Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality
4.1
119
5
1
Hardcover
USD
25.77
$25.77
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780061707803 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | HarperCollins Publishers |
| Publication date: | 06/29/2010 |
| Pages: | 400 |
| Sales rank: | 324,868 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.50(d) |
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Sex at Dawn
4.1 out of 5
based on
0 ratings.
119 reviews.
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This book is fantastic!!! Sure to catch on... A fascinating eye-opener that addresses questions about human sexuality that we've nearly all come across -- it may finally answer things you've always wondered about!
It takes a close look at the origins of our prehistoric past to examine the sharing, egalitarian nature of the communal groups we evolved in, and how far we've come so far from that now in our modern, often conflicted constructs.
The evidence is carefully researched, and the stories are captivating - taking you across history and across the globe as well, recounting fascinating anecdotes on sexual practices from cultures all over the world and examining the many surprising alternative approaches there have been to the same core issues. And it's all explained in language that's sharply intelligent -- and still fun, clear, and easy to follow.
This brilliant debut -- by a husband/wife team, no less! -- sheds light on how understanding the way human sexuality evolved is critical to answering questions about our lives today. Why is long-term sexual monogamy so difficult for many couples? Why do middle-aged men risk so much for meaningless flings? What do our own bodies tell us about our sexual evolution?
This book takes you on a journey that covers topics from the Origins of War to the peaceful, sexy nature of our close Bonobo cousins. If you've never picked up a text on evolutionary psychology, this is the perfect book to explain some fascinating concepts. If you're curious to travel a road that whisks you across the world to learn about exotic cultures and across time to explore our promiscuous past - you might enjoy this immensely. You could just come away knowing more about human nature - and about yourself as well!
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This book was fascinating. His theory seems very plausible and he presents it in a very entertaining way.
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This book was compulsively interesting, well documented and genuinely fun to read. You'll feel alot better about yourself and unsettled about the supposed benefits of civilization after reading it.
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This book changed my life. Well, not really. It more just confirmed what's painfully obvious to anyone who's paying attention and not caught up in one of a million contemporary hang-ups: people were not meant to be monogamous. Not men, not women, not gays, not bisexuals, not straight people, not Westerners, not Asians, not Africans.... No one.
The fact that they had to write a book about this, contradicting America's moral authorities with the only thing that makes them burn (science), is a testament as to how so many people can accept a ridiculous idea without examining it.
It's not a technical book. I'm not an anthropologist but I understood the argument. While some of the humor is a bit American Pie, the argument is proved. The most scathing criticism I found of this book is that anthropologists don't really say that humans are by nature monogamous, which doesn't do anything to disprove the main point.
The perspective isn't "Be a slut" but more "Do whatever you want, but realize what humans were doing for 95% of the species existence is probably not how you're trying to live your life." The tone itself is a useful antidote to sexual moralizing.
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Great fun to read and very stimulating. Despite the denunciations of the patriarchialists and those insistent on the biological imperative of monogamy, the authors provide a vast number of exceptions and reanimate the concept of primal omnigamy. Would that Western Civilization would catch on!
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Just one of the greatest books I have ever read. This should be mandatory reading for anybody who wants to be in a relationship. Just so fantastic. I could not recommend this book more.
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A must read for people in alternative lifestyles and those that don't understand them.
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What a provocative book for our book club!!! Real insights into beliefs, attitude and the role of religion and tribal mores.
A definite keeper for one's personal library and an intelligent way to explore ideas with others.
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I loved this book. I normally don't read non-fiction but I loved the sarcastic tone sprinkled throughout this novel. I am open minded, so to read a different perspective on this topic was refreshing. Their ideas are not forced onto the reader, they are merely presented with facts to back them up. Finished this in about a week. And honestly I would have finished it sooner but I actually took a day or two in between reads to think about what I have just read.
