It is clear that the study of contemporary human sexual and reproductive behaviour is a highly complex and controversial area of inter- and trans-disciplinary scholarship, thus attempting to define its forms in prehistory might seem a fool’s errand. However, given the importance of the theme, which bears on critical social and cultural issues of biological reproduction, power, pleasure, and social control, the attempt should be made. And, since the Prehistory of Sex appeared in 1996 much has changed in terms of the sources of information bearing on past human sexual and reproductive behaviours, notably the rapid development of aDNA and genomic studies. In this presentation, observations on contemporary human sexual and reproductive practice, and anthropologically and historically documented case studies of human sexual, reproductive, and gendered behaviour in relation to the establishment of norms are used to frame a review of the range of archaeological and non-archaeological sources available for reconstructing aspects of past human sexual and reproductive behaviour. I conclude with a synthetic diachronic scheme of behavioural constraints and material affordances relevant to the psychology of sex and reproduction in different and successive bio-cultural settings.

Timothy Taylor, Universität Wien, Institut für Urgeschichte und Historische Archäologie