Women in Human Evolution

Women in Human Evolution PDF Author: Lori D. Hager
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 9780415108331
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
Of interest to all who work in the fields of anthropology, paleontology, anthropology and human biology, this book is the first to examine the role of women in the study of human evolution.

Women in Human Evolution

Women in Human Evolution PDF Author: Lori D. Hager
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 9780415108331
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 242

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Book Description
Of interest to all who work in the fields of anthropology, paleontology, anthropology and human biology, this book is the first to examine the role of women in the study of human evolution.

Women In Human Evolution

Women In Human Evolution PDF Author: Lori Hager
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134840101
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
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.

The Woman that Never Evolved

The Woman that Never Evolved PDF Author: Sarah Blaffer Hrdy
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780674955400
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Book Description
The author dispels some of the myths about the nature of females and female sexuality, and suggests new hypotheses aboutthe evolution of women.

Women After All: Sex, Evolution, and the End of Male Supremacy

Women After All: Sex, Evolution, and the End of Male Supremacy PDF Author: Melvin Konner
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 039324654X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 293

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Book Description
“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.

Sex, Time, and Power

Sex, Time, and Power PDF Author: Leonard Shlain
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101200391
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 468

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Book Description
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.

The Woman That Never Evolved

The Woman That Never Evolved PDF Author: Sarah Blaffer Hrdy
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674038878
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 303

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Book Description
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.

Woman the Gatherer

Woman the Gatherer PDF Author: Frances Dahlberg
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 9780300029895
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
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

Biology at Work

Biology at Work PDF Author: Kingsley R. Browne
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 0813542472
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
Does biology help explain why women, on average, earn less money than men? Is there any evolutionary basis for the scarcity of female CEOs in Fortune 500 companies? According to Kingsley Browne, the answer may be yes. Biology at Work brings an evolutionary perspective to bear on issues of women in the workplace: the "glass ceiling," the "gender gap" in pay, sexual harassment, and occupational segregation. While acknowledging the role of discrimination and sexist socialization, Browne suggests that until we factor real biological differences between men and women into the equation, the explanation remains incomplete. Browne looks at behavioral differences between men and women as products of different evolutionary pressures facing them throughout human history. Womens biological investment in their offspring has led them to be on average more nurturing and risk averse, and to value relationships over competition. Men have been biologically rewarded, over human history, for displays of strength and skill, risk taking, and status acquisition. These behavioral differences have numerous workplace consequences. Not surprisingly, sex differences in the drive for status lead to sex differences in the achievement of status. Browne argues that decision makers should recognize that policies based on the assumption of a single androgynous human nature are unlikely to be successful. Simply removing barriers to inequality will not achieve equality, as women and men typically value different things in the workplace and will make different workplace choices based on their different preferences. Rather than simply putting forward the "nature" side of the debate, Browne suggests that dichotomies such as nature/nurture have impeded our understanding of the origins of human behavior. Through evolutionary biology we can understand not only how natural selection has created predispositions toward certain types of behavior but also how the social environment interacts with these predispositions to produce observed behavioral patterns.

How Women Got Their Curves and Other Just-so Stories

How Women Got Their Curves and Other Just-so Stories PDF Author: David P. Barash
Publisher: Columbia University Press
ISBN: 9780231146647
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 230

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Book Description
Barash and Lipton discuss the theories scientists have advanced to explain evolutionary enigmas--from how women get their curves to why women menstruate--and present hypotheses of their own.

Eve

Eve PDF Author: Cat Bohannon
Publisher: Knopf
ISBN: 0385350554
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 498

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Book Description
THE REAL ORIGIN OF OUR SPECIES: a myth-busting, eye-opening landmark account of how humans evolved, offering a paradigm shift in our thinking about what the female body is, how it came to be, and how this evolution still shapes all our lives today “A page-turning whistle-stop tour of mammalian development that begins in the Jurassic Era, Eve recasts the traditional story of evolutionary biology by placing women at its center…. The book is engaging, playful, erudite, discursive and rich with detail." —Sarah Lyall, The New York Times “A smart, funny, scientific deep-dive into the power of a woman’s body, Eve surprises, educates, and emboldens.” —Bonnie Garmus, #1 New York Times best-selling author of Lessons in Chemistry How did the female body drive 200 million years of human evolution? • Why do women live longer than men? • Why are women more likely to get Alzheimer’s? • Why do girls score better at every academic subject than boys until puberty, when suddenly their scores plummet? • Is sexism useful for evolution? • And why, seriously why, do women have to sweat through our sheets every night when we hit menopause? These questions are producing some truly exciting science – and in Eve, with boundless curiosity and sharp wit, Cat Bohannon covers the past 200 million years to explain the specific science behind the development of the female sex: “We need a kind of user's manual for the female mammal. A no-nonsense, hard-hitting, seriously researched (but readable) account of what we are. How female bodies evolved, how they work, what it really means to biologically be a woman. Something that would rewrite the story of womanhood. This book is that story. We have to put the female body in the picture. If we don't, it's not just feminism that's compromised. Modern medicine, neurobiology, paleoanthropology, even evolutionary biology all take a hit when we ignore the fact that half of us have breasts. So it's time we talk about breasts. Breasts, and blood, and fat, and vaginas, and wombs—all of it. How they came to be and how we live with them now, no matter how weird or hilarious the truth is.” Eve is not only a sweeping revision of human history, it’s an urgent and necessary corrective for a world that has focused primarily on the male body for far too long. Picking up where Sapiens left off, Eve will completely change what you think you know about evolution and why Homo sapiens has become such a successful and dominant species.