Sex at Dawn
The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality
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4.2 • 92 Ratings
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
“Sex at Dawn challenges conventional wisdom about sex in a big way. 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.” — Andrew Weil, M.D.
“Sex at Dawn irrefutably shows that what is obvious—that human beings, both male and female, are lustful—is true, and has always been so…. 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.” — Stanton Peele, Ph.D.
A controversial, idea-driven book that challenges everything you (think you) know about sex, monogamy, marriage, and family. In the words of Steve Taylor (The Fall, Waking From Sleep), Sex at Dawn is “a wonderfully provocative and well-written book which completely re-evaluates human sexual behavior and gets to the root of many of our social and psychological ills.”
Customer Reviews
Provocative - Where Was the Editor?
A very interesting, thought-provoking treatise that challenges the fields of mainstream anthropology, psychology and sociology. The author's zeal unfortunately often slides their scholarship into jarring sarcasm and slang, which distracts and dilutes an otherwise powerful hypothesis. A revision could really elevate their gravitas, and turn this very good book into less of a rant and more of a azimuth for the future of understanding human sexuality.
Explains a lot about human behavior.
A thoroughly researched scientific document (the bibliography is almost a fifth of the book) that puts forward a very sensible, yet bound to be controversial, argument about human evolution and pre-agricultural social behavior. The authors keep the text from becoming dry and academic with a good sense of humor and a good pacing to the chapters. A lot of the book is devoted to refuting the crass, unscientific assumptions made by scientists over the course of western history. Other parts of the book compare human behavior to our closest genetic relatives in the primate family, the apes. The social behavior of non-agricultural human societies is very interesting compared to what we consider "civilized". The authors also collect research on why civilized society turns out the way it does. The title, while a modest bit of word play, is a little misleading as it seemed to indicate that the time of day was somehow important for our distant ancestors but it's not in the discussion. The authors acknowledge that they are opening some very wide doors here and they can't address all the issues brought up. They go to pains to state that they are making no moral judgements just scientific research. No matter, this is a very important read for all human societies on this planet and for the individual as well. Just to have some people understand that their behavior is rooted in evolutionary history and not that they are immoral people headed straight for hell is immensely helpful.
Great read!!
I heard about this book while listening to NPR.
As a freethinker and rationalist, his book is in the top 5 books I've ever read. It was funny and serious and very well paced. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Well done.