How Women Got Their Curves and Other Just-So Stories

Evolutionary Enigmas

David Barash, Judith Eve Lipton (Autoren)

Buch | Hardcover

224 Seiten

2009
Columbia University Press (Verlag)
978-0-231-14664-7 (ISBN)

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So how did women get their curves? Why do they have breasts, while other mammals only develop breast tissue while lactating, and why do women menstruate, when virtually no other beings do so? What are the reasons for female orgasm? Why are human females kept in the dark about their own time of ovulation and maximum fertility, and why are they the only animals to experience menopause? David P. Barash and Judith Eve Lipton, coauthors of acclaimed books on human sexuality and gender, discuss the theories scientists have advanced to explain these evolutionary enigmas (sometimes called "Just-So stories" by their detractors) and present hypotheses of their own. Some scientific theories are based on legitimate empirical data, while others are pure speculation. Barash and Lipton distinguish between what is solid and what remains uncertain, skillfully incorporating their expert knowledge of biology, psychology, animal behavior, anthropology, and human sexuality into their entertaining critiques. Inviting readers to examine the evidence and draw their own conclusions, Barash and Lipton tell an evolutionary suspense story that captures the excitement and thrill of true scientific detection.

David P. Barash is an evolutionary biologist and professor of psychology at the University of Washington. An early pioneer of sociobiology, he is the author of twenty-four books, including, with Judith Eve Lipton, The Myth of Monogamy: Fidelity and Infidelity in Animals and People. Judith Eve Lipton is a clinical psychiatrist specializing in women's health and, with David P. Barash, the author of Gender Gap: The Biology of Male-Female Differences and Making Sense of Sex: How Genes and Gender Influence Our Relationships.

1. Introduction 2. On Scientific Mysteries and Just-So Stories 3. Why Munstruate? 4. Invisible Ovulation 5. Breasts and Other Curves 6. The Enigmatic Orgasm 7. The Menopause Mystery 8. Epilogue: The Lure of the Limpopo

Erscheint lt. Verlag	28.4.2009
Verlagsort	New York
Sprache	englisch
Maße	140 x 210 mm
Themenwelt	Naturwissenschaften ► Biologie ► Humanbiologie
ISBN-10	0-231-14664-7 / 0231146647
ISBN-13	978-0-231-14664-7 / 9780231146647
Zustand	Neuware