List Price: $16.99 Details

Save: $2.23 (13%)

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime & FREE Returns

FREE delivery: Friday, July 9 on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon. Details

Fastest delivery: Thursday, July 8
Order within 20 hrs and 7 mins Details

In Stock.
As an alternative, the Kindle eBook is available now and can be read on any device with the free Kindle app. Want to listen? Try Audible.

$$14.76 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Secure transaction

Ships from	Amazon.com
Sold by	Amazon.com

Details

Ships from

Amazon.com

Sold by

Amazon.com

Return policy: This item is returnable

Add a gift receipt for easy returns

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime

FREE delivery: July 15 - 17 on orders over $25.00 shipped by Amazon. Details

Fastest delivery: July 9 - 13

Used: Acceptable | Details

Sold by Altair Alpha

Fulfilled by Amazon

Other Sellers on Amazon

$14.44
& FREE Shipping

Sold by: Fifty Third Street Books

$11.56
+ $3.99 shipping

Sold by: Ambis Enterprises

$16.61
& FREE Shipping

Sold by: Book Depository US

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See all 4 images

Follow the Authors

Christopher Ryan

Cacilda Jetha

Sex at Dawn: How We Mate, Why We Stray, and What It Means for Modern Relationships Paperback – July 5, 2011

by Christopher Ryan (Author), Cacilda Jetha (Author)

2,324 ratings

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$10.99

—

Audible Audiobook, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$0.00

Free with your Audible trial

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$26.99

$19.05

$8.92

Paperback

"Please retry"

$14.76

$10.44

$2.29

MP3 CD, Audiobook, MP3 Audio, Unabridged

"Please retry"

$9.99

$9.29

$15.40

Great on Kindle

Great Experience. Great Value.

Enjoy a great reading experience when you buy the Kindle edition of this book. Learn more about Great on Kindle, available in select categories.

View Kindle Edition

“Sex at Dawn challenges conventional wisdom about sex in a big way. By examining the prehistoric origins of human sexual behavior the authors are able to expose the fallacies and weaknesses of standard theories proposed by most experts. This is a provocative, entertaining, and pioneering book. I learned a lot from it and recommend it highly.” — Andrew Weil, M.D.

“Sex at Dawn irrefutably shows that what is obvious—that human beings, both male and female, are lustful—is true, and has always been so…. The more dubious its evidentiary basis and lack of connection with current reality, the more ardently the scientific inevitability of monogamy is maintained—even as it falls away around us.” — Stanton Peele, Ph.D.

A controversial, idea-driven book that challenges everything you (think you) know about sex, monogamy, marriage, and family. In the words of Steve Taylor (The Fall, Waking From Sleep), Sex at Dawn is “a wonderfully provocative and well-written book which completely re-evaluates human sexual behavior and gets to the root of many of our social and psychological ills.”

Print length

402 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Harper Perennial
Publication date

July 5, 2011
Dimensions

8.06 x 5.33 x 1.04 inches
ISBN-10

9780061707810
See all details

Frequently bought together

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Janet W. Hardy
2,457
Paperback
$14.85
Christopher Ryan
743
Paperback
$14.49
Esther Perel
2,991
Paperback
$14.29
Shawn T. Smith
583
Paperback
$16.95
Jack Donovan
2,544
Paperback
$12.60
Wednesday Martin PhD
197
Paperback
$17.99

Get everything you need

Page 1 of 1 Start overPage 1 of 1

Stan Tatkin
935
Paperback
$17.95
Graham Hancock
3,288
Paperback
in Bolivia Travel Guides
$15.29
Don Miguel Ruiz
59,419
Paperback
in New Age & Spirituality
$5.63
Michael Pollan
4,035
Paperback
$15.99
Jonathan Haidt
2,202
Paperback
$9.99
Yuval Noah Harari
46,998
Paperback
$11.40

Special offers and product promotions

Amazon Business: Make the most of your Amazon Business account with exclusive tools and savings. Login now

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Sex At Dawn has helped me understand myself and the world so much more clearly.” -- Ilana Glazer, co-creator of Broad City

“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

“Funny, witty, and light ... Sex at Dawn is a scandal in the best sense, one that will have you reading the best parts aloud and reassessing your ideas about humanity’s basic urges well after the book is done.” -- Newsweek

