Donald Symons
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Pioneering the study of human sexuality
Donald Symons | |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Anthropologist |
| Known for | One of the founders of evolutionary psychology Pioneering the study of human sexuality |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | University of California, Santa Barbara |
Donald Symons (1942–2024) was an American anthropologist best known as one of the founders of evolutionary psychology, and for pioneering the study of human sexuality from an evolutionary perspective.[1][2][3] He is one of the most cited researchers in contemporary sex research.[4] His work is referenced by scientists investigating an extremely diverse range of sexual phenomena.[4] Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker described Symons' The Evolution of Human Sexuality (1979) as a "groundbreaking book"[5] and "a landmark in its synthesis of evolutionary biology, anthropology, physiology, psychology, fiction, and cultural analysis, written with a combination of rigor and wit. It was a model for all subsequent books that apply evolution to human affairs, particularly mine."[4] Symons was Professor Emeritus[6] in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His last work, written with Catherine Salmon, was Warrior Lovers, an evolutionary analysis of slash fiction.
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