An interesting and controversial survey of the modern research and literature of human sexuality, that challenges the widely held belief that monogamy is the natural and normal state of human sex and relationships.
Instead, the authors make the case that having multiple sex partners was the norm prior to the age of agriculture, and that human biology, including the differing sexual responses, capabilities, emotions and behaviors of men and women, can best be explained and understood as the evolutionary result of the promiscuous relationships which appear to have characterized hunter-gatherer societies for many hundreds of thousands of years.
Several other excellent histories of humanity I’ve read recently suggest that the idea that any one type of sexual behavior, or any other kind of human behavior or organization, has been consistent throughout all societies during any period of our species evolution is nonsense, given the historical examples of all different types of arrangements and norms coexisting in different cultures, places and times.
Still, the authors here have at least made a good case for “natural” states of sexuality and types of family relationships that are not necessarily the same as what we take for granted as “normal” today. The book also makes the case for bonobos as our closest primate relatives, at least as far as sexual anatomy and social/sexual behaviors are concerned.
It’s a thought-provoking read about one of humanity’s perennially most favorite topics! Recommended.
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