By projecting recent post-agricultural preoccupations with female fidelity into their vision of prehistory, many theorists have Flint-stonized their way right into a cul-de-sac. Modern man's seemingly instinctive impulse to control women's sexuality is not an intrinsic feature of human nature. It is a response to specific historical socioeconomic conditions--conditions very different from those in which our species evolved. This is key to understanding sexuality in the modern world.