“Sex At Dawn challenges conventional wisdom about sex in a big way... This is a provocative, entertaining, and pioneering book. I learned a lot from it and recommend it highly.” -- Andrew Weil, M.D., author of Healthy Aging

“Sex At Dawn is a provocative and engaging synthesis... that has the added benefit of being a joy to read.... A book sure to generate discussion, and one likely to produce more than a few difficult conversations with family marriage counselors.” -- Eric Michael Johnson, Seed Magazine

“You clearly have an exciting book on your hands, whether people agree with it or not: these are issues that will need debating over and over before we will arrive at a resolution.” -- Frans de Waal, author of The Age of Empathy

“A wonderfully provocative and well-written book which completely re-evaluates human sexual behaviour and gets to the root of many of our social and psychological ills.” -- Steve Taylor, author of The Fall and Waking From Sleep

“One of the most original books I’ve read in years, Sex at Dawn manages to be both enormously erudite and wildly entertaining―even, frequently, hilarious. . . . A must-read for anyone interested in where our sexual impulses come from.” -- Tony Perrottet, author of Napoleon's Privates

“This paradigm-shifting book is a thoroughly original discussion of the origins and nature of human sexuality... These authors have a gift for making complex material reader-friendly, filling each chapter with humor and passion as well as dozens of revolutionary insights.” -- Stanley Krippner, Ph.D.

“Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jetha have written the essential corrective to the evolutionary psychology literature...” -- Stanton Peele, Ph.D.

From the Back Cover

In this controversial, thought-provoking, and brilliant book, renegade thinkers Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethá debunk almost everything we “know” about sex, weaving together convergent, frequently overlooked evidence from anthropology, archaeology, primatology, anatomy, and psychosexuality to show how far from human nature monogamy really is. In Sex at Dawn, 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.

ASIN ‏ : ‎ 0061707813
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Harper Perennial; Reprint edition (July 5, 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 402 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 9780061707810
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.5 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 8.06 x 5.33 x 1.04 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #9,997 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #13 in Evolutionary Psychology (Books)
- #21 in Medical Psychology of Sexuality
- #24 in General Anthropology

Customer Reviews:
2,324 ratings

Customer reviews

5 star		74%
4 star		13%
3 star		6%
2 star		3%
1 star		4%

How are ratings calculated?

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Julie

Polyamory breaks down societies and hurts individuals and families

Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 2019

Verified Purchase

Do NOT let this book convince you to try open relationships or polyamory. Monogamy is social technology that allows for healthy family formation and provides the paternity certainty that women need to feel safe and protected in child-rearing and that men need to fully invest in their offspring. Maybe we are not "naturally" monogamous, and this book makes that case, but we also don't "naturally" drive cars or have indoor heating or refrain from killing one another over differences of opinion. I've seen WAY too many modern men and women use this book as a justification for lifestyles that hurt couples and hurt families.

Monogamy ensures that everyone in society gets a partner; with open relationships and polyamory, that structure breaks down because women date across and up dominance hierarchies (like it or not, the science is clear), so in a society that has a lot of low-status men with low earning potential, open relationships and polyamory lead to de facto polygamy because women will flock to the small pool of high-status men. I already see this happening in places like San Francisco. This all runs the risk of devolving into polygamy, and studies show polygamous societies experience more violence, rape, theft, etc as men have existential crises when they can't reproduce and they act out. People, please do not get confused by the cultural milieu. This stuff is bad bad news for all of us.

218 people found this helpful

Helpful

minx

Cherry picking

Reviewed in the United States on September 8, 2018

Verified Purchase

While the book presented some interesting scientific and historical research and factoids, it felt incomplete and slanted by challenging others rather than presenting the theory in an objective way. In proving that humans are biologically non-monogamous, it seemed more geared towards the male species and how they are wired with some smattering of information about women.

Esther Perel has touched upon the gender differences while noting that statistically men and women are as likely to cheat. The authors reference her in some aspects but as with the rest of the book, it seems to cherry pick rather than be more thorough in presenting their findings.

While the authors added a note to address why they provided an anecdote of Phil only, it seemed lazy to do so by not looking for some anecdotes or analysis of women's sex drives and motivations, even if complicated, and breaking down such complexities to also note whether women are as biologically wired to be non-monogamous as well.

