ABSTRACT
Sex is a basic driving force of human biology; power is a key feature of human sociology. They are entangled, not worlds apart. Power can be observed in the animal kingdom, while the forms of human sexuality are socially constructed and variable. Both are convertible currencies, and merge into one another. Sex may lead to power, through the conduit of seduction. Power is also a basis for obtaining sex, whether by force or lubricated with money and what it can buy. The family is an enclosure in the open battlefields of sex and power, delimiting the free-for-all by staking out boundaries, between members and non-members, substituting rights and obligations for free trade and perpetual combat. As such, the family is a social institution, the most ancient, the most widespread of institutions.
