Samrat's Reviews > Sex at Dawn: The Prehistoric Origins of Modern Sexuality

Sex at Dawn is a paradigm-altering, supremely-readable and entertaining, but imperfect book.

The pluses: An excellent point-by-point takedown of the Hobbesian view of early man's life as "poor, nasty, brutish, and short"; good humor and narrative flow; and a factual confirmation of things I already believed.

Hmmm, that list should be longer. I really did like the book. It was very fun to read. I guess one could assume I approve of everything not mentioned below.

The minuses: Heavy reliance on secondary sources, including news articles and Jared-Diamond-style semi-academic books; not really discussing homosexuality at all, despite its promotion as a core point in the book; only around one passing reference to an individual in a working open marriage, though, presumably, the authors consider this a better model than monogamy; and a skimpy, apparently-contradictory conclusion.

I wondered whether a research psychologist and a practicing psychiatrist are the most qualified candidates for a body of work that really seems to be more related to evolutionary biology/anthropology/primatology. I think they dealt with their subject matter aptly, but the paucity of cited primary research makes me think maybe they didn't understand the original research? I don't have any reason to doubt their scientific rigor, but most college students would be excoriated if their research papers so heavily favored secondary over primary research. The further from the original data, the more opportunities for bias and misappropriated conclusions abound.

UPDATE: I've now read that this work is founded on Ryan's doctoral dissertation. So, presumably, he does understand his subject matter, but... it still makes me uncomfortable that so many of the quotes in the book are pulled from other semi-academic popular works, not from research papers and original research. This would have easily been a five-star work for me if I thought it were better documented.

UPDATE TO THE UPDATE: I googled his dissertation advisor... whose background in parapsychology research leaves me... underwhelmed by his academic credentials. However unfairly, it increases my skepticism.