The Prehistory of Sex: Four Million Years of Human Sexual Culture

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

PW called this examination of four million years of sexual culture a "groundbreaking, riveting survey." (Aug.)

Booknews

The author is a lecturer in archaeology at the University of Bradford in the United Kingdom. His approach is serious, with the intent to broaden understanding of the range of human sexuality by looking at archaeological findings and interpreting their content in terms of what can be asked or surmised about sexual activity and beliefs among early peoples. Among the topics he investigates are the use of contraception by early humans, the implications of prehistoric abortions, and the histories of body piercing, bestiality, prostitution, sadomasochism, homosexuality, and transsexuality. He's careful about documenting references to support conjectures, and the bibliography is extensive. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Kirkus Reviews

A chatty, erudite introduction to one of the least publicized areas of archaeology: the sexual practices and attitudes of our prehistoric ancestors.

Taylor's background as a professor (Archaeology/Univ. of Bradford, England) and popularizer for British television serves him well. As he sifts through the archaeological record to reconstruct the sex lives of hominids, Ice Age hunter-gatherers, and Neolithic farmers, he consistently entertains while provoking thought. His crisp, witty style can be found in lines like, "I do not believe that women built Stonehenge. . . . I believe that the making of Stonehenge was ordered by a man and that he was unhappy." The early chapters develop his thesis that sexual culture, including baby slings and contraception, was a shaping force in human evolution; the later chapters are a chronological, selective survey of Eurasian sexuality from Cro-Magnon to Roman times, capped with a loosely connected chapter on race. All the chapters are chockful of little-known facts (herbal "morning after" drugs; Siberian rock art showing a man on skis copulating with an elk) and acerbic rebuttals of other prehistorians' ideas. Taylor's opinions themselves are not always more credible than those he rebuts: His suggestion that language might have first been used to fake orgasm can hardly be supported or refuted by fossil evidence. Many of his claims show a nostalgic preference for the presumed sexual variety of prehistoric hunter-gatherers over the sexual repression he identifies with the agricultural revolution. And his conclusion—advocating breastfeeding and kilts over infant formula and pants—ends up sounding suspiciously trendy.

But where else can you discover that pregnant mares' urine may have once been a form of transsexual hormone therapy?