Sex, Time, and Power
How Women's Sexuality Shaped Human Evolution
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Narrated by:
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Bob Souer
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By:
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Leonard Shlain
About this listen
As in the best-selling The Alphabet Versus the Goddess, Leonard Shlain's provocative book promises to change the way listeners view themselves and where they came from.
Sex, Time, and Power offers a tantalizing answer to an age-old question: Why did big-brained Homo sapiens suddenly emerge some 150,000 years ago? The key, according to Shlain, is female sexuality. Drawing on an awesome breadth of research, he shows how, long ago, the narrowness of the newly bipedal human female's pelvis and the increasing size of infants' heads precipitated a crisis for the species. Natural selection allowed for the adaptation of the human female to this environmental stress by reconfiguring her hormonal cycles, entraining them with the periodicity of the moon. The results, however, did much more than ensure our existence; they imbued women with the concept of time, and gave them control over sex - a power that males sought to reclaim. And the possibility of achieving immortality through heirs drove men to construct patriarchal cultures that went on to dominate so much of human history.
From the nature of courtship to the evolution of language, Shlain's brilliant and wide-ranging exploration stimulates new thinking about very old matters.
©2003 Leonard Shlain (P)2020 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 6 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Contrary to conventional wisdom, our brains and bodies are hardwired to carry out an evolutionary mission that determines much of what we do, from life plans to everyday decisions. With an accessible tone and a healthy disregard for political correctness, this lively and eminently readable book popularizes the latest research in a cutting-edge field of study: one that turns much of what we thought we knew about human nature upside-down.
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Not bad but didn't live up to the reviews
- By Ana Mohammed on 01-08-12
By: Alan S. Miller, and others
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Evolving Ourselves
- How Unnatural Selection and Nonrandom Mutation are Changing Life on Earth
- By: Juan Enriquez, Steve Gullans
- Narrated by: Rob Shapiro
- Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Why are conditions like autism, asthma, obesity, and allergies exploding at unprecedented rates? Why are we living longer, getting smarter, having far fewer kids? If Darwin were alive today, how would he explain this new world?
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fascinating ideas and science
- By Joel on 07-04-15
By: Juan Enriquez, and others
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The Bonobo and the Atheist
- By: Frans de Waal
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 9 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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In this lively and illuminating discussion of his landmark research, esteemed primatologist Frans de Waal argues that human morality is not imposed from above but instead comes from within. Moral behavior does not begin and end with religion but is in fact a product of evolution. For many years, de Waal has observed chimpanzees soothe distressed neighbors and bonobos share their food. Now he delivers fascinating fresh evidence for the seeds of ethical behavior in primate societies that further cements the case for the biological origins of human fairness.
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Great research on apes, bad research on humans
- By Christian Bonnell on 07-18-14
By: Frans de Waal
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The Moral Animal
- Why We Are the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology
- By: Robert Wright
- Narrated by: Greg Thornton
- Length: 16 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Are men literally born to cheat? Does monogamy actually serve women's interests? These are among the questions that have made The Moral Animal one of the most provocative science books in recent years. Wright unveils the genetic strategies behind everything from our sexual preferences to our office politics - as well as their implications for our moral codes and public policies.
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Ridiculously Insightful
- By Liron on 10-25-10
By: Robert Wright
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Human Errors
- A Panorama of Our Glitches, from Pointless Bones to Broken Genes
- By: Nathan H. Lents
- Narrated by: L.J. Ganser
- Length: 7 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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We humans like to think of ourselves as highly evolved creatures. But if we are supposedly evolution's greatest creation, why do we have such bad knees? Why do we catch head colds so often - 200 times more often than a dog does? How come our wrists have so many useless bones? And are we really supposed to swallow and breathe through the same narrow tube? Surely there's been some kind of mistake. As professor of biology Nathan H. Lents explains in Human Errors, our evolutionary history is nothing if not a litany of mistakes, each more entertaining and enlightening than the last.
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From Pointless Bones to Broken Genes to...Aliens?
- By Katy.LED on 12-04-18
By: Nathan H. Lents
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Vagina Obscura
- An Anatomical Voyage
- By: Rachel E. Gross
- Narrated by: Siho Ellsmore
- Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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The Latin term for the female genitalia, pudendum, means “parts for which you should be ashamed”. Until 1651, ovaries were called female testicles. The fallopian tubes are named for a man. Named, claimed, and shamed: Welcome to the story of the female body, as penned by men. Today, a new generation of (mostly) women scientists is finally redrawing the map. With modern tools and fresh perspectives, they’re looking at the organs traditionally bound up in reproduction—the uterus, ovaries, vagina—and seeing within them a new biology of change and resilience.
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poor narration
- By Jane on 08-23-22
By: Rachel E. Gross
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Cannibalism
- By: Bill Schutt
- Narrated by: Tom Perkins
- Length: 8 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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Eating one's own kind is a completely natural behavior in thousands of species, including humans. Throughout history we have engaged in cannibalism for reasons related to famine, burial rites, and medicine. Cannibalism has also been used as a form of terrorism and as the ultimate expression of filial piety. With unexpected wit and a wealth of knowledge, Bill Schutt takes us on a tour of the field, exploring exciting new avenues of research and investigating questions like why so many fish eat their offspring and some amphibians consume their mothers' skin.
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Ruined it at the end
- By Kimberly Ames on 12-07-17
By: Bill Schutt
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This Is Your Brain on Parasites
- How Tiny Creatures Manipulate Our Behavior and Shape Society
- By: Kathleen McAuliffe
- Narrated by: Nicol Zanzarella
- Length: 8 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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A riveting investigation of the myriad ways that parasites control how other creatures - including humans - think, feel, and act. These tiny organisms can live only inside another animal, and, as McAuliffe reveals, they have many evolutionary motives for manipulating their host's behavior. Far more often than appreciated, these puppeteers orchestrate the interplay between predator and prey.
