The Evolutionary Biology of Human Female Sexuality

by Randy Thornhill, Steven W. Gangestad

Overview

Research conducted in the last fifteen years has placed in question many of the traditional conclusions scholars have formed about human female sexuality. Though conventional wisdom asserts that womens estrus has been evolutionarily lost, Randy Thornhill and Steven W. Gangestad assert that it is present, though concealed. Women, they propose, therefore exhibit two sexualities each ovulatory cycleestrus and sexuality outside of the estrous phase, extended sexualitythat possess distinct functions. Synthesizing research in behavioral evolution and comparative biology, the authors provide a new theoretical framework for understanding the evolution of human female sexuality, one that is rooted in female sexuality and phylogeny across all vertebrate animals.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195340983
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	09/25/2008
Pages:	424
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Randy Thornhill is Distinguished Professor of Biology at the University of New Mexico.
Steven W. Gangestad is Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of New Mexico.

Table of Contents

1. Background and Overview of the Book2. Methodology3. Extended Female Sexuality4. The Evolution of Human Mating Systems and Parental Care5. Female Ornaments and Signaling6. The Evolution of Women's Permanent Ornaments7. Good Genes and Mate Choices8. Estrus9. Women's Estrus10. Women's Estrus, Pair-Bonding, and Extra-Pair Sex11. Concealed Fertility12. Coevolutionary Processes: Men's counter-Strategies and Women's Responses to Them13. Reflections

Editorial Reviews

"The authors provide an impressively up-to-date, thorough, and evenhanded review not only of recent work on human sexuality in relation to ovarian cycle stage, but also of relevant research on other taxa and of the latest theoretical and empirical work on sexual selection and antagonistic coevolution of the sexes. The result is a tour de force, and those who wish to refute it will have to come to grips with its forceful argumentation and impressive breadth of information."—The Quarterly Review of Biology

From the Publisher