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The evolution of beauty : how Darwin's forgotten theory of mate choice shapes the animal world-- and us / Richard O. Prum.

by Prum, Richard O.

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Doubleday, a division of Penguin Random House, 2017.

Sexual selection in animals.

Sexual selection.

Mate selection.

Courtship in animals.

Human evolution.

9780385537216 (hc.)

428 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (some color), map ; 25 cm.

Includes bibliographical references (pages [387]-404) and index.

Darwin's really dangerous idea -- Beauty happens -- Manakin dances -- Aesthetic innovation and decadence -- Make way for duck sex -- Beauty from the beast -- Bromance before romance -- Human beauty happens too -- Pleasure happens -- The Lysistrata effect -- The queering of Homo sapiens -- This aesthetic view of life.

"What can explain the incredible diversity of beauty in nature? Ornithologist Richard O. Prum discusses Charles Darwin's second and long-neglected theory - aesthetic mate choice - and what it means for our understanding of evolution. Prum connects those same evolutionary dynamics to the origins and diversity of human sexuality, offering new thinking about the evolution of human beauty and the role of mate choice, thereby transforming our ancestors from typical infanticidal primates into socially intelligent, pair-bonding caregivers. An exhilarating tour de force that begins in the trees and ends by fundamentally challenging how we understand human evolution and ourselves. Richard O. Prum is a professor of ornithology at Yale University."--Provided by publisher.

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