Sex at Dawn The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality

Christopher Ryan, Cacilda Jetha

eBook - 2010

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 JethÁ. While debunking almost everything we "know" about sex, they offer a bold alternat...ive explanation in this provocative and brilliant book.Ryan and JethÁ'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... more