Sex, Time, and Power: HOw Women's Sexuality Shaped Human Evolution

Rating:
Summary: A beautifully-written book that makes us think, but...
Review: the reasoning is dubious in some places. The theory that heavy menses would have been favored by natural selection for long enough to allow women to "discover time" is tenuous. Yet the questions Schlain asks need to be asked. Why indeed are humans so different from other species in the following three aspects: men's extreme masturbation habits, women's diproportionate menses drain, and the proclivity for exclusive same sex pairing?

Personally, I suspect that all these behaviors are linked to the fact that we are programmed to have sex constantly, unlike species regulated by estrus. A natural, post-passion hangover leaves us feeling drained and depleted a lot of the time--also triggering varying degrees of alienation from the opposite sex. These feelings show up in our lives as excessive energy drains and fragile intimate relationships.

Three cheers for Schlain for stirring an important debate.

Rating:
Summary: Definately worth buying
Review: This book is intriguing, well-researched and full of amazing things to think over, even if they can't all be proven. There is no shortage of interesting points in this book. Although I am forced to agree with the reviewers who point out that towards the end, the book goes downhill, I don't see any reason not to read as much as you are enjoying. (The author gets too involved in trying to figure out what our distant ancestors were thinking, and it quickly gets silly and irritating.)

But don't skip this book just because of the end. It is a fairly long book, and only the last 3-4 chapters are this way. It is worth the time, money and effort to read the first 4/5 of this fascinating and innovative book. You will be intrigued.


Rating:
Summary: Some interesting ideas, some incorrect facts
Review: While at least one central premise of the book - that women lose iron through a variety of ways, and this binds them to men in a hunter/gatherer society, is at least new to me and stands up well to scrutiny, there were numerous other factual errors in the book, as well as completely unfounded conclusions. After spotting about the sixth obvious factual error, I was forced to start taking the rest of the book far less seriously - after all, if I could spot that many, how many had I missed?

In addition to some of the other errors cited by other reviewers here, one that stood out that hasn't been yet mentioned was the author's contention that only mammals have a functional memory (even fish have been demonstrated to have memory, as any aquarium keeper will tell you). Among the authors dubious conclusions are that ancient female humans (which he calls gynosapiens) developed a detailed sense of time before the male - which is certainly not proven, or even suggested, by any of the evidence he presents.

Overall, the book made me very frustrated. It could have been such a good, good book. Instead, it was merely somewhat interesting, and not at all credible.