Anatomy of Love: The Natural History of Monogamy, Adultery, and Divorce

by Helen Fisher

Book Overview

From love at first sight and infidelity to hook-up culture and "slow love," Dr. Helen Fisher, the biological anthropologist and "renowned expert on the science of love" (Scientific American), explains... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0393034232
• ISBN13: 9780393034233
• Release Date: January 1992
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
• Length: 431 Pages
• Weight: 1.72 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 6.5" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

75% Science 25% Speculation **Caution**

The book is full of interesting data. I fell in love with the book but sadly you have really read it. The author tries to express her ideas as scientific or historic facts. Here are a couple of examples of her writing. I will maintain that monogamy, or pair bonding, is the hallmark of the human animal, there is no question that a minority of men and women follow other sexual scripts. Page 66 On the same page she states, Only 16% or 136 of 853 cultures that exist are monogamous. 84% of the cultures permit a man to take more than one wife at a time. In Africa 25% of all older men, have two or three wives at once. On page 154 the author states her theory: Like pair bonding in foxes, robins, and many other species that mate only through a breeding season, human pair bonds originally evolved to last only long enough to raise a single dependent child through infancy, the first four years, unless a second infant was conceived. On the same page the author states the following; How serial monogamy evolved can only be surmised. Our earliest ancestors probably lived in communities much like modern chimps. Everyone copulated with just about everybody else, except with mother and close siblings. Then gradual monogamy emerged. The lifestyle of olive baboons provides a fascinating model, however, for how pair bonding, the nuclear family, and divorce could have evolved in these primal hordes. On Chapter 10 the author states At times in history the Egyptians, Iranians, Romans, and other sanctioned brother-sister incest for special groups such as royalty. But with these curious exceptions, mother-son, father-daughter, and brother-sister mating have been forbidden; incest taboo is universal to humankind. It is fair to assume that the human incest taboo had emerged among Cro-Magnon or long before-for several reasons. (This is an unsubstantiated opinion without any scientific base.) But the best is in Chapter 15; After the reformation marriage became a civil contract, rather than a sacrament, for Protestants. So beginning in the 1600s women in non-Catholic countries could obtain a divorce from civil authorities. In fact, divorce rates clearly fluctuated throughout the centuries following Christ's call for monogamy. : In here the author did make a statement, which is based on false premises. In the Bible there is not a single attributed statement to Christ about monogamy. What Christ said was that a man should never divorce a woman. Why? Up to that point in history the sole source of food, shelter, and protection of women was the man. In the Jewish society, and Christ was speaking to the Jews, woman was a non-entity without any rights to property or rights whatsoever. Therefore, a divorce was the equivalent of an assassination. In a divorce a woman was thrown outside the protection of the family and household and left to the elements of nature and for other men, and wild beasts to ravish her. So after reading the book and taking 29 pages worth o

Unbiased review

I have read the book but loaned my copy and need anew one. It was factual and not just a book of praise as so many centinnial books are. I told the bad and the good. It was well researched.

Intriguing Read

I was intrigued by the topic, cover, and title for Dr. Fisher's Anatomy of Love. From the start I was interested. I was especially drawn-in after the first chapter where "the gaze" is discussed as the "most striking human courting play." The Anatomy of Love is a detailed account of human attraction; the book attempts to explain why humans mate, marry, and stray; citing both conjectural, biological and literately evidence. Four pages into the book and the reader discovers a table of contents with such titles as "Why Adultery", "Eros", and "Fickle Passion"; any reader would have to be at least intrigued. And so confirms the theme of the book. Biology plays a role, a fundamental role, in human attraction, marriage, and even divorce. This book is not designed for those who believe solely in fate; it is not designed for romance novel readers. Dr. Fisher presents a persuasive explanation for the purpose of human attraction devoid of political correctness. She provides surprising facts, "most people think men are supposed to take the initiative in sexual advances, in practice women around the world actively begin sexual liaisons." Dr. Fisher presents an interesting, research-based account of sex and relationships, allowing the readers to decide if they believe the research. Anatomy of Love is written as a sweeping tour of the landscape of love. Her writing style is simple, concise and thorough. Dr. Fischer provides just enough narrative and conjecture to allow this book to be more than a typical biology textbook on love and relationships. She tells the story from the point of view of a casual observer into the human psyche; supporting each discussion points with multiple forms of evidence. She does not hesitate to draw from multiple hard sciences (biology, chemistry, etc.) while combining them with historical, anthropological, or social sciences to further elaborate on her points. I caught myself thinking back to a time when I was dating where I wished I had been more aware of the fundamental techniques explained by Dr. Fisher in an attraction game. One line described the male response to a female's first attempt at overt flirtations, "...instantly if he flinches, the pickup is over. If he withdraws, even barely, the sender may never try to touch again," (p. 28) outlines how touchy Dr. Fisher views love, attraction, and sex. It also provides a hearty example of the feeling the book gave. As I read the book I felt like I had to rush to find information, I had to watch for the clues she was leaving. I found at times Dr. Fischer did tend to make sweeping arguments, "there is a great deal of ancillary evidence to suggest that some of these patterns are universal to humankind (p. 29)." But overall I believed the points she was making. Once I finished, I wondered whether Dr. Fisher intended the reader to react to the book in much the same manner a human would in trying to figure out the anatomy of love - maybe it is all basic biology but not are we ever r

An Honest Look at Love

As I biologist, I am constantly frustrated by the unscientific (and often ultra-philisophical) interpretation that goes on when considering humanity, and particularly love. This book took the extreme interest that exists about human sexuality and love, and places them in a scientific light, without necissarily demonizing or undermining the amazing feelings that go along with love; Fisher simply explains the science behind these amazingly rich and powerful feelings in an attempt to better know ourselves.

An honest and refreshing view of love and sex

As a scientist (chemist) I enjoy reading science books in other diciplines. Fishers' book was well written and researched, a joy to read. It gives an evolutionary view of how we evolved in body and brain with regards to sex and love, and a great deal of attention is given to the effects of brain chemicals, discovered via modern research. This is a thoroughly enlightening book, and to be read by people with and open mind, in other words, this book does not support the Creationist view of life.