Primate Sexuality

A synthesis of our knowledge about the sexual behaviour of primates. The author reviews and integrates the evolutionary biology and physiological basis of sexual behaviour across the spectrum of primates from prosimians to humans. The text is illustrated throughout.

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Primate Sexuality is a uniquely comprehensive synthesis of our knowledge about the sexual behaviour of primates. In it, Alan Dixson reviews and integrates both the evolutionary biology and the physiological basis of sexual behaviour across the whole spectrum of primates, from prosimians to humans. Covering almost every aspect of primate sexuality, the book begins with an analysis of the history of research into primate sexual behaviour. Several chapters discuss the complex array of mating systems exhibited by primates, and the bewildering range of tactics which influence sexual interactions withing mating systems, and, ultimately, reproductive success. Sex selection, sperm competition, and the evolution of sexual dimorphism are explored. The book also reviews our current knowledge of the physiological aspects of sexuality, such as sexual differentation of the brain, hormonal mechanisms, the ovarian cycle, and the neuroendocrine regulation of sexual behaviour. No other book written on the subject of primate sexuality exhibits such comparative breadth or technical depth.
Dixson has been working on primates for almost 30 years, and has put together an outstanding volume, drawing on and collating work from more than 2000 references. The work is illustrated throughout with hundreds of original drawings and figures. It will be welcomed by zoologists, anthropologists, and psychologists researching the sexual behaviour of primates, as well as by psychiatrists and clinicians with an interest in human sexuality.