Evolution's empress : Darwinian perspectives on the nature of women / edited by Maryanne L. Fisher, Justin R. Garcia, Rosemarie Sokol Chang.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Fisher, Maryanne.

Garcia, Justin, 1985-

Chang, Rosemarie Sokol.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women--Psychology.

Women.

Sex differences (Psychology).

Evolutionary psychology.

Human evolution.

Physical Description:

xix, 485 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

New York : Oxford University Press, [2013]

Summary:

Over the last decade, there has been increasing debate as to whether feminism and evolutionary psychology can co-exist. Such debates often conclude with a resounding "no," often on the grounds that the former is a political movement while the latter is a field of scientific inquiry. In themidst of these debates, there has been growing dissatisfaction within the field of evolutionary psychology about the way the discipline (and others) have repeatedly shown women to be in passive roles when it comes to survival and reproduction. Evolutionary behavioral research has been misled due totheoretically misguided assumptions. As a result, the community has missed important areas of research, and in some cases, will likely come to inaccurate conclusions based on existing dogma, rather than rigorous, theoretically driven research. The bias in the field of evolutionary psychology echoesthe complaints against the political movement attached to academic feminism. This is an intellectual squabble where much is at stake, including a fundamental understanding of the evolutionary significance of women's roles in culture, mothering, reproductive health and physiology, mating, femalealliances, female aggression, and female intrasexual competition.Evolution's Empress identifies women as active agents within the evolutionary process. The chapters in this volume focus on topics as diverse as female social interactions, mate competition and mating strategies, motherhood, women's health, sex differences in communication and motivation, sexdiscrimination, and women in literature. The volume editors bring together a diverse range of perspectives to demonstrate ways in which evolutionary approaches to human behavior have thus far been too limited. By reconsidering the role of women in evolution, this volume furthers the goal ofgenerating dialogue between the realms of women's studies and evolutionary psychology.

Contents:

Women's Intrasexual Competition for Mates / Maryanne L. Fisher

The Tangled Web She Weaves: The Evolution of Female-female Aggression and Status-seeking / Laurette Liesen

Getting by with a Little Help From Friends: The Importance of Social Bonds for Female Primates / Liza R. Moscovice

A Sex-Neutral Theoretical Framework for Making Strong Inferences about the Origins of Sex Roles / Patricia Adair Gowaty

Mothers, Traditions, and the Human Strategy to Leave Descendants / Kathryn Coe and Craig T. Palmer

Maternal Effect and Offspring Development / Nicole M. Cameron and Justin R. Garcia

The Evolution of Flexible Parenting / Lesley Newson and Peter J. Richerson

Human Attachment Vocalizations and the Expanding Notion of Nurture / Rosemarie Sokol Chang

Fathers versus Sons: Why Jocasta Matters / Laura Betzig

Women's Health at the Crossroads of Evolution and Epidemiology / Chris Reiber

Fertility: Life History and Ecological Aspects / Bobbi S. Low

Reproductive Strategies in Female Post Generative Life / Johannes Johow, Eckart Voland, and Kai Willfuhr

Now or Later: Peripartum Shifts in Female Sociosexuality / Michelle Escasa-Dorne, Sharon M. Young, and Peter Gray

Sexual Conflict in White-faced Capuchins: It's Not Whether You Win or Lose / Linda Fedigan and Katharine M. Jack

The Importance of Female Choice: Evolutionary Perspectives on Constraints, Expressions, and Variations in Female Mating Strategies / David A. Frederick, Tania A. Reynolds, and Maryanne L. Fisher

Swept off Their Feet? Females' Strategic Mating Behavior as a Means of Supplying the Broom / Christopher J. Wilbur and Lorne Campbell

Sex and Gender Differences in Communication Strategies / Elisabeth Oberzaucher

A New View of Evolutionary Psychology Using Female Priorities and Motivations / Tami Meredith

From Reproductive Resource to Autonomous Individuality? Charlotte Bronte's Jane Eyre / Nancy Easterlin

The Empress's Clothes / Julie Seaman

Consuming Midlife Motherhood: Cooperative Breeding and the 'Disestablishment' of the Biological Clock / Michele Pridmore-Brown

The Quick and the Dead: Gendered Agency in the History of Western Science and Evolutionary Theory / Leslie L. Heywood.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780199892747

0199892741

OCLC:

812257235