Women In Human Evolution

Author : Lori Hager
Publisher : Routledge
ISBN 13 : 1134840101
Total Pages : 232 pages
Book Rating : 4.06/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Women In Human Evolution written by Lori Hager and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2005-08-18 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume, the first of it's kind, examines the role of women paleontologists and archaeologists in a field traditionally dominated by men. Women researchers in this field, have questioned many of the assumptions and developmental scenarios advanced by male scientists. As a result of such efforts, women have forged a more central role in models of human development and have radically altered the way in which human evolution is perceived. This history of the feminist critique of science, is of profound significance and will be of interest to all those who work in the fields of anthropology, archaeology, paleontology, and human biology.

Author : Sarah Blaffer Hrdy
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9780674955400
Total Pages : 274 pages
Book Rating : 4.04/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Woman that Never Evolved written by Sarah Blaffer Hrdy and published by . This book was released on 1981 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author dispels some of the myths about the nature of females and female sexuality, and suggests new hypotheses aboutthe evolution of women.

Author : Melvin Konner
Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN 13 : 039324654X
Total Pages : 400 pages
Book Rating : 4.44/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Women After All: Sex, Evolution, and the End of Male Supremacy written by Melvin Konner and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2015-03-09 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A sparkling, thought-provoking account of sexual differences. Whether you’re a man or a woman, you’ll find his conclusions gripping.”—Jared Diamond There is a human genetic fluke that is surprisingly common, due to a change in a key pair of chromosomes. In the normal condition the two look the same, but in this disorder one is malformed and shrunken beyond recognition. The result is a shortened life span, higher mortality at all ages, an inability to reproduce, premature hair loss, and brain defects variously resulting in attention deficit, hyperactivity, conduct disorder, hypersexuality, and an enormous excess of both outward and self-directed aggression. It is called maleness. Melvin Konner traces the arc of evolution to explain the relationships between women and men. With patience and wit he explores the knotty question of whether men are necessary in the biological destiny of the human race. He draws on multiple, colorful examples from the natural world—such as the mating habits of the octopus, black widow, angler fish, and jacana—and argues that maleness in humans is hardly necessary to the survival of the species. In characteristically humorous and engaging prose, Konner sheds light on our biologically different identities, while noting the poignant exceptions that challenge the male/female divide. We meet hunter-gatherers such as those in Botswana, whose culture gave women a prominent place, invented the working mother, and respected women’s voices around the fire. Recent human history has upset this balance, as a dense world of war fostered extreme male dominance. But our species has been recovering over the past two centuries, and an unstoppable move toward equality is afoot. It will not be the end of men, but it will be the end of male supremacy and a better, wiser world for women and men alike.

Author : Leonard Shlain
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 1101200391
Total Pages : 468 pages
Book Rating : 4.91/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Sex, Time, and Power written by Leonard Shlain and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2004-08-03 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As in the bestselling The Alphabet Versus the Goddess, Leonard Shlain’s provocative new book promises to change the way readers view themselves and where they came from. Sex, Time, and Power offers a tantalizing answer to an age-old question: Why did big-brained Homo sapiens suddenly emerge some 150,000 years ago? The key, according to Shlain, is female sexuality. Drawing on an awesome breadth of research, he shows how, long ago, the narrowness of the newly bipedal human female’s pelvis and the increasing size of infants’ heads precipitated a crisis for the species. Natural selection allowed for the adaptation of the human female to this environmental stress by reconfiguring her hormonal cycles, entraining them with the periodicity of the moon. The results, however, did much more than ensure our existence; they imbued women with the concept of time, and gave them control over sex—a power that males sought to reclaim. And the possibility of achieving immortality through heirs drove men to construct patriarchal cultures that went on to dominate so much of human history. From the nature of courtship to the evolution of language, Shlain’s brilliant and wide-ranging exploration stimulates new thinking about very old matters.

Author : David C. Geary
Publisher : Amer Psychological Assn
ISBN 13 : 9781557985279
Total Pages : 397 pages
Book Rating : 4.78/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Male, Female written by David C. Geary and published by Amer Psychological Assn. This book was released on 1998-01-01 with total page 397 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Geary (psychology and anthropology, U. of Missouri-Columbia) thinks culturally constructed gender roles alone cannot account for the differences in the social behavior of men and women. He turns to Darwin's theory of sexual selection as the best avenue for understanding. His main focus is how th etwo elements of competition between males and of females selecting mates has influenced human behavior over the centuries and across cultures.

