Sex at Dawn

How We Mate, Why We Stray, and What It Means for Modern Relationships

By: Christopher Ryan, Cacilda Jetha

Narrated by: Allyson Johnson, Jonathan Davis, Christopher Ryan (Preface)

Length: 10 hrs and 57 mins

Publisher's summary

Earphones Award Winner (AudioFile Magazine)

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

Ryan and Jetha'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.

BONUS AUDIO: Includes a Preface written and read by author Christopher Ryan.

©2010 Christopher Ryan, Cacilda Jetha (P)2010 Audible, Inc

Critic reviews

"A surprisingly non-titillating book about sex among prehistoric people makes for a terrific audio adaptation...With their straightforward approach, the narrators show professionalism and authority in this anthropological discussion of sex." ( AudioFile)

“ Sex at Dawn is the single most important book about human sexuality since Alfred Kinsey unleashed Sexual Behavior in the Human Male on the American public in 1948.” (Dan Savage)

"My favorite book of 2010...it's the only book I read this year that proved that I was badly mistaken about something." (Peter Sagal, host of NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!)

Rattles the cage we live in

This book sheds some light on some of our "universal" truths. These truths frame the debates we have and form a cage we often don't even know we are trapped in.

This has happened throughout our history, that one or a few "great" thinkers shape the debate. They are almost always well connected, wealth white men. Most of us don't even know their names.

Sex at Dawn grabs the bars of that cage and gives them as good hard shake so that we might know we are in a cage of old outdated thinking and reconsider our options.

Required reading for human beings

The story of modern apes, how they do it, and what they do. The story we all somehow know but have never heard, have convinced ourselves is false and have somehow always known is true. Recommended for everyone.

This book is a very scientific look at something that's very hard to look at as science. A refreshing but enticing, logically, and fact-driven approach to a subject desperately in need of fact-based interpretations rather than emotionally-driven assumptions.

exceptional insights into human society and sex

I loved it and it opened me up to some things I have thought about but didn't know if it was just me or if they were true.

must listen!

The authors and narrator put forth the amazing case that human sexuality is not necessarily what our values and mores tell us it is .... they do it with grace and very good humor. enjoyed every minute.

best book on origin of sexuality

loved it. so much to learn about this topic. why was it classified as erotica?

Fascinating and Entertaining

Regardless of your acceptance of the scientific study laid out, this is a fascinating ethnographic study of human sexual evolution. There's a frank, matter of fact tone to the discourse, but there are also puns and levity for the listener who's paying attention. Highly recommended.

Loved it.

This may be my own bias coming out but this book has confirmed that what I've been doing for the last 20 years has been the right way. I'm polyamorous by the way. 😉

a mind blowing look at sex from a sociobiology

sociobiology of human nature. great book for understanding who we are. who we really are. not comfortable but true. better to see the world as it is. truly.

Redefining modern views of sexuality

The authors did a fantastic job of writing this well-researched book so that the average reader can understand the sometimes complicated material. Occasional humor punctuates very strong ideas, with plenty of nods to the research and work of others throughout history. The narration of the audio version is well done, very clear and patient when it comes to some of the more scientific writing.

Dawn of a new day for human sexuality

content is great. did not prefer the narration, but a hefty topic like this works well for an audiobook format.