Mother Nature

Zusatztext "A truly monumental work! as elegant as it is insightful." -ELIZABETH MARSHALL THOMAS    Author of The Hidden Life of Dogs "A BRILLIANT! LIBERATING BOOK ON A PROFOUNDLY IMPORTANT SUBJECT." -E.O. WILSON    Author of Consilience "THOROUGH! THOUGHTFUL! AND CLEARLY WRITTEN . . . A TROVE OF FACTUAL TREASURES . . . A cornucopia of data and ideas about the biology and behavior of mothers great and small." -Scientific American Informationen zum Autor Sarah Blaffer Hrdy Klappentext Maternal instinct--the all-consuming, utterly selfless love that mothers lavish on their children--has long been assumed to be an innate, indeed defining element of a woman's nature. But is it? In this provocative, groundbreaking book, renowned anthropologist (and mother) Sarah Blaffer Hrdy shares a radical new vision of motherhood and its crucial role in human evolution. Hrdy strips away stereotypes and gender-biased myths to demonstrate that traditional views of maternal behavior are essentially wishful thinking codified as objective observation. As Hrdy argues, far from being "selfless," successful primate mothers have always combined nurturing with ambition, mother love with sexual love, ambivalence with devotion. In fact all mothers, in the struggle to guarantee both their own survival and that of their offspring, deal nimbly with competing demands and conflicting strategies. In her nuanced, stunningly original interpretation of the relationships between mothers and fathers, mothers and babies, and mothers and their social groups, Hrdy offers not only a revolutionary new meaning to motherhood but an important new understanding of human evolution. Written with grace and clarity, suffused with the wisdom of a long and distinguished career, Mother Nature is a profound contribution to our understanding of who we are as a species--and why we have become this way.Being a mother has never been simple. Today, modern medicine, safe water, stored food, pasteurized milk, cradles, and houses with walls make it easier than ever before to keep a baby alive. Rubber-nippled baby bottles and daycare centers especially designed and licensed for the care of the very young provide working mothers, even those with weeks-old babies, with alternatives to the only two viable options previously available: keep your baby close or find a wet nurse. The availability of breast pumps and freezers means that more women can both breast-feed and spend hours separated from their babies. Above all, there is birth control, which permits a woman to consciously override her ovaries and choose when, or if, she will bear children. Ultrasound and amniocentesis enable women to spend decades in a career and still look forward to bearing a healthy infant. Far from simplifying motherhood, these novel choices have exposed tensions just beneath the cheery surface of our traditional assumptions about what mothers should be. Today, mothers in developed countries, and with them fathers and children, enter uncharted terrain. Without anyone raising their hands to volunteer, we have become guinea pigs in a vast social experiment that reveals what women who can control reproduction really want to do. Children, too, are finding out what it means to be born to a complex and multifaceted creature who has an unprecedented range of options. It is an experiment-in-progress, with two outcomes already apparent. First, the decisions that mothers make do not always conform to our conventional expectations about innately tender, selfless creatures. Second, whatever today's mother decides is likely to becontroversial in some quarters. Bluntly put, motherhood has become a mine-field, and we are walking through it without so much as a map to guide us. Politics of Motherhood The politician who naïvely assumes that motherhood, like apple pie, is still a safe topic quickly learns otherwise. ...

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This book is a major contribution to the evolutionary biology of our species. By including some of her own intellectual and personal biography and attending to the history of ideas, Hrdy makes it also a contribution to the history and sociology of science. Anyone who thinks that working mothers and variable family arrangements are an unnatural recent novelty should read this book. Anyone interested in the causes (and consequences) of variation in women's behaviour, human sexuality or human evolution must read this book. It is superb human behavioral ecology. Kristen Hawkes, Nature

The skillful prose of virtuosos like Richard Dawkins and Stephen Jay Gould belies the difficulty of the art. For the most part Hrdy succeeds admirably. Her style is engaging and entertaining . . . This is not just a book for mothers but one that will challenge and stimulate anyone interested in the relationship between parents and children. The New York Times Book Review

Thorough, thoughtful, and clearly written . . . a trove of factual treasures . . . a cornucopia of data and ideas about the biology and behavior of mothers great and small. Scientific American

This is a splendidly thought-provoking book which will undoubtedly establish its author as the alpha-female of evolutionary thinkers. With one great stride Blaffer Hrdy has carried the debate about parenting to a higher stage of adaptation. It should be required reading for parents, feminists and evolutionary thinkers alike. The Independent

Beautifully and accessibly written, it is the product of a woman who, before going into science, had considered becoming a novelist. Natalie Angier, The New York Times

Magnificent . . . Hrdy s book resides in that rare space between academic disciplines [and] enables her to combine the best of Darwinian evolutionary biology with feminist cultural theory, without falling into the political entrapments of either camp. Kathleen O Grady, The Globe and Mail

Hrdy does not look at humans in isolation, but at the wider sweep of evolutionary processes. She does not look at women in isolation, but at the co-operations and conflicts, the adjustments and compromises, that all humans must make, and at the evolutionary pressures that they bring to bear on each other . . . the range of her scholarship is both impressive and meticulous. She has emphasized a neglected area of evolutionary theorizing. The Times Literary Supplement

[A] pure pleasure to read. Buy it. Assign it. Give it to your congressman. This is a book that can make a difference. Elizabeth Cashdan, Evolution and Human Behavior

A truly monumental work, as elegant as it is insightful . . . a clear and telling examination of a hitherto almost unknown organism: the human female. Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, author of The Hidden Life of Dogs

A brilliant, liberating book on a profoundly important subject by one of the best stylists now writing on any subject in science. E. O. Wilson, author of Consilience

Product details

• Authors: Sarah Blaffer Hardy, Sarah Hrdy, Sarah Blaffer Hrdy
• Publisher: Ballantine
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 05.09.2000
• EAN: 9780345408938
• ISBN: 978-0-345-40893-8
• No. of pages: 752
• Dimensions: 159 mm x 235 mm x 38 mm
• Subjects: Guides > Self-help, everyday life > Family; Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Natural sciences (general)