Author : Donald Symons
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199878471
Total Pages : 368 pages
Book Rating : 4.75/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Evolution of Human Sexuality written by Donald Symons and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1979-08-30 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anthropology, Sexual Studies, Psychology, Sociology, Gender and Cultural Studies

Author : Leonard Shlain
Publisher : Penguin
ISBN 13 : 0142004677
Total Pages : 465 pages
Book Rating : 4.78/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Sex, Time, and Power written by Leonard Shlain and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2004-08-03 with total page 465 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As in the bestselling The Alphabet Versus the Goddess, Leonard Shlain’s provocative new book promises to change the way readers view themselves and where they came from. Sex, Time, and Power offers a tantalizing answer to an age-old question: Why did big-brained Homo sapiens suddenly emerge some 150,000 years ago? The key, according to Shlain, is female sexuality. Drawing on an awesome breadth of research, he shows how, long ago, the narrowness of the newly bipedal human female’s pelvis and the increasing size of infants’ heads precipitated a crisis for the species. Natural selection allowed for the adaptation of the human female to this environmental stress by reconfiguring her hormonal cycles, entraining them with the periodicity of the moon. The results, however, did much more than ensure our existence; they imbued women with the concept of time, and gave them control over sex—a power that males sought to reclaim. And the possibility of achieving immortality through heirs drove men to construct patriarchal cultures that went on to dominate so much of human history. From the nature of courtship to the evolution of language, Shlain’s brilliant and wide-ranging exploration stimulates new thinking about very old matters.

Author : Frances Dahlberg
Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 9780300029895
Total Pages : 268 pages
Book Rating : 4.96/5 ( download)

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Download or read book Woman the Gatherer written by Frances Dahlberg and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 1981-01-01 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Essays discuss chimpanzees as an evolutionary model, modern examples of hunter-gatherer tribes, women's and men's roles in prehistoric times, and primitive human adaptations

Author : Elaine Morgan
Publisher : New York : Stein and Day
ISBN 13 : 9780812814583
Total Pages : 274 pages
Book Rating : 4.84/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Descent of Woman written by Elaine Morgan and published by New York : Stein and Day. This book was released on 1972 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'The Descent of Woman' is a pioneering work, the first to argue for the equal role of women in human evolution. On its first publication in 1972 it created an international debate and became a rallying-point for feminism, changing the terminology of anthropologists forever. Starting with her demolition of the Biblical myth that woman was an afterthought to the creation of man, Elaine Morgan rewrites human history and evolution. This lively, informative book sets out to solve the riddle of our origins; its answer is controversial. Elaine Morgan has made the 'Aquatic Ape Hypothesis' a plausible alternative to conventional theories of evolution and 'The Descent of Woman' first set out an understanding of who humans are and where they come from.

Author : Sarah Blaffer Hrdy
Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674038878
Total Pages : 303 pages
Book Rating : 4.75/5 ( download)

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Download or read book The Woman That Never Evolved written by Sarah Blaffer Hrdy and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2009-07-01 with total page 303 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What does it mean to be female? Sarah Blaffer Hrdy--a sociobiologist and a feminist--believes that evolutionary biology can provide some surprising answers. Surprising to those feminists who mistakenly think that biology can only work against women. And surprising to those biologists who incorrectly believe that natural selection operates only on males. In The Woman That Never Evolved we are introduced to our nearest female relatives competitive, independent, sexually assertive primates who have every bit as much at stake in the evolutionary game as their male counterparts do. These females compete among themselves for rank and resources, but will bond together for mutual defense. They risk their lives to protect their young, yet consort with the very male who murdered their offspring when successful reproduction depends upon it. They tolerate other breeding females if food is plentiful, but chase them away when monogamy is the optimal strategy. When "promiscuity" is an advantage, female primates--like their human cousins--exhibit a sexual appetite that ensures a range of breeding partners. From case after case we are led to the conclusion that the sexually passive, noncompetitive, all-nurturing woman of prevailing myth never could have evolved within the primate order. Yet males are almost universally dominant over females in primate species, and Homo sapiens is no exception. As we see from this book, women are in some ways the most oppressed of all female primates. Sarah Blaffer Hrdy is convinced that to redress sexual inequality in human societies, we must first understand its evolutionary origins. We cannot travel back in time to meet our own remote ancestors, but we can study those surrogates we have--the other living primates. If women --and not biology--are to control their own destiny, they must understand the past and, as this book shows us, the biological legacy they have inherited.