Prehistory of Sex: Four Million Years of Human Sexual Culture

This lively and provocative book leaves no stone unturned and no taboountouched as it pieces together evidence from highly controversial artifactsand human remains to decipher the mysteries of Stone Age sex. ArchaeologistTimothy Taylor paints a dramatic and startling picture of our sexual evolutionas he follows human sexuality from its origins four million years ago to moderntimes to answer our most titillating questions about this endlessly fascinating andpowerful subject.

Taylor draws on recent archaeological discoveries such as skeletons of Amazonwomen, golden penis sheaths, the charred remains of aphrodisiac herbs, and awealth of prehistoric erotic art to trace practices such as contraception, homosexuality, transsexuality, prostitution, sadomasochism, and bestiality backto their ancient origins. He makes the startling claim that although humanshave used contraceptives from the very earliest times to separate sex fromreproduction, techniques to maximize population growth were developed only whenfarming began--a revolution involving control of animals' sex lives, widespreadoppression of women, and an attitude to nature that continues to havedevastating ecological consequences. He draws the radical conclusion that theevolution of our species has been shaped not only by the survival of the fittest but by thevery sexual choices our ancestors made. And he links ancient sexuality with ourown in a contemporary survey of artificial insemination, surrogate pregnancies, drag queens, brothels, pornography, and the spectre of racial dominance.

How has human sexuality changed--and how has it remained the same--over thespan of millions of years? How did the ideas of eroticism,ecstasy, immortality, and beauty become linked to sex? Taylor explores these questionsand sets out to prove that our sexual behavior is and has always been a matterof choice rather than something genetically determined. He eloquently andaccessibly explains how our sexual politics--issues of gender and power, control and exploitation--are not new but are deeply rooted in our prehistory.

Surely one of the most illuminating and controversial books on human sexualityever written, "The Prehistory of Sex" invites readers to become voyeurs into the bizarre--and so far hidden--prehistoric sexualworld.

Timothy Taylor is a lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Bradford inthe United Kingdom. He has presented his work on "Down to Earth" in an episode that won the British Archaeological Award forbest popular archaeology on television in 1991-92. He has contributed numerousarticles to "Scientific American," "Antiquity," and "The OxfordIllustrated Prehistory of Europe."