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Title: Mother Nature: Maternal Instincts and How They Shape the Human Species by Sarah Blaffer Hrdy ISBN: 0-345-40893-4 Publisher: Ballantine Books Pub. Date: 05 September, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.41 (32 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A Mother's Day Book for Thinking Moms
Comment: This is a wonderfully written book about the nature of the maternal investment in offspring (in humans). Hrdy extends the concept of sexual selection into the realm of parenting and that is an extremely powerful and brilliant insight. Most books about mate choice end with pregnancy. This book doesn't because that is not the end for females. This particular insight is one that I think only a woman could have--let's have more women working in this field!. Any evolutionary psychology or biology that proceeds from here will have to consider Hrdy's contribution!
This book is also a bit of a shock--it explores how moms ruthlessly cut their losses and why--not a pretty story at all. I was especially undone by Hrdy's account of all the "Espositos" in Italy. The number of children left in foundling hospitals throughout is staggering. It's even worse than the 46K plus in Florida's foster care system in 2002 (with 1000+ missing!).
Hrdy also explores connections between the erotic and the maternal, something that will no doubt freak some people out. But she does this with a cool scientists gaze and a warm human voice. She seems very generous toward readers and their potential discomfort with the more startling phemomena she wants to account for.
Hrdy is a primalogist and a mom. The book is not entirely distrubing--it also accounts for intense feelings of love moms have for their children.
I was also excited to read in her book about Darwin's French translator, Clemance Royer! This book will delight anyone interested in women's intellectual history, parenting, evolutionary biology, or primatology.
Thank You Dr.Hrdy!
Rating: 5
Summary: A must read for any evolutionary psychologist
Comment: So many great little factoids. My favorite topics include family planning (abortion, infanticide), maternal bonding, the adaptiveness of menopause, females in social structure, and lots of other tidbits I wish more authors would cover. The most fascinating thing is that these topics come up in the animal kingdom, not just with us.
Only complaint might be that it's a dense read, and doesn't have a nice "backdrop" to organize it like Robert Wright's books (which I highly recommend). For this reason, you might need to read it twice to get everything. The facts themselves are tremendous, however. This book illustrates many more complexities about females that her male contemporaries might gloss over. Hrdy offers balance to anyone who's read other books on the same topic -- albeit great ones -- by male authors. (Come on, they can't help it.)
One more interesting thing that Hrdy adds is that science in her field is limited because neither feminists nor conservatives want to explore the evolutionary basis of womanhood. For conservatives, they know they are baby machines. For feminists, all that matters is that women are now free. Hrdy takes issue with both camps.
Rating: 5
Summary: Evolution from a female viewpoint
Comment: This is a fascinating look at evolution with particular reference to the female of the species. Packed with fascinating information about female behaviour through the ages. Descriptions of life among hunter-gatherer groups are particularly interesting. Subjects like infanticide, wetnursing, abandonment of infants, etc are gone into in great detail. I learnt a lot from this book. I particularly enjoyed the splendidly bloodthirsty lullabye from the Napoleonic era printed at the end of this book, my children love it. One small complaint, at one point in this book Ms. Hrdy compares housewives to laboratory rats. Now, I am used to the abuse routinely heaped on housewives, but this is really going a little too far. The big difference between a laboratory rat and a housewife is that I, a housewife, can leave my house any time I like (maybe it's different in America, perhaps housewives are kept locked up there, I don't know), and I frequently do. i have alot more freedom of movement than I would if I were, say, stuck in an office all day long. I quite accept Ms. Hardy' point that children do not have to be cared for full-time by their mothers, but it would be nice if she could refrain from abusing those of us who actually enjoy being full-time carers.
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Title: The Woman That Never Evolved: With a New Preface and Bibliographical Updates by Sarah Blaffer Hrdy ISBN: 0674955390 Publisher: Harvard University Press Pub. Date: 01 November, 1999 List Price(USD): $15.25 |
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Title: Our Babies, Ourselves: How Biology and Culture Shape the Way We Parent by Meredith F. Small ISBN: 0385483627 Publisher: Anchor Pub Pub. Date: 04 May, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Nature Via Nurture : Genes, Experience, and What Makes Us Human by Matt Ridley ISBN: 0060006781 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 29 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Minding Animals: Awareness, Emotions, and Heart by Marc Bekoff, Jane Goodall ISBN: 0195163370 Publisher: Oxford University Press Pub. Date: 01 May, 2003 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: A World of Babies : Imagined Childcare Guides for Seven Societies by Judy S. DeLoache, Alma Gottlieb ISBN: 0521664756 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: 18 May, 2000 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
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