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 Jethå. While debunking almost
everything we "know" about sex they offer a bold alternative explanation in this provocative
and brilliant book. Ryan and Jethå'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 Jethå 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.
