Department of Anthropology, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV 89154-5003, USA.
Gerontology. 2012;58(5):446-52. doi: 10.1159/000337420. Epub 2012 Apr 6.
In this mini-review, we consider an evolutionary biocultural perspective on human aging and sexuality. An evolutionary approach to senescence highlights the energetic trade-offs between fertility and mortality. By comparing humans to other primates, we situate human senescence as an evolutionary process, with shifts in postreproductive sexual behavior in this light. Age-related declines in sexual behavior are typical for humans but also highly contingent on the sociocultural context within which aging individuals express their sexuality. We briefly review some of the most comprehensive studies of aging and sexual behavior, both from the USA and cross-culturally. We frame these patterns with respect to the long-term relationships within which human sexual behavior typically occurs. Because sexuality is typically expressed within pair-bonds, sexual behavior sometimes declines in both members of a couple with age, but also exhibits sex-specific effects that have their roots in evolved sex differences.
在本篇迷你综述中，我们从进化生物文化视角探讨了人类衰老和性的问题。衰老的进化观点强调了生育力和死亡率之间的能量权衡。通过将人类与其他灵长类动物进行比较，我们将人类的衰老视为一个进化过程，并在此背景下探讨了人类的生殖后期性行为转变。与衰老相关的性行为下降在人类中很常见，但也高度依赖于个体表达性行为的社会文化背景。我们简要回顾了一些关于衰老和性行为的最全面的研究，这些研究来自美国和跨文化研究。我们根据人类性行为通常发生的长期关系来构建这些模式。由于性行为通常发生在伴侣关系中，所以随着年龄的增长，伴侣双方的性行为有时会下降，但也表现出具有进化性别差异根源的性别特异性效应。
