Sex, time, and power : how women's sexuality shaped human evolution / Leonard Shlain.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Shlain, Leonard.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sexual attraction.

Mate selection.

Human evolution.

Social evolution.

Sex (Biology).

Evolution (Biology).

Physical Description:

xx, 420 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Viking, 2003.

Summary:

Why did big-brained Homo sapiens suddenly emerge some 150,000 years ago? In this provocative new book, Leonard Shlain, author of the bestselling Art & Physics and The Alphabet Versus the Goddess, argues that profound alterations in female sexuality hold the key to this mystery. Long ago, due to the narrowness of her bipedal pelvis and the increasing size of her infants' heads, the human female began to experience high childbirth death rates, precipitating a crisis for the species. Natural selection adapted her to this unique environmental stress by drastically reconfiguring her hormonal cycles. Her estrus disappeared and menses mysteriously entrained with the periodicity of the moon. Women formulated the concept of a month, which in turn allowed them to make the connection between sex and pregnancy. Upon learning the majestic secret of time, these ancestral females then gained the power to refuse sex when they were ovulating. Men were forced to confront women who possessed a mind of their own.

Women taught men about time, and men used this knowledge to become the planet's most fearsome predator. Unfortunately, they also discovered that they were mortal. Men then invented religious to soften the certainty of death. Subsequently, they belatedly grasped the function of sex. The possibility of achieving a kind of immortality through heirs drove men to construct patriarchal cultures whose purpose was to control women's reproductive choices. Leonard Shlain explores how these archaic insights about sex, time, and power dramatically altered all subsequent human culture, from the nature of courtship to the origin of marriage to the evolution of language, creating the conditions for two people to love each other more deeply and longer than any other animal. Sex, Time, and Power is a compelling book that challenges accepted views of human sexuality and is sure to stimulate new thinking about old matters.

Contents:

Preface: Iron/Sex vii

Part I Iron, Sex, and Women

1 Unknown Mother/African Eve 3

2 Big Brain/Narrow Pelvis 11

3 Red Blood/White Milk 23

4 Plant Iron/Meat Iron 39

5 Gyna Sapiens/Gyna All-the-Others 45

6 Periods/Perils 57

7 Her Climax/His Climax 69

8 Grandmothers/Circumcision 85

Part II Iron, Sex, and Men

9 Prey/Predator 101

10 Carnivory/Vegetarianism 117

11 Menarche/Mustaches 137

12 Premenstrual Tension/Masturbatory Tension 149

Part III Sex and Time

13 Moon/Menses 165

14 Woo/I Do 187

15 Anima/Animus 209

16 Gay/Lesbian 227

17 Same Sex/Hermaphrodite 241

Part IV Death and Paternity

18 Mortality/Angst 261

19 Superstition/Laughter 275

20 Father/Mother 289

21 Incest/Dowries 307

22 Wife/Husband 321

Part V Men and Women

23 Misogyny/Patriarchy 335

24 Unknown Mother/African Eve/Modern Woman 351.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [371]-402) and index.

ISBN:

0670032336

OCLC:

51241979