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Entertaining but questionable studies
- By mdkoci on 01-02-17
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A General Theory of Love
- By: Richard Lannon MD, Thomas Lewis MD, Fari Amini MD
- Narrated by: Chris Sorensen
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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This original and lucid account of the complexities of love and its essential role in human well-being draws on the latest scientific research. Three eminent psychiatrists tackle the difficult task of reconciling what artists and thinkers have known for thousands of years about the human heart with what has only recently been learned about the primitive functions of the human brain.
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Great subject matter-hard to listen to
- By Laurel on 07-22-19
By: Richard Lannon MD, and others
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What listeners say about Sex, Time, and Power
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- martaelisity
- 10-26-24
eye-opening
Wow, the beginning of our species and in general, biology plays a huge role in how the sexes interact with each other. Fascinating listen. I know understand better hoe male and female motivation and behavior works.
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- Nevets
- 09-05-23
Do I make you horny baby?
The books is an interesting one...I preferred his Alphabet Versus the Goddess book in depth and content. in listening to this book I am reminded of our hairy shitting dying ape nature! but of course, we are more than that. have a listen and see what stands out to you.
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- KC
- 11-07-23
I am grateful you are so curious and bright.
This book has so much wisdom in it to criticize anything here in my opinion is a fool’s errand.
You dissect details subjective in nature as clever as one possibly could knowing the ambiguity of such a illusive subject is challenging to say the least.
Worth reading a few times! Thank you!
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- Richard McKown
- 02-21-23
I loved this book
There are so many interesting ideas here. Sure, the archaeology, and the science hasn’t caught up to prove or disprove Shlain’s thesis.
I think it’s best to read this thinking of Shlain as an artist as opposed to a scientist.
He is setting out some big ideas for us to contemplate certainly it’s a scientific way of looking at human evolution, but it ties together the evolution of the social structures that make up our complex society with our biological evolution, which is quite mysterious.
I am actually a believer in the supernatural and the spirit world, but I also believe in evolutionary biology, but then again, I am an artist not a scientist, and an artist can hold contradictory ideas in their head, and find a way to see the possibility of them both.
I would like to extend Leonard Shlain a tiny amount of artistic license and allow him to take us on these thoroughly imagined thought exercises.
If you are a scientist dive in, pick up the argument, what would it take to prove or disprove his thesis? If you’ve already made up your mind about everything well, this is probably not the book for you.
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- Alyssa Nelson
- 06-03-24
An intellectualized interpretation of the book of genesis
I love this book. It provides a scientific and less “fantastical” expression of the creation of man. I believe it exemplifies the concept that Adam and Eve were the guides of awakening others around them to the truth of sex and reproduction; which was a huge turning point in human development. I also believe it provides valuable insights into the dynamics between men and women, and how we can work together to help create more peace and harmony in our most intimate relationships
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- Patricia Anaya
- 06-20-21
Very interesting account of the relationship of us
this is a very thorough and interesting account of the biology of men and women and how we relate to one another, it has much to do with our hormones and Cave Man and Woman days!
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- Liz W.
- 10-12-24
I’m sad he has passed, he was a great mind
I’ve wondered about many of these ideas myself. It’s really cool reading a book that talks about this and I find it compelling. I told my husband to read it too so we can talk about it. I think he’s wrong about gays and lesbians, but all the rest I liked. I think gay men have a mind-altering parasite or some other disease. It must be sexually transmitted anally and they are driven to compulsively seek others to infect. Lesbians have no fewer children than straight women. It’s an adaptation to get a higher value man and sharing him. That’s why men find lesbianism attractive, two for one deal. But the rest of it I loved! Why some men go bald, are left handed, and are color blind is fascinating! And I think I need to learn to like steak, I’ve been anemic for years, I should fix that. I kept thinking about the incel sub-culture and how well their existence and attitudes are explained by this world view. Next time I encounter a red-piller I’m going to recommend this book. Hopefully it will make them realize that women aren’t being malicious, this is just how Mother Nature set us up. And men are the way they are for the same reason. It’s kinda tragic, actually. Now that we’ve done away with the cultural norms that made the system function, a compromise between the sexes where neither got all they desired but were happy enough. And now that the deal is broken many men and women are deeply unhappy.
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- Alednam A Uonopk
- 05-09-21
Well done Shlain, well done....
This book was interesting. Shlain has done a good job putting things together to elucidate our past and it's impacts on now.
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- Michelle Hammond
- 10-24-24
Almost perfect
This was a nice attempt by a man to sort out some of the things that women experience and how we have evolved. It lacks any acknowledgement of our spiritual nature, and how that contributes to the dance between the evolution of the sexea. The part that is very incorrect however, perhaps being dated, is about male circumcision. The foreskin sheath functions as the "ears" of the penis, able to percieve and feel the woman during intercourse, and protecting against useless friction that results in dryness and irritation. Being able to feel a woman in the most intimate way possible, a man can respond better to her pleasure or lack there of. Having sex with a circumcised male is uncomfortable, often resulting with difficulty for women to remain lubricated, and for men to feel what they are even doing inside her. Infant genital mutilation is essentially for separating men from their full capacity to be intimate with women, and instead have them seek a mythical male diety as a God/savior. Circumcision destroys the potential intimacy and depth a man can feel, only compounding the effect of monotheistic patriarchal religion on the male psyche.
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- Jenny P
- 12-03-21
I couldn’t stop listening.
Fascinating book, accessible to the science-averse, and very thought provoking. Special kudos to the narrator for delivering the words in a way that’s engaging without ever veering into the kind of cloying performance that has forced me to abandon many books whose content was not the problem.
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1 person found this helpful