Evolution and human sexuality

Bibliographic Data

ID8313974
AuthorsP B Gray (0000-0003-1774-2468, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, corresponding author)
Year2013
Volume152
IssueS57
Pages94-118
Publication date2013-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Journal of Physical Anthropology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0002-9483 • E-ISSN: 1096-8644
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/ajpa.22394
PMID24151100
OpenAlexW1640326473
LanguageEN
Citations received11
References cited169

The aim of this review is to put core features of human sexuality in an evolutionary light. Toward that end, I address five topics concerning the evolution of human sexuality. First, I address theoretical foundations, including recent critiques and developments. While much traces back to Darwin and his view of sexual selection, more recent work helps refine the theoretical bases to sex differences and life history allocations to mating effort. Second, I consider central models attempting to specify the phylogenetic details regarding how hominin sexuality might have changed, with most of those models honing in on transitions from a possible chimpanzee‐like ancestor to the slightly polygynous and long‐term bonded sociosexual partnerships observed among most recently studied hunter‐gatherers. Third, I address recent genetic and physiological data contributing to a refined understanding of human sexuality. As examples, the availability of rapidly increasing genomic information aids comparative approaches to discern signals of selection in sexuality‐related phenotypes, and neuroendocrine studies of human responses to sexual stimuli provide insight into homologous and derived mechanisms. Fourth, I consider some of the most recent, large, and rigorous studies of human sexuality. These provide insights into sexual behavior across other national samples and on the Internet. Fifth, I discuss the relevance of a life course perspective to understanding the evolution of human sexuality. Most research on the evolution of human sexuality focuses on young adults. Yet humans are sexual beings from gestation to death, albeit in different ways across the life course, and in ways that can be theoretically couched within life history theory. Am J Phys Anthropol 57:94–118, 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc

Biology · Evolutionary biology · Human evolution · Human sexuality · Mating · Perspective (graphical) · Polygyny · Population · Sexual selection · Sociocultural evolution · Sociology · Anthropology · Computer Science · Demography · Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior · Gender Studies · Genetics · Neuroendocrine regulation and behavior · Psychology · Sexual function and dysfunction studies

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