Heated disagreements about sexuality and gender are front and center in today’s culture wars. Evolutionary biologist Nathan H. Lents argues in his new book, The Sexual Evolution: How 500 Million Years of Sex, Gender, and Mating Shape Modern Relationships (Mariner Books) that we need only look to the animal world to see that there’s no one correct way to approach our sexual relationships. In fact, sexual diversity helps animal species thrive. In this excerpt from his book, Lents discusses two different mating styles that each contribute to strong parental bonds and shed light on the origins of the human family.
In just two generations, the sexual landscape has completely changed throughout most of the developed world, and so it is …