Sex at Dawn

SEX. THE PREHISTORIC ORIGINS AT

OF MODERN SEXUALITY DAWN

Christopher Ryan, PhD, and Cacilda Jetha, MD

To all our relations

CONTENTS

Preface: A Primate Meets His Match (A note from one of the authors)

Introduction: Another Well-Intentioned Inquisition A Few Million Years in a Few Pages

PART I: On the Origin of the Specious CHAPTER ONE. Remember the Yucatan!

You Are What You Eat

CHAPTER TWO. What Darwin Didn’t Know About Sex The Flintstonization of Prehistory

What Is Evolutionary Psychology and Why Should You Care? Lewis Henry Morgan

CHAPTER THREE. A Closer Look at the Standard Narrative of Human Sexual Evolution

How Darwin Insults Your Mother (The Dismal Science of Sexual Economics)

The Famously Flaccid Female Libido

Male Parental Investment (MPI)

“Mixed Strategies ” in the War Between the Sexes Extended Sexual Receptivity and Concealed Ovulation CHAPTER FOUR. The Ape in the Mirror Primates and Human Nature Doubting the Chimpanzee Model In Search of Primate Continuity

PART II: Lust in Paradise (Solitary)

CHAPTER FIVE. Who Lost What in Paradise?

On Getting Funky and Rockin’ Round the Clock CHAPTER SIX. Who’s Your Daddies?

The Joy of S.E.Ex.

The Promise of Promiscuity Bonobo Beginnings

CHAPTER SEVEN. Mommies Dearest Nuclear Meltdown

CHAPTER EIGHT. Making a Mess of Marriage, Mating, and Monogamy

Marriage: The “Fundamental Condition” of the Human Species?

On Matrimonial Whoredom

CHAPTER NINE. Paternity Certainty: The Crumbling Cornerstone of the Standard Narrative

Love, Lust, and Liberty at Lugu Lake

On the Inevitability of Patriarchy

The March of the Monogamous

CHAPTER TEN. Jealousy: A Beginner’s Guide to Coveting Thy Neighbor’s Spouse

Zero-Sum Sex

How to Tell When a Man Loves a Woman

PART III: The Way We Weren’t

CHAPTER ELEVEN. “The Wealth of Nature” (Poor?)

Poor, Pitiful Me

The Despair of Millionaires

Finding Contentment “at the Bottom of the Scale of Human Beings”

CHAPTER TWELVE. The Selfish Meme (Nasty?)

Homo Economicus The Tragedy of the Commons Dreams of Perpetual Progress Ancient Poverty or Assumed Affluence?

On Paleolithic Politics

CHAPTER THIRTEEN. The Never-Ending Battle over Prehistoric War (Brutish?)

Professor Pinker, Red in Tooth and Claw

The Mysterious Disappearance of Margaret Power

The Spoils of War

The Napoleonic Invasion (The Yanomami Controversy)

The Desperate Search for Hippie Hypocrisy andBonobo Brutality

CHAPTER FOURTEEN. The Longevity Lie (Short?)

When Does Life Begin? When Does It End?

Is 80 the New 30?

Stressed to Death

Who You Calling a Starry-Eyed Romantic, Pal?

PART IV: Bodies in Motion

CHAPTER FIFTEEN. Little Big Man

All’s Fair in Love and Sperm War

CHAPTER SIXTEEN. The Truest Measure of a Man

Hard Core in the Stone Age

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN. Sometimes a Penis Is Just a Penis CHAPTER EIGHTEEN. The Prehistory of O “What Horrid Extravagancies of Minde!”

Beware the Devil’s Teat

The Force Required to Suppress It

CHAPTER NINETEEN. When Girls Go Wild

Female Copulatory Vocalization

Sin Tetas, No Hay Paraiso

Come Again?

PART V: Men Are From Africa, Women Are from Africa CHAPTER TWENTY. On Mona Lisa’s Mind CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE. The Pervert’s Lament Just Say What?

Kellogg’s Guide to Child Abuse

The Curse of Calvin Coolidge

The Perils of Monotomy (Monogamy + Monotony)