Frank Ryan (WBE), Stanton Peele, Stanley Krippner, Julie Holland, Britt Winston, and Steve Mason masochistically read and re-read early drafts of the entire messy manuscript. Their comments were sadistically honest, which is exactly what we needed. In addition to their crucial scholarship, Robert Sapolsky, Todd Shackelford, Helen Fisher, Daniel
Moses, and Frans de Waal contributed scarce free time to review parts of the manuscript.
Finally, we thank the following people (in random order) for the many kinds of support and encouragement they’ve given us: Michael and Mireille Lang, Brian O’Hare, Marta Cervera, Dorothianne Henne, Octavi de Daniel, Adam Mendelson, Richard Schweid, David Darnell, Senor Manolo Reyes, Matt Dondet, Mark Plummer, Cybele Tom, Sean Doyle, Santiago Suso, Victoria Ribera, Antonio Berruezo, Eric Patterson, Don Cooper, Martijn van Duivendijk, Peggy and Raul Rossel, Nacho and Leo Valls-Jove, Celine Salvans, Carmen Palomar Lopez, Anamargarita Otero-Robertson, Viram, Voodoo, Maria da Luz Venancio Guerreiro, Joao Alves Falcato, Mario Simoes, and Steve Taylor.
“Turns everything you thought you knew about sex on its head. A bold and unashamed assessment of the plentiful scientific data that illuminate the true origins and nature of human sexuality. Funny, engaging, and superbly written, Sex at Dawn explores the science behind what many of us suspected all along: human beings are not naturally monogamous.”
-Julie Holland, MD
author of Weekends at Bellevue
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.
With intelligence, humor, and wonder, Ryan and Jetha 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.
Christopher Ryan, PhD, is a research psychologist.
Cacilda Jetha, MD, is a practicing psychiatrist. They live in Barcelona, Spain.
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SEX AT DAWN. Copyright © 2010 by Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jetha.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition © SEPTEMBER 2010 ISBN: 978-0-062-00293-8
FIRST EDITION
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Ryan, Christopher Sex at dawn: the prehistoric origins of modern sexuality/ Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jetha.—1st ed. p. cm.
Summary: “A controversial, idea-driven book that
challenges everything you know about sex, marriage, family, and society.”—Provided by publisher
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-06-170780-3 (hardback)
1. Sex. 2. Sex—History. 3. Sex customs. 4. Marriage. I. Jetha, Cacilda. II. Title.
HQ12.R93 2010 306.7—dc22
2009045457
10 11 12 13 14 OV/RRD 10 987654321
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Please visit sexatdawn.com for the latest news, further discussion, and updates on the issues raised in this book, or to contact the authors.
1. Maybe as recently as 4.5 million years ago. For a recent review of the genetic evidence, see Siepel (2009).
2. de Waal (1998), p. 5.
3. Some of these numbers are reported in McNeil et al. (2006) and Yoder et al. (2005). The hundred billion figure comes from http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/ la-fg-vienna-porn25-2009mar25,0,7189584.story.