Wednesday, February 23, 2011


Sex and Evolutionary Anthropology

OR

"The Threatening Scent of Fertile Women"




To riff off of Rich, I thought I'd post a link to a new article from the New York Times:

The Threatening Scent of Fertile Women. This article describes the results of new experimental research conducted by evolutionary psychologists (as you know from Rich's post, there are anthropologists who study evolutionary psychology too) at Florida State University. This research was designed to uncover links between human female fertility and relationship fidelity. Results of the study are explained from an evolutionary perspective. Some cultural anthropologists suggest that while compelling, arguments such as those posited by the “good genes” evolutionary explanation for adultery" (discussed in the article) may oversimplify the complexity of human behavior. What do you think?

2 comments:

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  2. Oh! And, for anyone who enjoyed the Sapolsky video, I SERIOUSLY recommend searching his name on iTunes U if you have any kind of evil Apple product and use iTunes. Watch his course on Behavioral Biology, ESPECIALLY the 2-3 lectures on human sexual behavior. Totally roxor'd my soxorz.

    Correction on first post: "*to /be/ a a societal construct.

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