136 people found this helpful

Helpful

Michael M.Top Contributor: Photography

but something told me I would enjoy it - and I definitely did

Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2018

Verified Purchase

A very interesting read! I wasn't sure what to expect after hearing about this book on the radio, but something told me I would enjoy it - and I definitely did. The first two thirds of the book focused primarily on history, past studies and how people felt about sex (or sexuality) and mating. The last third pulled all this information together and compared it to how we feel today, in our recent past, and how we may feel about it in the future. In my opinion the author never pushed his own agenda or feelings about how one should feel about sex, but instead presented different interpretations and views to help the reader do their own thinking. Once I finished the book I didn't feel like I was just told what to think, but simply had a lot more to think about.

116 people found this helpful

Helpful

Probably not a good anniversary gift... but, wow

Reviewed in the United States on June 4, 2014

Verified Purchase

Without denying the seriousness of the authors's intent, "Sex at Dawn" is one of the most entertaining books I've read in awhile. The authors, Cacilda Jetha, a medical doctor, and Christopher Ryan, a psychologist, argue that human beings are not inherently monogamous and that our collective civilizational effort to shoehorn people into life-long pair-bonds goes against our biological heritage and has led to much unnecessary misery. They stake this claim on a considerable amount of reading into recent anthropological, primatological and genetic research; specifically, they say that, as humans share roughly 99% of their DNA with chimps and bonobos, and as neither of those species practices monogamy (and in fact no primate, except the gibbon, does), our own genetic inheritance tends towards polyamory. In fact, they trot out examples from such indigenous cultures as the Mosuo in China to argue that pre-historic humans were most likely not monogamous: widespread promiscuity promoted bonding among members of extended hunter-gatherer clans, reduced inter-group tension, and promoted sperm competition as females had sex with multiple male partners and rival sperm competed for the right to fertilization.

It's not hard to understand why "Sex at Dawn" has been embraced by sexologists while primatologists and anthropologists have been noticeably cooler in their reception.The book is like a bomb thrown not only against the very notion of monogamy but also against the standard narrative in anthropology that pair-bonding is universal in human societies because women trade sexual access for food and protection. The authors make little effort to conceal their impatience and irritation with this 'standard narrative' and, indeed, much of "Sex at Dawn" reads as though it were written by an exasperated zealot (or over-ambitious grad student) who can't fathom why everyone else remains so in the dark. At the very least, it's not boring.

But the book should probably be taken with more than a few grains of salt. First of all, "Sex at Dawn" rehashes an already well-worn Enlightenment-era belief in the uninhibited 'noble savage,' uncorrupted by the restraints of civilization. Rousseau was, of course, a proponent of this and Diderot's "Supplement to the Voyages of Bougainville" pretty much encapsulates Ryan and Jetha, albeit with more wit. As others have pointed out, there are instances of monogamous indigenous peoples too that the authors don't really consider. Also, they don't really respond to one of their central theses: if the adoption of agriculture was such a disaster (sexually and in terms of quality of life) for human beings, why did they persist with it? If agricultural village settlements forced human beings into a monogamous corset, why then did they persist with it for 6,000 years before the advent of the first civilizations?

Finally, Ryan and Jetha stake much of their argument on asserting that 99% of human being's DNA overlap with that of bonobos, the most sexually promiscuous primates. Yet, we share the same percentage (99%) with chimps who are more territorial, aggressive, and somewhat less promiscuous than bonobos. Essentially, by privileging bonobos Ryan and Jetha over-correct previous writers's (like Jared Diamond) tendency to focus on our chimp heritage: we really need a book that tries to relate both our chimp and bonobo genetic backgrounds together.

Still, for a book so steeped in academic research, it's a blast to read, except when the authors start to consider the implications of their own argument. Having spent 300 pages explaining how monogamy is so unnatural and sexual exclusivity is probably the main cause of marital failure (in their view), they then shy away from any prescriptive advice. They don't quite want to push marriage over a cliff and advocate polyamory (for males, anyway; they're even more reticent interestingly enough on the implications of their argument for female behavior) but the logic of the book tends in that direction. But, as Freud argued, we are stuck with civilization and its neuroses whether we like them or not. Thus, they can't quite advocate free love (not as long as we have private property, anyway) but they insist that marriage is a botch too. For all its strident confidence in our biologically-driven amorality, "Sex at Dawn" ends by waffling all over the place.

