The Descent of Woman: The Classic Study of Evolution

by Elaine Morgan

Paperback, 2001

Status

Available

Call number

573.2

Collection

Publication

Souvenir Press (2001), Edition: 4, 288 pages

Description

This pioneering work, originally published in 1972, was the first to argue irrefutably the equal role of women in human evolution.

User reviews

LibraryThing member setnahkt
You find very few amateur theorists on stellar nucleosynthesis or fluid dynamics or molecular biology. However, evolution is fair game for philosophers (Darwinian Fairytales) and seems to be especially attractive to screenwriters: (The Territorial Imperative and The Descent of Woman).

I’m not even
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considering the legions of Creationists and Intelligent Designers, who come from just about every field except evolutionary biology; the three examples cited above are people who accept organic evolution through natural selection, they just don’t understand it.


I suppose that’s because on the surface it seems so simple; but alas, sometimes the simplest things turn out to be the most complicated.


The particular amateur under consideration is Elaine Morgan; in The Descent of Woman she makes the classic mistake that nonscientists do when dealing with science: the assumption that scientific arguments are about logic and plausibility rather than evidence and testing. Some background:

Morgan’s first foray into evolutionary theory was The Aquatic Ape Hypothesis, which was the claim that there was a period in hominid evolution when our ancestors spent their time wading around the seashore. In her hands this explains everything about hominid evolution – bipedalism (for wading in the water to escape predators); hairlessness (for streamlining when swimming); and the missionary position (I won’t go into details but it has to do with sand getting into everything). This is all done with rhetoric; Morgan sets up straw men, over generalizes, begs the question, and does all the other logical tricks. And, of course, she proposes no way her hypothesis could be tested. Further, most of her arguments are focused against other evolution populizers, particularly Robert Ardrey and Desmond Morris. While I’m not a particular fan of Stephen Jay Gould, his comment that a lot of evolutionary psychology consists of “just so stories” should always be held in mind when contemplating a seemingly plausible hypothesis.


In The Descent of Woman the aquatic apes now get more developed and coupled to the evolution of hominid females. To be fair, there is one extremely valid point; a lot of popular evolutionary psychology focuses solely on male evolution – discussions of aggression and territoriality and sexual selection and hunting often assume the females were just patiently waiting in the cave for Og to come home with some newly evolved traits. That much of The Descent of Woman is perfectly valid; all gender and developmental stages of an organism – male, female, adult, young, sperm, egg – have to be adapted to their environment or nothing is going to work. That complaint, however, could be summarized in a paragraph or so without going into a whole volume.


Morgan takes on some of the feminists who have bought into the “demonic male” arguments (without, of course, offering any actual evidence that men are or are not more violent than women); she gets sidetracked on “equal pay for equal work; and her treatment of male/female relationship psychology hinges – without the slightest hint of a contrary opinion – on the assumption that all the men and women in the world are upper-class Western Europeans. This last is especially ironic because of her complaint that anthropologists ignore the women when studying primitive cultures.


Still, as befits a screenwriter, her prose is light and breezy and quite readable. The book’s a little out of date now; first published in 1972 the edition I read has a 1985 epilogue. Although it’s good to be reminded that there’s a legitimate concern about woman’s place in evolutionary theorizing, the main value of the book is as test of the reader’s ability to spot logical fallacies and errors of fact.
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LibraryThing member the1butterfly
So I thought "The Naked Ape" was a great way to look at early human evolution, but Elaine Morgan totally tears it apart. She evaluates different possibilities with a logic that can't be denied or ignored- this is worth a read for everyone. It was a fascinating look at evolution and early
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civilization.
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LibraryThing member BruceCoulson
Groundbreaking as the first book which pointed out that human evolution might well be influenced by how hominid females dealt with challenges. Some of the ideas proposed are a bit fantastic, but Morgan did get evolutionary scientists to acknowledge that how women survived and evolved might just be
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at least as important as the contribution of men.
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LibraryThing member SandyAMcPherson
Although well-written, the science behind the premise was flimsy or perhaps even the source of speculation that wound its way into Morgan's narrative. Interpretations and theory in human evolution has sparked tremendous controversy. One never 'proves' a theory and this book begs the question why
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were other interpretations not discussed as having equal merit.
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Language

Original language

English

Original publication date

1972

Physical description

288 p.; 5 inches

ISBN

0285627007 / 9780285627000

Local notes

DD

Other editions

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