Download or read book The Origins of Sex written by Faramerz Dabhoiwala and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2012-05-01 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A man admits that, when drunk, he tried to have sex with an eighteen-year-old girl; she is arrested and denies they had intercourse, but finally begs God's forgiveness. Then she is publicly hanged alongside her attacker. These events took place in 1644, in Boston, where today they would be viewed with horror. How--and when--did such a complete transformation of our culture's attitudes toward sex occur? In The Origins of Sex, Faramerz Dabhoiwala provides a landmark history, one that will revolutionize our understanding of the origins of sexuality in modern Western culture. For millennia, sex had been strictly regulated by the Church, the state, and society, who vigorously and brutally attempted to punish any sex outside of marriage. But by 1800, everything had changed. Drawing on vast research--from canon law to court cases, from novels to pornography, not to mention the diaries and letters of people great and ordinary--Dabhoiwala shows how this dramatic change came about, tracing the interplay of intellectual trends, religious and cultural shifts, and politics and demographics. The Enlightenment led to the presumption that sex was a private matter; that morality could not be imposed; that men, not women, were the more lustful gender. Moreover, the rise of cities eroded community-based moral policing, and religious divisions undermined both church authority and fear of divine punishment. Sex became a central topic in poetry, drama, and fiction; diarists such as Samuel Pepys obsessed over it. In the 1700s, it became possible for a Church of Scotland leader to commend complete sexual liberty for both men and women. Arguing that the sexual revolution that really counted occurred long before the cultural movement of the 1960s, Dabhoiwala offers readers an engaging and wholly original look at the Western world's relationship to sex. Deeply researched and powerfully argued, The Origins of Sex is a major work of history.
Download or read book Origins of Sex written by Lynn Margulis and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 1990-01-01 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fascinating and detailed examination of the evolution--and occasional devolution--of sexuality in microorganisms and more complex forms of life. Margulis and Sagan trace sex from its inauspicious beginnings in bacteria threatened by ultraviolet radiation to its intimate relation with the origin of mitotic division of nucleated cells. The origin of meiotic sex through cannibalism followed by centriole reproductive tardiness and the connection of cell symbiosis to sex and differentiation are explored. "The authors have not only given us a new and exiting scenario for the evolution of sex, but have also provided us with critical ways in which we can test their hypotheses. . . . This is a stimulating book that is sure to invoke criticism and discussion; I strongly recommend it."--Symbiosis "The book is well organized and well written, leading the reader from one thought to another almost effortlessly. Background information is presented to aid those of us who are not experts in this field, and a glossary is appended. The book could be used at all levels of study, from interested undergraduates in general biology though postdoctoral students of genetics and evolution. I recommend this thought-provoking book to you for both your enjoyment and your enlightenment."--Richard W. Cheney, Jr., Journal of College Science Teaching "This book, undoubtedly controversial, is a thoughtful and original contribution to an important aspect of cellular biology."--John Langridge
Download or read book Sex written by Joann Ellison Rodgers and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2003-02-11 with total page 548 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How much do you really know about sex? In Sex: A Natural History, Joann Ellison Rodgers unearths both the roots of our sexual nature and the expression of our primal urges, explaining what it is that makes us male and female, and providing fascinating insights into the biology and physiology of flirtation, love, courtship, intercourse, fidelity, parenting, and nurturing. She describes scientists' discoveries about how the hormone that triggers labor contractions keeps prairie voles faithful to one mate, how the brain waves of female mice change when a male comes within smell range, and how Harlequin paperback romances and fantasies can be arousing-and what these findings tell us about our own sexuality. Sex: A Natural History illuminates one of the most powerful, and often misunderstood, aspects of human and animal existence.
Download or read book The Dawn of the Deed written by John A. Long and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2012-10-11 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published under the title: Hung like an Argentine Duck: a journey back in time to the origins of sexual intimacy
Download or read book Sex at Dawn written by Christopher Ryan and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2010-06-29 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since Darwin's day, we've been told that sexual monogamy comes naturally to our species. Mainstream science—as well as religious and cultural institutions—has maintained that men and women evolved in families in which a man's possessions and protection were exchanged for a woman's fertility and fidelity. But this narrative is collapsing. Fewer and fewer couples are getting married, and divorce rates keep climbing as adultery and flagging libido drag down even seemingly solid marriages. How can reality be reconciled with the accepted narrative? It can't be, according to renegade thinkers Christopher Ryan and Cacilda Jethå. While debunking almost everything we "know" about sex, they offer a bold alternative explanation in this provocative and brilliant book. Ryan and Jethå's central contention is that human beings evolved in egalitarian groups that shared food, child care, and, often, sexual partners. Weaving together convergent, frequently overlooked evidence from anthropology, archaeology, primatology, anatomy, and psychosexuality, the authors show how far from human nature monogamy really is. Human beings everywhere and in every era have confronted the same familiar, intimate situations in surprisingly different ways. 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. With intelligence, humor, and wonder, Ryan and Jethå show how our promiscuous past haunts our struggles over monogamy, sexual orientation, and family dynamics. They explore why long-term fidelity can be so difficult for so many; why sexual passion tends to fade even as love deepens; why many middle-aged men risk everything for transient affairs with younger women; why homosexuality persists in the face of standard evolutionary logic; and what the human body reveals about the prehistoric origins of modern sexuality. In the tradition of the best historical and scientific writing, Sex at Dawn unapologetically upends unwarranted assumptions and unfounded conclusions while offering a revolutionary understanding of why we live and love as we do.