I did love reading it, however, even when I recognized that the authors were pushing their case too far. At the very least, it gets you thinking about why so many marriages and pairings fail, why cheating is so rampant, and whether there is indeed an evolutionary legacy that is inimical to our social arrangements (rather than just instances of individual moral failure).

274 people found this helpful

Helpful

Monof2

A must read for every adult

Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2018

Verified Purchase

Wow. I love this book. It had the power to change my mind about our shared past, social and sexual beliefs and present attempts to form a more realistic and compassionate code of ethics. Carefully researched and thoughtfully and humorously presented, I'm recommending it to everyone who is open to reading it

40 people found this helpful

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Pietro

Eyes opener

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 21, 2019

Verified Purchase

I'm shocked how none of these argument where ever touched in school, high-school nor university... the content of this little book should be shared to more influential people in our society so that it can be spread wider.
I'm not saying this book gives you a universal truth, as there will never be one, but at least it gives you a different perspective and another option to the one and only given by the part of society that neglects and refuses that after all we're still an animal species.

13 people found this helpful

Matthew Sofianos

Hmmm...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 8, 2020

Verified Purchase

Packed with research, but Ryan & Jetha are constantly working backwards back from their conclusion.
Like Yuval Noah Harari, they believe in a pre-agricultural utopia that existed before mankind was enslaved by private ownership, leading to wars and everything else that ails modern civilisations.
They’re convinced that we’d be far better off as promiscuous foragers and they just don’t let up.

However, what they circle around but never land on, is that to return to our non monogamous foraging past, we would have to give up the relationships we have with our children, irrespective of our gender.

7 people found this helpful

Nicole S

Ho-hum boring.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 16, 2020

Verified Purchase

While the authors appeared to have done a lot of research, the book fails to make any coherent points. It took far too long to get any point (if it did at all). The writing is boring and while there were some sparks of engaging writing and humour early on, they're soon drowned by the lack of clarity. I quickly found myself skim-reading pages. It gets a bit interesting towards the end but otherwise it's a snoozefest.

6 people found this helpful

Steve H

Interesting theory but far too long

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 14, 2021

Verified Purchase

When i first downloaded this, my. Kindle said 16 hrs 50 mins, OMG
Anyhow, I saw it recommended on a YouTube channel, so i thought I would give it a go.
When I finished there was over 3 hrs to go but these were all acknowledgements and references....
So, The whole content of this book could be condensed into a couple of chapters, just tell us what we need to know.
Its an alternative theory to human evolution and one I can buy into. It explains why we as couples cant stay together etc.
As mentioned, should be read in school, there would be far fewer divorces as there would be far fewer marriages, but probably far more kids....

3 people found this helpful

Mihael Tominsek

Interesting insight of human

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 17, 2020

Verified Purchase

This book came to me as a written proof of things that I already thought they could be like this. Some ideas in the book were new to me, but mostly it was just very detailed explanation of what I already thought how it should be. Sometimes authors took just too much time discussing and preparing for some statements, as it seems, but probably this is OK. Without that much background those facts would sound like opinion. One might consume it, one might refuse it. But book that have over 500 links to various sources can't be fake.

I like it!

Some say authors did very selective proof picking. My opinion is that the opposite side do the same. I was raised in traditional environment and education. Since 1st grade of school I was thinking that all that does not make sense and was seeking for deeper answers that would also clarify why traditional science (and church) have such opinion as it is and how that comes together. This book gave me the reason why, and the answers which I searched.

For someone just seeking excitement and sexy contents it will find this book boring. No such things inside. It is actually little contents dedicated to actual sex. But rather to understand how we came to this point. It gives answers to a lot of non-sex related issues of modern human. Everything in this book match my other sources of research. The most common match is to what old people of my society was telling - I live in place where some knowledge is still passed through story telling. Some tales we have in our culture are pointless from today's (modern) understanding, but after reading this book I slapped my forehead because suddenly it made all the sense.

So: If old people are saying it, who never read a sentence, old tales are saying it, which are here before we knew how to write, and my guts feeling says it, than this book confirms all that - that it must be something on it. :)

2 people found this helpful

See all reviews