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As in the bestselling The Alphabet Versus the Goddess, Leonard Shlain's provocative new book promises to change the way readers 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 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.
- Hardcover: 448 pages
- Publisher: Viking Adult; First Printing of First Edition edition (August 14, 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0670032336
- ISBN-13: 978-0670032334
- Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
User reviewsTime Well Spent 
By Darrell Carswell, Manhattan, KS If you've ever wondered what it is women really desire, if you ever thought about why women are either venerated or objectified, then you need to read this book. In Sex, Time and Power, author Leonard Shlain goes through the evolution of the female, detailing how as child bearing became more dangerous for early homosapiens, females began refusing sexual intercourse. Sex, Tim and Power attempts to describe the profound effect this has had on humanity, both socially and physically. This book is absolutely fascinating and I've truly never read anything like it. My wife ordered Sex, Time and Power after she got ordained to perform her best friend's wedding, and thank god she did. It kept me busy while she helped plan the wedding all those months. A must read!
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