Download or read book The Mind Has No Sex written by Londa Schiebinger and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1991-03 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A reexamination of the origins of modern science; discovers a forgotten heritage of women scientists and probes the cultural and historical forces that continue to shape the course of scientific scholarship and knowledge.
Download or read book A Curious History of Sex written by Kate Lister and published by Unbound Publishing. This book was released on 2020-02-06 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is not a comprehensive study of every sexual quirk, kink and ritual across all cultures throughout time, as that would entail writing an encyclopaedia. Rather, this is a drop in the ocean, a paddle in the shallow end of sex history, but I hope you will get pleasantly wet nonetheless. The act of sex has not changed since people first worked out what went where, but the ways in which society dictates how sex is culturally understood and performed have varied significantly through the ages. Humans are the only creatures that stigmatise particular sexual practices, and sex remains a deeply divisive issue around the world. Attitudes will change and grow – hopefully for the better – but sex will never be free of stigma or shame unless we acknowledge where it has come from. Based on the popular research project Whores of Yore, and written with her distinctive humour and wit, A Curious History of Sex draws upon Dr Kate Lister’s extensive knowledge of sex history. From medieval impotence tests to twentieth-century testicle thefts, from the erotic frescoes of Pompeii, to modern-day sex doll brothels, Kate unashamedly roots around in the pants of history, debunking myths, challenging stereotypes and generally getting her hands dirty. This fascinating book is peppered with surprising and informative historical slang, and illustrated with eye-opening, toe-curling and meticulously sourced images from the past. You will laugh, you will wince and you will wonder just how much has actually changed.
Download or read book Sex Before the Sexual Revolution written by Simon Szreter and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010-10-14 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What did sex mean for ordinary people before the sexual revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, who were often pitied by later generations as repressed, unfulfilled and full of moral anxiety? This book provides the first rounded, first-hand account of sexuality in marriage in the early and mid-twentieth century. These award-winning authors look beyond conventions of silence among the respectable majority to challenge stereotypes of ignorance and inhibition. Based on vivid, compelling and frank testimonies from a socially and geographically diverse range of individuals, the book explores a spectrum of sexual experiences, from learning about sex and sexual practices in courtship, to attitudes to the body, marital ideals and birth control. It demonstrates that while the era's emphasis on silence and strict moral codes could for some be a source of inhibition and dissatisfaction, for many the culture of privacy and innocence was central to fulfilling and pleasurable intimate lives.
Download or read book Sex and Punishment written by Eric Berkowitz and published by Catapult. This book was released on 2012-04-12 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An "enormously informative and entertaining” history of Western sex law which covers cases from ancient times to the 19th century (Boston Globe) The "raging frenzy" of the sex drive, to use Plato's phrase, has always defied control. However, that's not to say that the Sumerians, Victorians, and every civilization in between and beyond have not tried, wielding their most formidable weapon: the law. At any given point in time, some forms of sex were condoned while others were punished mercilessly. Jump forward or backward a century or two (and often far less than that), and the harmless fun of one time period becomes the gravest crime in another. Sex and Punishment tells the story of the struggle throughout the millennia to regulate the most powerful engine of human behavior. Writer and lawyer Eric Berkowitz uses flesh–and–blood cases—much flesh and even more blood—to evoke the entire sweep of Western sex law, from the savage impalement of an ancient Mesopotamian adulteress to the imprisonment of Oscar Wilde in 1895 for "gross indecency." The cast of Sex and Punishment is as varied as the forms taken by human desire itself: royal mistresses, gay charioteers, medieval transvestites, lonely goat–lovers, prostitutes of all stripes, London rent boys. Each of them had forbidden sex, and each was judged—and justice, as Berkowitz shows, rarely had much to do with it. With the light touch of a natural storyteller, Berkowitz spins these tales and more, going behind closed doors to reveal the essential history of human desire.
