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The Evolution of Desire: Strategies of Human Mating. David M. Buss. New York: Basic Books. 1994. 240 pp. ISBN O-465-07750-1. $22.00 cloth.
David Buss has written a very thoughtful book on mating relationships from an evolutionary perspective. The 10 chapters cover the developmental course of relationships, desires that women and men want from relationships, attracting a partner, forming and maintaining relationships, and sexual conflict/dissolution of relationships. While Buss concludes with a chapter on harmony between the sexes, he acknowledges that much of human mating is unpleasant, writing, "In the ruthless pursuit of sexual goals, for example, men and women derogate their rivals, deceive members of the opposite sex, and even subvert their own mates" (p. 5).
The premise of the book is that human behavioral characteristics have evolved because of their reproductive as well as survival benefits....