Why we do it : rethinking sex and the selfish gene / Niles Eldredge.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Eldredge, Niles.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Sex (Biology).

Sociobiology.

Human evolution.

Physical Description:

269 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Norton, [2004]

Summary:

OVER THE LAST THIRTY YEARS, many scientists have come to insist that our behavior is governed by our genes--above all when it comes to sex, which, we are told, is how genes perpetuate themselves. Not so, argues evolutionary biologist Niles Eldredge in this powerful book. Sex certainly seems to us more complicated than a matter of our DNA struggling to survive, and that's because it is. Eldredge directly confronts those who would cast us as puppets of biological imperatives rooted deep in our hunter-gatherer past. Their models, he points out, are based on lower forms of life. In humans, there is an intricate interplay between meeting our needs for day-to-day survival, sex, and reproduction ("the human triangle")--further complicated by cultural forces (customs, laws) that routinely override selfish-gene behavior. Authoritative and delightfully combative, "Why We Do It challenges us to rethink the assumptions of today's science in the important task of understanding ourselves.

Contents:

The duality of life

Obsessed with genes

Chickens and eggs : the two sides of life

The natural economy

The consequences of baby making

Economics + babies + time = evolution

Clones, colonies, and social life

Human singularities

Naught so queere as folke : the strange biology of modern humans

The human triangle

Sex decoupled

Up close and personal : sex, power, money, and babies

Sex, economics, and babies in social systems

A moral to the story.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [237]-258) and index.

ISBN:

0393050823

OCLC:

53970701