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 Jetha. While debunking almost
everything we "know" about sex, they offer a bold alternative explanation in this
provocative and brilliant book.
Ryan and Jetha'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.
.Sex at Dawn is the single most important book about human sexuality since Alfred
Kinsey unleashed Sexual Behavior in the Human Male on the American public in 1948..
Dan Savage)
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