Odelay
11-11-2010, 11:25 PM
Recently read Sex at Dawn by Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jetha. It's an interesting study around what human sexuality looked like around the time of the Stone Age and before that era. The basic premise is that since the advent of agriculture, around 10,000 years ago, men & women have been trying to force a monogamous culture upon our species that is antithetical to how we evolved as multi-sex/multi-mate creatures. Basically, forcing monogamy onto homo sapiens is like trying to shoehorn a size 13 foot into a size 7 shoe.
The authors don't go into depth on homosexuality or even really mention transgender issues but their commentary really applies to all of the forces of monogamy that pervades through all genders. Dan Savage has turned into a big proponent of this book and its conclusions.
I found some weaknesses to the book, but it was a good and easy read for a scientific and anthropological text.
Wikipedia Link: Sex at Dawn - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia@@AMEPARAM@@/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w.svg" class="image"><img alt="Wiki letter w.svg" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6c/Wiki_letter_w.svg/40px-Wiki_letter_w.svg.png"@@AMEPARAM@@commons/thumb/6/6c/Wiki_letter_w.svg/40px-Wiki_letter_w.svg.png (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_at_Dawn)[URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_at_Dawn"]
The authors don't go into depth on homosexuality or even really mention transgender issues but their commentary really applies to all of the forces of monogamy that pervades through all genders. Dan Savage has turned into a big proponent of this book and its conclusions.
I found some weaknesses to the book, but it was a good and easy read for a scientific and anthropological text.
Wikipedia Link: Sex at Dawn - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia@@AMEPARAM@@/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w.svg" class="image"><img alt="Wiki letter w.svg" src="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6c/Wiki_letter_w.svg/40px-Wiki_letter_w.svg.png"@@AMEPARAM@@commons/thumb/6/6c/Wiki_letter_w.svg/40px-Wiki_letter_w.svg.png (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_at_Dawn)[URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sex_at_Dawn"]