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

by Jared Diamond (Author) "If your dog had your brain and could speak, and if you asked it what it thought of your sex life, you might be surprised..." (more)
Key Phrases: hungi kengi, human female menopause, male lactation, New Guinea, Missing Link, Pied Flycatchers (more...)

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 (September 24, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465031269
• ISBN-13: 978-0465031269
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (36 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #32,439 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #8 in	Books > Nonfiction > Social Sciences > Anthropology > Sociobiology
  #67 in	Books > Health, Mind & Body > Psychology & Counseling > Sexuality > Human

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

103 of 114 people found the following review helpful:

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

By	Albert Swanson (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews

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.

44 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Stimulating topic, June 1, 1999

By A Customer

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

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining, yes, but also important, October 30, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Why Is Sex Fun?: The Evolution of Human Sexuality (Science Masters Series) (Hardcover)

I admit also being tempted to talk about the book's entertainment value, of the author's light and witty style and his interesting anecdotes. However, the title and style belie the critically important nature of the subject: the origin of human sexual behavior, which is such a major part of human behavior in general, both good and bad.

The rather sour reviewer below makes a good point that the book contains material familiar to those of us already acquainted with the subject, but that in no way detracts from its value. In my experience, most people, even those otherwise sophisticated and well-educated, do not sufficiently appreciate the importance of evolution. Though they may understand it intellectually, they fail to see evolutionary forces playing a fundamental role in human behavior, and therefore constantly misdiagnose problems and prescribe inappropriate solutions. Their number includes Christians, feminists, and those dealing with racial issues on both sides of the political spectrum--a fairly large chunk of society. Personally, I am here at Amazon to send copies to three friends, all educated at top universities, one a professor of chemistry in one of India's most elite universities. I expect that they will get something out of it, although the (feminist) professor may not take it quite the way I want....

OK, one comment on the book's fun nature: It is fascinating to read anecdotes from Diamond's studies of primates and hunter-gatherer societies, same as it was reading anecdotes about ants and termites in the books by Edward O. Wilson. I'd like to take Wilson and Diamond to lunch someday, and just sit back and listen.