Sarah Blaffer Hrdy

I was working a temporary job at the Cornell Bookstore during their textbook rush when I saw this book. During quiet times I would look through whatever text book caught my interest. This one got me to buy a copy. Hrdy set out to explain how women have always worked in various ways to make sure that their children not only survive, but thrive and rise within their social group. As a consequence of this research, she also clearly shows how mammals, including humans, sometimes ruthlessly, decide if an offspring is viable or not and the way they end thier life. This is a clear view of the evolution of motherhood, looking at human female physiology , non-human mammal physiology, history, economics, social evolution and more. Fascinating.… (more)

Feminists tend to be leery of sociobiology since it is frequently used to justify existing societal restrictions on women with the assumption that "we evolved that way, so that's just the way it is." Hrdy makes a case that human evolution is not that simple and that recent primate studies challenge the simple assertion that females are non-competitive, interested only in mothering and naturally monogamous. She reports on studies of non-human primates ranging from tree shrews to great apes who have a broad range of social structures. Interesting reading.… (more)