Why Is Sex Fun?: The Evolution Of Human Sexuality (Science Masters) [Paperback]

Jared Diamond (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 25, 1998 | Series: Science Masters

To us humans the sex lives of many animals seem weird. In fact, by comparison with all the other animals, we are the ones with the weird sex lives. How did that come to be?Just count our bizarre ways. We are the only social species to insist on carrying out sex privately. Stranger yet, we have sex at any time, even when the female can’t be fertilized (for example, because she is already pregnant, post-menopausal, or between fertile cycles). A human female doesn’t know her precise time of fertility and certainly doesn’t advertise it to human males by the striking color changes, smells, and sounds used by other female mammals.Why do we differ so radically in these and other important aspects of our sexuality from our closest ancestor, the apes? Why does the human female, virtually alone among mammals go through menopause? Why does the human male stand out as one of the few mammals to stay (often or usually) with the female he impregnates, to help raise the children that he sired? Why is the human penis so unnecessarily large?There is no one better qualified than Jared Diamond—renowned expert in the fields of physiology and evolutionary biology and award-winning author—to explain the evolutionary forces that operated on our ancestors to make us sexually different. With wit and a wealth of fascinating examples, he explains how our sexuality has been as crucial as our large brains and upright posture in our rise to human status.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Many of us pursue fitness because we want to remain attractive to partners and potential partners, and we stay healthy so we can continue to have sex with those partners. But why do people care so much about sex? This book, written by an evolutionary biologist, explains how all the weird quirks of human sexuality came to be: sex with no intention of procreation, invisible fertility, sex acts pursued in private--all common to us, but very different from most other species. Why Is Sex Fun? asks us to look at ourselves in a brand-new way, and richly rewards us for doing so. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

This book speculates on the evolutionary forces that shaped the unique aspects of human sexuality: female menopause, males' role in society, having sex in private, and?most unusual of all?having sex for fun instead of for procreation. Through comparative evolution, biologist and science author Diamond (Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fate of Human Societies, LJ 2/15/97), poses credible and thought-provoking yet entertaining factors: the lengthy period of dependency of human infants, sex for pleasure as the tie that helps bind a mother and a father together, and menopause as an evolutionary advantage that, by ending the childbearing years, allows females to pass wisdom and knowledge on to society and succeeding generations. Recommended for most libraries.?Gloria Maxwell, Kansas City P.L., Kan.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; First Edition edition (September 25, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465031269
• ISBN-13: 978-0465031269
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 0.5 x 8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (52 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #52,260 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jared Diamond is a professor of geography at the University of California, Los Angeles. He began his scientific career in physiology and expanded into evolutionary biology and biogeography. He has been elected to the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society. Among Dr. Diamond's many awards are the National Medal of Science, the Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement, Japan's Cosmos Prize, a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, and the Lewis Thomas Prize honoring the Scientist as Poet, presented by Rockefeller University. He has published more than six hundred articles and several books including the New York Times bestseller "Guns, Germs, and Steel," which was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.

Additional information about Dr. Diamond may be found at his personal website, www.jareddiamond.org.

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

151 of 165 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Why Sex is Sex January 12, 2003

By Albert Swanson

Format:Paperback

There is a minor truth-in-advertising issue regarding Why Is Sex Fun?: The Evolution of Human Sexuality, by physiologist Jared Diamond: The title question is never really addressed. The true theme seems to be How Sex Came to be Sex as We Know It. Not that this isn't interesting in its own right, of course. It's just that the original question is worthy of discussion too.

Why is Sex Fun? reads like a lecture series rather than a book. Apparently intended to provide the reader with an overview of the latest thinking on the evolutionary aspects of the subject, this short work includes sections on different sexual (and mate) selection strategies employed by males and females (presumably based on unequal "investments" in the methods of getting one's genes into the next generation); lactation (why milk is produced by females, but not, as a rule, males); how and why humans, almost uniquely, came to engage in engage in recreational sex; the unequal domestic roles played by males and females, particularly in child rearing; female menopause (which is, again, nearly unique to humans); and sexual signaling (Diamond considers penis length in human males to be a prime example, but not necessarily a signal directed at females).

As fascinating as these subjects are, there is much more that is left out. Any full discussion of human sexuality, especially with the high-order concept of "fun" in its presumed abstract, needs to deal with that odd species' whole gamut of non-procreational expression: homosexuality, old-age love, and sex-as-power, for non-inclusive example. But Why is Sex Fun? treats the very large subject of recreational sex only from the "selfish gene" point of view. Even then, there is at least one major methodological criticism: Most evolutionary biologists and evolutionary psychologists go to great lengths to bring out the importance of "ancestral environment". That is, gene-based behavioral tendencies have evolved over a great deal of time, so it doesn't do a lot of good to consider them only from the standpoint of a modern participant. This problem crops up in Diamond's discussion of male hunting strategies. In a modern hunter-gatherer society, men typically go for the "big kill" (a large mammal, for instance), while women are more content to gather roots and so on. Diamond makes the point that the male strategy makes no sense nutritionally, so the answer must be found in differential sexual strategies. However, the possibility is not mentioned that hunting patterns may have evolved when big game was, in fact, rather more plentiful than it is today.

All this is a pity, because we know, from the author's other works (especially the wonderfully told Guns, Germs, and Steel), that he is quite capable of a fully formed presentation. Sex deserves it.

76 of 81 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Stimulating topic June 1, 1999

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

I really liked that booked, but then I also bought "The Third Chimpanzee" from Jared and I found that "Why sex is fun" to be just an excerpt of the spicy parts of "The Third Chimpanzee".

So, if you want to see the spicy sections only, this is your book, but if you buy "The Third Chimpanzee" you get a fuller picture and all the hot topics as well.

Philipp Schaumann Singapore

26 of 28 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Just in case you needed explanation February 4, 2005

By Schtinky VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

Actual content of this short work (only 146 pages) I would rate only 3 1/2 stars, mostly due to the lack of a bibliography, but Diamond makes up for everything with his reader friendly style, earning him 4 stars. He does present extensive additional reading materials and a complete index, so even with a lack of reference he does not leave you in the dark should you decide further study is in order.

`Why Sex Is Fun' is really just an anthropological muse, Diamond giving you the feeling that you are sitting in a café with him, kicking back, drinking some wine, and mulling over an interesting subject with well schooled friend.

He thoroughly examines the separation of man from ape in our breeding signals and patterns, but leaves out significant sociological factors that held the hand of the human boxes as we evolved up and away from lower-brained species, leaving behind many instinctual behaviors in favor of the intellectual.

However, from a strictly anthropological view, this book is interesting, well written, well formatted, and a welcome addition to Diamond's previous `Guns, Germs, and Steel' and `The Third Chimpanzee'.

You will find yourself pondering questions such as, Why do human females hide ovulation? Why do human females shut down fertility (menopause)? What is the benefit of the human female being receptive to $ex even when she is not ovulating? What makes human males `stick around' rather than spread their genes as far and wide as possible? Why don't men lactate? (*shudder*) And the favorite chapter for the ladies, What are men good for? Which studies the evolutionary role of the human male.

`Why Is Sex Fun?' is an informative read with a dash of fun, challenging enough for anthropology students and yet written for laymen to enjoy also. Have fun!