Download or read book The Evolution of Human Sexuality written by Donald Symons and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1979-08-30 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anthropology, Sexual Studies, Psychology, Sociology, Gender and Cultural Studies
Download or read book Sexual Selection and the Origins of Human Mating Systems written by Alan F. Dixson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2009-05-14 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book demonstrates how detailed comparative analyses of the anatomy, reproductive physiology, and behaviour of non-human primates and other mammals can offer profound insights into the origins of human sexual behaviour.
Download or read book The History of Sexuality written by Michel Foucault and published by Vintage. This book was released on 1990-04-14 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why we are so fascinated with sex and sexuality—from the preeminent philosopher of the 20th century. Michel Foucault offers an iconoclastic exploration of why we feel compelled to continually analyze and discuss sex, and of the social and mental mechanisms of power that cause us to direct the questions of what we are to what our sexuality is.
Download or read book Sex in History written by Reay Tannahill and published by . This book was released on 1989 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: SEX IN HISTORY chronicles the pleasures- and perils- of the flesh from the time of mankind's distant ancestors to the modern day; from a sexual act which was bried, crude and purposeful, to the myriad varieties of contemporary sexual mores. Reay Tannahill's scholarly, yet accessible study ranges from the earliest form of contraception (one Egyptian concoction included crocodile dung) to some latter- day misconceptions about it- like the men who joined their lovers in taking the pill 'just to be on the safe side.' It surveys all manner of sexual practice, preference and position (the acrobatic 'wheelbarrow' position, the strenuous 'hovering butterflies' position...) and draws on souces as diverse as THE ADMIRABLE DISCOURSES OF THE PLAIN GIRL, the EXHIBTION OF FEMALE FLAGELLANTS, IMPORTANT MATTERS OF THE JADE CHAMBER and THE ROMANCE OF CHASTISEMENT. Whether writing on androgyny, courtly love, flagellation or zoophilia, Turkish eunuch's Greek dildoes, Taoist sex manuals or Japanses geisha girls, Reay Tannahill is consistently enlightening and entertaining.
Download or read book The Origins and Role of Same Sex Relations in Human Societies written by James Neill and published by McFarland. This book was released on 2009-01-14 with total page 479 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This groundbreaking work draws on a vast range of research into human sexuality to demonstrate that homosexuality is not a phenomenon limited to a small minority of society, but is an aspect of a complex sexual harmony that the human race inherited from its animal ancestors. Through a survey of the patterns of sexual expression found among animals and among societies around the world, and an examination of the functional role homosexual behavior has played among animal species and human societies alike, the author arrives at some provocative conclusions: that a homosexual or bisexual phase is a normal part of sexual development, that same-sex relations play an important balancing role in regulating human reproduction, that many societies have institutionalized homosexual traditions in the past, and that the harsh condemnation of homosexuality in Western society is a relatively recent phenomenon, unique among world societies throughout history. This well researched and meticulously documented book is the first that integrates into a coherent picture the startling revelations about human sexuality coming from the recent work of sexual researchers, psychologists, anthropologists and historians. The view that emerges, of an ambisexual human species whose complex sexual harmony is being thwarted by the imposition of an artificial understanding of nature, represents a new way of thinking about sex.
Download or read book The Ancient Book of Sex and Science written by Scott Morse and published by Adhouse Books. This book was released on 2009 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this second volume in the critically acclaimed Ancient Book series, indulge yourself as you explore the strange frontiers of sex and science, from instruments of innovation and the Atomic Age to analysis of the mind, body, and seduction of the human form. Featuring broad color, shapely design, supple lines, and evocative commentary, The Ancient Book of Sex and Science is a fine art hardcover collection of images produced by some of the most highly sophisticated animation designers and low-brow artists in the industry.
Download or read book The Story of Sex written by Philippe Brenot and published by Penguin UK. This book was released on 2018-02-01 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sex is everywhere, yet how many of us truly understand it? Our attitudes to sex and sexuality are forever in flux. Driven by pleasure, power, revenge, a desire for children or simply because it isn't allowed, humans have had sex on the brain since pre-civilization. But what do we really know? In The Story of Sex, we discover the truth, including: what eroticism really is, when the first couple was established, what phallic festivals were all about, when chastity belts were used and how some ancient civilizations were far ahead of their time when it came to gender equality. The first graphic novel of its kind, The Story of Sex brilliantly and humorously uncovers the most fascinating details of our sexual ancestry, and foretells a future of virtual gratification.
Download or read book Origins of the Sexual Impulse written by Colin Wilson and published by . This book was released on 1966 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
