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“Our sense of the full range of human nature, like our diet, has been steadily reduced. No matter how nourishing it might be, anything wild gets pulled - though as we'll see, some of the weeds growing in us have roots reaching deep into our shared past. Pull them if you want, but they'll just keep coming back again and again.”
― Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality
― Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality
“In The Moral Animal, Robert Wright laments, "A basic underlying dynamic between men and women is mutual exploitation. They seem, at times, designed to make each other miserable."
Don't believe it. We aren't designed to make each other miserable. This view holds evolution responsible for the mismatch between our evolved predispositions and the post-agricultural socioeconomic world we find ourselves in. The assertion that human beings are naturally monogamous is not just a lie; it's a lie most Western societies insist we keep telling each other.”
― Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality
Don't believe it. We aren't designed to make each other miserable. This view holds evolution responsible for the mismatch between our evolved predispositions and the post-agricultural socioeconomic world we find ourselves in. The assertion that human beings are naturally monogamous is not just a lie; it's a lie most Western societies insist we keep telling each other.”
― Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality
“Rather than a plausible explanation for how we got to be the way we are, the standard narrative is exposed as contemporary moralistic bias packaged to look like science and then projected upon the distant screen of prehistory, rationalizing the present while obscuring the past. Yabba dabba doo.”
― Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality
― Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality
“One wonders, in fact, why marriage is a legal issue at all - apart from its relevance to immigration and property laws. Why would something so integral to human nature require such vigilant legal protection?”
― Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality
― Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality
“As attentive readers may have noted, the standard narrative of heterosexual interaction boils down to prostitution: a woman exchanges her sexual services for access to resources. Maybe mythic resonance explains part of the huge box-office appeal of a film like Pretty Woman, where Richard Gere's character trades access to his wealth in exchange for what Julia Roberts's character has to offer (she plays a hooker with a heart of gold, if you missed it). Please note that what she's got to offer is limited to the aforementioned heart of gold, a smile as big as Texas, a pair of long, lovely legs, and the solemn promise that they'll open only for him from now on. The genius of Pretty Woman lies in making explicit what's been implicit in hundreds of films and books. According to this theory, women have evolved to unthinkingly and unashamedly exchange erotic pleasure for access to a man's wealth, protection, status, and other treasures likely to benefit her and her children.”
― Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality
― Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality
Ava’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Ava’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
1 book
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39 friends
0 books
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46 friends
1 book
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34 friends
0 books
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36 friends
40 books
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13 friends
1 book
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13 friends
1 book
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21 friends
75 books
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47 friends
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