Why Sex Matters
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-0-691-08975-1 (ISBN)
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Why are men, like other primate males, usually the aggressors and risk takers? Why do women typically have fewer sexual partners? Why is killing infants routine in some cultures, but forbidden in others? Why is incest everywhere taboo? Bobbi Low ranges from ancient Rome to modern America, from the Amazon to the Arctic, and from single-celled organisms to international politics to show that these and many other questions about human behavior largely come down to evolution and sex. More precisely, as she shows in this uniquely comprehensive and accessible survey of behavioral and evolutionary ecology, they come down to the basic principle that all organisms evolved to maximize their reproductive success and seek resources to do so. Low begins by reviewing the fundamental arguments and assumptions of behavioral ecology: selfish genes, conflicts of interest, and the tendency for sexes to reproduce through different behaviors. She explains why in primate species - from chimpanzees and apes to humans - males seek to spread their genes by devoting extraordinary efforts to finding mates, while females find it profitable to expend more effort on parenting.
Low illustrates these sexual differences among humans by showing that in places as diverse as the parishes of nineteenth-century Sweden, the villages of seventeenth-century China, and the forests of twentieth-century Brazil, men have tended to seek power and resources, from cattle to money, to attract mates, while women have sought a secure environment for raising children. She makes it clear, however, they have not done so simply through individual efforts or in a vacuum, but that men and women act in complex ways that involve cooperation and coalition building and that are shaped by culture, technology, tradition, and the availability of resources. Low also considers how the evolutionary drive to acquire resources leads to environmental degradation and warfare and asks whether our behavior could be channeled in more constructive ways.
At the University of Michigan, Bobbi S. Low is Professor of Resource Ecology at the School of Natural Resources and Environment. Associate Director of the Population Environment Dynamics Program, and Faculty Associate at several centers within the Institute for Social Research. She is an associate editor for Politics and the Life Sciences and for Population and Environment. She is coauthor of Family Patterns in Nineteenth-Century Sweden.
Preface xiii Acknowledgments xvii 1. INTRODUCTION 3 Vampire Stories and Beyond 4 Explaining Behavior without Folklore 6 Kinds of "Why" Questions 9 Simple Rules, Complex Outcomes 11 Humans as Critters 12 2. RACING THE RED QUEEN: SELFISH GENES AND THEIR STRATEGIES 19 Whose Genes Count, and Why? Kin Selection 23 Summing Up the Basics: Assumptions and Objections 27 Novel Evolutionary Environments: Can the Principles Still Hold? 31 More than Ants or Peacocks: Lifetimes, Culture, Ecology and Variation 33 3. THE ECOLOGY OF SEX DIFFERENCES 35 Sex and Strategies 37 The Ecology of Being Male and Female 44 Mating Effort 47 Parental Effort 52 Variance in Reproductive Success: Mating versus Parental Strategists 53 4. SEX, STATUS, AND REPRODUCTION AMONG THE APES 57 The Ecology of Dominance and RS in Primates 58 Ecological Aspects of Mating Systems 60 Sex, Resources, and the Ecology of Human Reproduction 62 The Ecology of Human Mating Systems 66 The Ecology of Monogamy and Polyandry 74 5. SEX, RESOURCES, APPEARANCE, AND MATE CHOICE 77 What Men and Women Want 78 Beauty, Resources, and Mate Choice 83 Signals of Desirability and Their Manipulation 84 Who Can Choose? 88 6. SEX, RESOURCES, AND HUMAN LIFETIMES 92 Starting Out: Resource Striving in the Womb 95 What's a Mother to Do? Optimizing Maternal Effort among Offspring 96 Conflicts of Interest: Abortion, Infanticide, Abandonment Neglect 98 Sex Differences in Reproductive Lifetimes 102 Sex Differences in Senescence 110 7. SEX AND RESOURCE ECOLOGY IN TRADITIONAL AND HISTORICAL CULTURES 113 Sexual Divisions of Labor 113 Sex and Control of Resources 115 Men, Women, and Resources in Traditional and Historical Cultures 116 8. SEX, RESOURCES, AND FERTILITY IN TRANSITION 127 Nineteenth-Century Sweden 130 Sex, Resources, and Life Histories 135 Female Life Paths 139 Male Life Paths 140 Sex, Resources, and Fertility 142 Fertility Transitions: What, If Anything, Do They Mean? 144 9. NICE Guys CAN WIN -IN SOCIAL SPECIES, ANYWAY 146 Are We Lemmings? A Cautionary Tale 147 When and Why Do We Cooperate? 147 Simple Strategies in Winning Games 150 From Family to Dyads to Groups to Cultures 154 The Group Selection Muddle 155 Altruists or Good Neighbors? 160 Cooperation and Free-Riders 161 10. CONFLICTS, CULTURE, AND NATURAL SELECTION 163 Cooperation, Competition, and Groups 164 Working Out Our Conflicts: Moral Systems and Group Life 165 Intertwining Cultural and Natural Selection 168 Logically Inept, Socially Adept: The Social Contexts of Intelligence 176 11. SEX AND COMPLEX COALITIONS 181 Coalitions, Resources, and Reproduction 183 Sex and Human Coalitions 193 12. POLITICS AND REPRODUCTIVE COMPETITION 198 Men, Women, and Politics Cross-Culturally 200 Women in Politics: When Did It Pay? 209 13. SEX, RESOURCES, AND EARLY WARFARE 213 Resources and Conflict 214 Why Women Warriors Are Rare 216 War: Runaway Sexual Selection? 217 Other Biological Approaches to Understanding War 218 Intergroup Conflict in Other Species 221 Conflict in Preindustrial Societies 223 14. SOCIETAL COMPLEXITY AND THE ECOLOGY OF WAR 230 Greek Hoplites: Early "Western" Warriors? 233 The Ecology of Renaissance War 234 The Behavioral Ecology of Modern War 236 Disadvantaged Men in War 240 War and Reproductive Success Today 241 Proximate and Ultimate Causes of War: Evolutionary Novelty 241 15. WEALTH, FERTILITY, AND THE ENVIRONMENT IN FUTURE TENSE 245 Fertility, Consumption, and Sustainability: Weaving the Strands 247 Wealth, Fertility, and Consumption Today: Empirical Data 248 Wealth, Women's Age-Specific Fertility, and Women's Life Paths Today 250 An Evolutionary Perspective: Reducing Both Fertility and Consumption Is Novel 252 What's Missing in Current Strategies 253 Can New Strategies and Tactics Help 257 An Evolutionary Bottom Line 258 Notes 259 Glossary 323 References 333 Author Index 391 Subject Index 401 Taxonomic Index 409 Society/Social Group Index 411
| Erscheint lt. Verlag | 21.10.2001 |
|---|---|
| Zusatzinfo | 3 halftones, 18 line illus., 2 tables |
| Verlagsort | New Jersey |
| Sprache | englisch |
| Maße | 152 x 235 mm |
| Gewicht | 595 g |
| Themenwelt | Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Evolution |
| Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Humanbiologie | |
| Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie | |
| Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie | |
| ISBN-10 | 0-691-08975-2 / 0691089752 |
| ISBN-13 | 978-0-691-08975-1 / 9780691089751 |
| Zustand | Neuware |
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