Sarah Hrdy belongs to a new generation of primate-watchers who are
filling in the blanks concerning the everyday behaviors of our
nearest relatives. Hrdy, and many of her coworkers (as well as the
better-known Jane Goodall and Alison Jolly), are female; and they
bring to their scholarship a special interest in the role of
females in primate groups. Here then is Hrdy's survey of the data,
based on her own observations of langurs in India and the many
reports that have accrued since the mid-sixties. Her essential
point is that females, no less than males, are competitive,
sexually active, and socially involved members of groups. In the
course of 70 million years of evolution, the primates show wide
diversity in structure and behavior, exhibiting "every known social
system, except polyandry (one female, several males)." Monogamy is
the rule among some prosimians, among marmosets and gibbons - in
which case females enjoy high status and are physically similar to
males. Females dominate among squirrel monkeys and ring-tailed
lemurs. On the other hand, the female hamadryas baboon "is probably
the most wretched and least independent of any nonhuman primate."
The hamadryas female is not related to other females in the harem,
which is dominated by a single male. In contrast, there is a strong
sisterhood among gelada females in similarly structured baboon
groups. The gelada females can and do unite to rally against the
male. What does Hrdy make of all this variety? For one, she debunks
both macho and feminist myths: female primates are not meek, weak
sisters who owe their existence to the benevolent protection of
males, nor are they sweet uncompetitive ladies who know no lust for
power, or Amazons who can look back to some primordial matriarchal
past. Such creatures never evolved, says Hrdy. instead, she
believes that human female sexuality is rooted in nonhuman primate
evolution where one can find present evidence for orgasm, for
concealed ovulation, and for year-round sexual receptivity. She
further believes that these aspects of sexuality have been adaptive
- allowing females to compete for promising males, to manipulate
male behavior, and to increase male investment in offspring; as
well as increasing the primate's potential for passing on her
genes. Thus Hrdy casts her theories along well-known
sociobiological lines. She also favors the admittedly reductionist
hypothesis of British primatologist Richard Wrangham that primate
groups are structured in response to the quality and quantity of
food available. "Females arrange themselves in space and time," she
says, "to maximize food intake while minimizing competition for
food from either individual females or from other groups of
females." (Males, in turn, arrange themselves so as to control
these dispersed females.) Such a conclusion belies the complexity
of behavior Hrdy has observed, and even her suggestion of
consciousness and strategic thinking (as well as the recognition of
individual personalities that might lead to nonsexist bonding
friendships). So, while Hrdy displays a fine eye and a fine hand at
gathering and reporting the data, one may hope that further studies
will engender less stark and materialistic underpinnings for human
behavior. (Kirkus Reviews)
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.
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