The Prehistory of Sex: Four Million Years of Human Sexual Culture.

Abstract

From cave art to penis sheaths, from the personal tragedies of death in childbirth to the grand symbols of Stonehenge, this is a collection and analysis of a wide range of artefacts and written records relevant to the sexual history of mankind. Examining the data of 4,000,000 years, the book encompasses transvestite priests, Amazon warrier-women, familial and societal power relations, genes and hormones. In the course of his research, the author found sexual diversity to be a constant and vital force in human development. He argues that sexuality cannot be understood in purely biological terms, and that culture plays just an important a role. Only by accepting this, he says, can we understand how we increased our mental capacities beyond those of the other primates, lost our body hair, and expanded out of Africa to colonize the rest of the world.