Moon
Author's note
Acknowledgments
Notes
References and suggested further reading
Index.
Show 88 more Contents items
Other title(s)
How we mate, why we stray, and what it means for modern relationships
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Other versions
Sex at dawn : the prehistoric origins of modern sexuality / Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá.
id
9962155643506421
Sex at dawn : how we mate, why we stray, and what it means for modern relationships / Christopher Ryan, PhD, and Cacilda Jethá, MD.
id
9968900393506421