Sex at Dawn

One of the best books I read this year, definitely recommend. It is great for two reasons:

1) Uproots the conventional wisdom that humans are monogamic animals. It does so in a very thorough and edudite way, leaving no stone left unturned
2) It's extremely edudite - the amount of knowledge (and interesting historical trivia on sex) one gets is astounding. Almost every page provides some new fact or debunks an old myth on many different topics.

I personally have had a number of long-held beliefs overturned by this volume - dealing with primitive (ie hunter-gatherer) societies, human sexuality and personal stories of many scientists.

The only sad part is that aside from doing away with the myth they offer no solutions. But for those who value truth more than convenient or PC substitutes it is an essential read.

Read it on the Kindle app for Ipad. If you also read it in electronic form keep in mind that notes make up 40% of the book. So the actuall text will end at 60% (something I discovered at the end).







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 alternative 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 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 Jethá 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. (edited by author)