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

Megaliths, long barrows, figurines, burials, rock art and hillside figures all evoke ancient beliefs about male and female sexuality which, Taylor argues, lay at the heart of prehistoric culture and religion. This unique study of human sexual culture covers four million years and is solidly based on human remains and artefacts. Beginning with an assessment of what bare human bones can tell us about the sexual behaviour of our ancestors, Taylor explores archaeological, genetic and cultural evidence from Britain and across the world to ask whether attitudes to sex really have changed. This is also a history of past and present schools of thought about the history of sex and so is full of extracts from anthropological and ethnological surveys in which strange ideas abound.