In the field of primatology, from Hrdy’s game-changing multiple-mating and infanticide hypothesis and insights about the nature of female orgasm to Barbara Smuts’s unexpected observations about female olive baboons who choose mates from among numerous male “friends” to Meredith Small’s assertion that the single most observable characteristic among female non-human primates is a preference for sexual novelty, presumptions that female monogamy is timeless and essential have taken a beating.
