Sex at dawn: the prehistoric origins of modern sexuality

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

pt. I. On the origin of the specious

1. Remember the Yucatán!

You are what you eat

2. What Darwin didn't know about sex

The Flintstonization of prehistory

What is evolutionary psychology and why should you care?

Lewis Henry Morgan

3. 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

4. The ape in the mirror

Primates and human nature

Doubting the chimpanzee model

In search of primate continuity

pt. II. Lust in paradise (solitary?)

5. Who lost what in paradise?

On getting funky and rockin' round the clock

6. Who's your daddies?

The joy of S.E.Ex

The promise of promiscuity

Bonobo beginnings

7. Mommies dearest

Nuclear meltdown

8. Making a mess of marriage, mating, and monogamy

Marriage : the "fundamental condition" of the human species?

On matrimonial whoredom

9. 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

10. Jealousy : a beginner's guide to coveting thy neighbor's spouse

Zero-sum sex

How to tell when a man loves a woman

pt. III. The way we weren't

11. "The wealth of nature" (poor?)

Poor, pitiful me

The despair of millionaires

Finding contentment "at the bottom of the scale of human beings"

12. The selfish meme (nasty?)

Homo economicus

The tragedy of the commons

Dreams of perpetual progress

Ancient poverty or assumed affluence?

On Paleolithic politics

13. 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 and bonobo brutality

14. 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?

pt. IV. Bodies in motion

15. Little big man

All's fair in love and sperm war

16. The truest measure of a man

Hard core in the Stone Age

17. Sometimes a penis is just a penis

18. The prehistory of O

"What horrid extravagancies of minde!"

Beware the devil's teat

The force required to suppress it

19. When girls go wild

Female copulatory vocalization

Sin tetas, no hay paraíso

Come again?

pt. V. Men are from Africa, women are from Africa

20. On Mona Lisa's mind

21. The pervert's lament

Just say what?

Kellogg's guide to child abuse

The curse of Calvin Coolidge

The perils of monotomy (monogamy + monotony)

A few more reasons I need somebody new (just like you)

22. Confronting the sky together

Everybody out of the closet

The marriage of the Sun and the Moon

Acknowledgments

Notes

References and suggested further reading

Index.