Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality (55 page)

Sudan, 193

suicide, 210, 282

Sullivan, Andrew, 306–7

Sullivan, Ed, 86

sun/moon relation, 311–12,
312,
347
n
surrogate mothers, 107

survival of the fittest, 35

Sussman, Robert, 188

swans, 136, 137

“Sweaty T-shirt Experiment,” 275, 346
n
Swedes, 144

swingers, 307–8

Sydney University, 238

Symons, Donald, 51, 57–58, 118–19, 126, 229, 247, 295, 338
n

female orgasm as viewed by, 263–64

on sexual novelty, 295–96

syphilis, 130, 206, 207, 250

Tahiti, 95

Taï, 67, 70

Tannahill, Reay, 252

Tanzania, 187–88, 323n

Taylor, Timothy, 14, 175, 316
n,
341
n
Technology of Orgasm, The
(Maines), 247–48, 340
n
TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference (2007), 183–84

teeth, 173, 205, 215

television, 5, 32, 41, 143, 288, 317n

Tennyson, Alfred, Lord, 30

testicles, 10, 12, 220, 222–27,
224, 230,
234, 236–43, 266, 340n

testify,
234

testosterone, 267, 281–82, 293–94, 296–98, 344n Thailand, 140, 289, 290

Theory of Moral Sentiments, A
(Smith), 328n–29n Theroux, Paul, 69

Thompson, Robert Farris, 86

Tierney, Patrick, 195, 334n

Tierra del Fuego, 163–64, 181

Time,
302–3

Tipping Point, The
(Gladwell), 171

Tiresias, 39–40, 47, 51

Tissot, Simon André, 250

Toba eruption, 191, 328n

Todorov, Tzvetan, 316n

tools, 76, 176, 196, 216

“Tragedy of the Commons, The” (Hardin), 169–70

translation paradox, 118

Treatise of Human Nature, A
(Hume), 61

Treatise on the Disease Produced by

Onanism, A
(Tissot), 250

Trivers, Robert, 115–16, 270, 322n

Trobriand Islands, 95

trust, 72, 139, 177, 304–5, 311

tuberculosis, 178–79, 206,
207

Tukanoan, 108

Tulp, Nicolaes, 63

Turchin, Peter, 191

Turkey, 175

Twain, Mark, 81, 244, 285, 290

Uganda, 189

United States, 142, 170, 190, 247, 289, 303, 305, 332n breast augmentation in, 259

circumcision in, 287

clitorectomies in, 251

money concerns in, 161

open range in, 169

population growth in, 155

suicide in, 282

Urban VIII, Pope, 34

vagina, 140, 265, 266–67, 286

Valentine, Paul, 90–91, 103

vampire bats, 99–100

vasopressin, 324n

Vaupel, James, 201–2

Vedder, Eddie, 166

Ventura, Michael, 86, 320n

Venus of Willendorf, 259

Viagra, 2–3, 299

vibrators, 248–49, 340n

Victorian era, 27–30, 35, 302, 316n

women in, 28, 29, 40, 221

Victorian Frame of Mind, The
(Houghton), 29

Vincent of Beauvais, 121–22

violence,
66,
154, 211, 284, 344n of chimps, 64–65, 67–70, 186–90, 193, 332n–33n of humans, 68, 75, 83, 127, 323n

see also
war

virginity, 120

vocalization, female copulatory (FCV), 13, 255–59

Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr., 149, 209

vulva,
77–78

Wade, Nicholas, 182–83

Walford, Roy, 208–09

Wallace, Alfred Russel, 154–55

Wallis, Samuel, 95

Wall Street,
153

Walum, Hasse, 324n–25n

Wamba, 70

Wang, Hurng-Yi, 227

Waorani Indians, 206

war, 64, 70, 75, 127, 182–99, 210, 284

human,
13,
38, 65, 76, 83, 159, 183–86, 190–99, 204, 327n, 330n–32n

Pinker’s views on, 183–85,
184,
192, 194, 330n, 332n primate origins of, 65, 186, 187–189

spoils of, 190–93, 204

War Before Civilization
(Keeley), 23, 184

war between the sexes, 25, 40, 47, 55–58, 269–70

Warao, 121

wealth, 7, 8, 50, 161–66, 217, 265

Wedekind, Claus, 275, 346n

Weil, Andrew, 347n

Westermark effect, 346n

“When a Man Loves a Woman”

(song), 146–47

When Harry Met Sally,
256, 341n Whitman, Walt, 271

Why Men Rule
(Goldberg), 132–33, 324
n

“Why War?” (Smith), 158

Wilson, Genarlow, 283

Wilson, E. O., 36–37, 47, 104, 149, 301, 326
n
Wilson, Margo, 49, 225

Winge, Otto, 220

witchcraft, 251, 252

witchetty grubs, 21, 22

Wolf, Stewart, 162

Women at the Center
(Sanday), 133, 324
n
Woods, Vanessa, 68

Woods, Tiger, 322n

World Health Organization, 120, 240–41, 253

World War II, 307–8, 336n

Wrangham, Richard, 65, 186, 187, 189, 332
n
Wright, Robert, 52–53, 57, 270

Wu, Chung-I, 227

Wyckoff, Gerald, 227, 337
n

Yang Erche Namu, 126, 127, 128, 130

Yanomami, 184–85,
184,
194–97, 331
n,
334
n
Yanomamö
(Chagnon), 194–97

Young, Brigham, 218

Yucatán, 19, 24, 75, 164, 310, 316n

Zeus, 39–40, 228

Zulu, 192–93

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

They say publishing a book is like having a baby, but it takes longer and hurts more. Appropriately, this “baby” has far more than two parents. There would be no
Sex at Dawn
without the insight, encouragement, and patience of our families, especially Frank, Julie, and Beth Ryan, Joana and Manel Ruas, Alzira Remane, Celestino Almeida, and Danial Jethá.

Stephen Lang and Henriette Klauser were incredibly generous in helping us put together a convincing book proposal. Our agent, Melissa Flashman, spent countless hours guiding us through the transition from proposal to manuscript. Unlike most agents, she kept reading and offering wise counsel throughout the entire publishing process, for which we are sincerely grateful. Many thanks to Ben Loehnen, our editor at HarperCollins, who believed in the book from the get-go (even while no doubt discreetly disagreeing with some of its content), and assistant editor Matthew Inman, for his rapid-response professionalism. Lisa Wolff did a first-class copyedit, catching more than a few potentially embarrassing mistakes. Those that snuck through or that we slipped in later are nobody’s fault but our own.

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, Señor 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-Jové, Celine Salvans, Carmen Palomar Lopez, Anamargarita Otero-Robertson, Viram, Voodoo, Maria da Luz Venâncio Guerreiro, Joäo Alves Falcato, Mario Simões, and Steve Taylor.

USA $25.99

“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 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.

About the Authors

Christopher Ryan, PhD
, is a research psychologist.

Cacilda Jethá, MD
, is a practicing psychiatrist. They live in Barcelona, Spain.

Visit www.AuthorTracker.com for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins author.

Copyright

SEX AT DAWN. Copyright © 2010 by Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá.

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 Jethá.—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.

Jethá, Cacilda. II. Title.

HQ12.R93 2010

306.7—dc22

2009045457

10 11 12 13 14 OV/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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NOTES

Please visit sexatdawn.com for the latest news, further discussion, and updates on the issues raised in this book, or to contact the authors.

Introduction

1. Maybe as recently as 4.5 million years ago. For a recent review of the genetic evidence, see Siepel (2009).