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If you have ever thought of why people act the way they do when it comes to relationships and human social interaction then this would be the book to read. It is very well written with a lot of resources that you can look at yourself to see where the authors find their information. It is not written in a dry form like some other books written on this topic, but written like a person looking for answers. This book will open your mind at why we look at sex as we do and why over time we get bored with a long term partner and could warder off looking for something new (this goes for both sexes). It takes a look at why monogamy is failing with people separating without working on underlining issues or not looking at options at keeping their relationship intact. This is look from both a physical as well as psychology view. There is so many different topics in this book a review cannot cover them all. It is a book better read with the reader drawing their own conclusions on what the author's message is and what he wants the reader to know.
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Very readable, with a wry wit and a no nonsense approach to human and ape sexuality. This book is very well researched, and spends a fair bit of time on debunking the conventional wisdom. I suspect that it might be a bit scary to take on the established views on such a hot button topic, but the author manages to insert enough humor to help defuse the tension.
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I can’t give this book an endorsement. I was very let down, expecting more than the author’s undergraduate grudge-match against the ‘standard narrative.’ This reads more like a middle-school Don Quixote on some self-ordained quest than it does as a serious read.
If you’re looking for a better book on a similar subject, then I would recommend ‘The Ethical Slut,’ which will offer a more pragmatic and philosophical guide to living. I’m not convince there’s any more at stake than the author’s ego.
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OUTSTANDING. Turns the idea of monogamy on its head. The authors systematically tackle every mistaken idea about monogamy being "part of our DNA" and prove otherwise. They also make very interesting arguments about agriculture being a terrible mistake for human civilization. This is a revolutionary book that's my new #1 favourite academic book.
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I think absolutely everyone should read this book. It is fantastic and I will definitely be re-reading it! I can't recommend it highly enough. Do yourself a favor and check this one out!!
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This book breaks down the myth of human monogamy and builds a very compelling case for our species having evolved with multi-male/multi-female mating. Written with clarity and humor, this book is easy to read and very entertaining and contains a lot of solid information.
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Imagine humankind is not naturally monogamus! And, she proves it with graphic examples...
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Well, if nothing else, I can certainly say that this book was an entertaining read. And most of the evidence presented does make sense when you think about it. However, towards the end of the book, the argument felt as if it was breaking apart. And the anecdote about his friend who cheated on his wife just felt out of place. It was like the book spent most of its time building up to this giant revelation...and then it fell short. In the end, all the reader gets is "I know this guy who cheated on his wife and it ended in divorce and misery for all involved." And that left me feeling like perhaps this was just some giant treatise on how men are born to not be monogamous and women should just deal with it. Until that point, the book felt quite egalitarian, but the ending was not. There's even an afterword addressing that point in the paperback version, so I'm guessing that I'm not the only reader who left feeling this way.
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This book has gotten buzz because it argues that monogamy is new fangled invention. The authors argue that when the human race was foraging and hunting, that we behaved like bonobos, where both males & females are sexual active with a wide range of partners.While they do argue that conventional wisdom of placing monogamy on the humans of that era really does not fit, their main point is that we have in general, really underestimated their quality of life. They point to studies that have shown that skeleton sizes actually shrinking in the initial part of the agricultural era. And that diets actually may have been quite constrained once people gave up their foraging, nomadic ways.I have no expertise in anthropology or evolutionary psychology, but I found this to be engaging, interesting book.
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Sex at Dawn debunks the notion that humans are naturally monogamous. Along the way they demonstrate that Hobbes's view that prehistoric human life was "solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short" is false in every particular. They also refute the idea that humans are inherently selfish. They claim that scarcity and conflict arose with the development of agriculture, and propose that "human prehistory was in fact a time of relative peace and prosperity." They show that the view that humans are naturally promiscuous better fits with the facts about human/primate sexuality than the prevailing myth of the monogamous nuclear family.
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This book is an awesome read that kept me interested from start to finish. I¿m not usually much for anthropology or psychology. Sexuality, however, is an interesting subject in that we tend to think about it a lot. even when we aren¿t thinking about it, sexuality is thrust in our face by the media, politics, advertising, and in many other ways. That being said, this book could easily have been titled ¿War at Dawn¿ or ¿Poverty at Dawn¿ as the author touches on these subjects as well. He spends a lot of time on what he calls the ¿standard narrative¿ of human nature: monogamy, universal marriage, innate violence and proclivity for war, and the fact that we are better off now than before. Much of the research in these areas leads to data that could more readily lead to the opposite conclusions of those made by researchers biased to support the standard narrative.One thing I took from the book is that while the standard narrative makes millions of people feel guilty and shamed for not being able to achieve monogamy, for failed families and relationships, or even for just ¿lusting in one¿s heart¿, we should actually feel like we¿ve qualified for the World Cup if we are able be monogamous. And I¿m sure that you know the number soccer players that actually play in a World Cup is a small percentage of the soccer players out there. And we certainly shouldn¿t assume that our partner has the same view of marriage/monogamy as we do. It¿s a topic to be discussed so there is no misunderstanding, I suppose.The book points out that neither of our closest evolutionary relatives, the chimpazees or the bonobos, are monogamous. Both have multi-male, multi-female systems. In fact the only monogamous monkeys dwell in trees, like gibbons (the only monogamous ape), and are very far removed from us in an evolutionary sense. And with other animals that we are told ¿mate¿ for life, like swans, the word ¿mate¿ is used in a loose sense; ¿partnering¿ for life might be closer to the truth as it does not imply sexual fidelity.Regardless of your personal stance on the issue, this book does a good job of presenting the other side of the standard narrative. The authors don¿t suggest that we should ¿go wild¿ or make any recommendations on what to do with the data. Merely stating, ¿Only by arriving at a more nuanced understanding of the nature of human sexuality will we learn to make smarter decisions about our long-term commitments. But this understanding requires us to face some uncomfortable facts.¿
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Sex Before Dawn, by Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jetha, is a befuddling book. It sets out to do three things - to challenge the belief that humans evolved as a monogamous species, to argue that agriculture and industrialization have forced us into monogamous patterns that cause relationship discord, and to suggest an alternative model of multipartner mating patterns for human beings. To do this, they propose an examination of the sexual behaviors of hunter gatherer tribal groups, great apes, and a review of archaeological evidence. While the authors do provide some strong arguments and evidence, other parts of their work don't stand up to scrutiny, and I would be very cautious about drawing strong conclusions.
The core problem of the book is their logical errors. The authors doe a good job of making their first two arguments in the book - they suggest through primate and tribal group studies that humans are not necessarily monogamous, and that monogamous patterns wouldn't have been advantageous for early humans. They highlight that social adaptations and flexibility in humans would likely have led to more promiscuous patterns, not dissimilar from bonobos. The authors succeed in showing that the onset of agriculture, industry, and capitalism would create new types of insecurity that would make monogamous mating strategies more advantageous (though this seems to downplay the existence of property rights in pre-agricultural societies, which doesn't mesh well with the fossil record). But then, inexplicably, the authors downplay the flexibility of human sexual behavior, suggesting that our early adaptations to promiscuous patterns necessitate continued promiscuity. This is particularly frustrating because, early in the book, the authors use the flexibility of human sexual behavior to challenge the traditional narrative of genetic competition. It seems they want to have their cake and eat it too.
The other problem with the book is in the writing. Readers will come to the end of a well written and researched section on a complex topic, and then the authors will pepper in incorrect or grossly missummarized "facts" from other fields (for example, the authors seem to be unaware of the entire academic field of family studies and rely purely on pop culture images of marriage counselors), and then pepper in crude jokes that are tonally jarring. These make it hard for a reader to feel like the authors are really credible - if they're making errors on easily verifiable claims about child abuse risk or divorce statistics, and then punctuating it with dick jokes, then why should we give credence to their nuanced claims about copulatory vocalizations?
Again, I don't want to dismiss the book out of hand - I do think there are good points and information hidden within it. But I don't think there's enough here to support the author's case, and I don't think the authors have fully thought through their logic. When they do, a more rigorous and better edited book could make a real impact.
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I would definitely Recommend this book
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Lots of detailed information from many sources, pretty interesting, would recommend
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Sure. Meet me at hot stuff res 2
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Thanks. Kisses your cheek. Smiles. Thats exactly what i wanted to hear.
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