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Title: The Red Queen : Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature by Matt Ridley ISBN: 0-06-055657-9 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 29 April, 2003 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.46 (39 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Evolution explains human nature
Comment: Why do we have sex? One of the pivotal questions in Science is tackled in this well written, informative and interesting read. Ridley refers to hundreds of sources to provide a well thought out, logical response. Ridley argues that the costly phenomenon of sex was "invented" by nature to combat that ever so simple, yet effective enemy: the bacterium (and other microscopic parasites).
In his investigation he examines the behaviour of males and females, dwelling on their differences and how these have evolved to more effectively facilitate reproduction. He also examines the strategies used by each gender to acquire a "mate" and explains how these originated and how they explain our behavour in the present day.
This book is a wealth of information that is a must for anyone fascinated by nature. The reader will be spell-bound by the discussion on various aspects of our humanity that have become so prominent from such humble beginnings.
Rating: 5
Summary: Dramatic and surprising
Comment: "Men and women have different minds - says Matt Ridley in one of the central chapters of his book-. The differences are the direct result of evolution. Women's minds (and bodies, as he states in a previous pharagraph) evolved to suit the demands of beraring and rearing children and of gathering plant and food. Men's minds (and bodies) evolved to suit the demands of rising in a male hierarchy, fighting over women and providing meat to a family".
To arrive to this and other conclusions, Ridley goes a long and difficult way through biology, genetics and continents, starting with a basic question: why is there sex at all? After all, many species reproduce without it. The first three or four chapters of "The Red Queen" may be a little onerous, but apparently they are necessary to support the last ones.
This is a book about evolution with a focus on human sexuality and the human mind. Everything on humans - our bodies, our behavior towards the opposite sex, even our minds and social rules - is a direct result of a process called sexual selection that allows the reproduction of the fittest, therefore transmiting their genes to the next generations.
When answering why there is sex at all and how men and women's bodies and minds evolved in the last million years, we come to many uncomfortable truths about adultery, rape, incest and life. Why do more rich men marry beautiful women and not the other way around? Why have the attempts to sell pornogrphy to women and romantic novels to men failed? And above all this: why did evolution produce different minds in men a women?
Take all of the above and pack it with a red cover, and you have one of the most amazing readings of the year.
Rating: 3
Summary: Interesting, But Dense
Comment: One of the mysteries that I've been struggling with for the past few years is why so many people engage in extramarital affairs. If most people agree that it's wrong to break marriage vows, why do so many people do it. Another way of looking at the question is by asking why we are so obsessed with sex that it overcomes our better judgment.
Although I don't agree with everything in Mr. Ridley's book, it adds a dimension to the debate that I hadn't really considered, which is that almost all human behavior is driven by sexual urges and reproduction at an evolutionary level. The behaviors that lead to successful reproduction are likely to be passed to later generations, while the only trait that cannot be passed along is abstinence. From this model, people will engage in all kinds of seemingly irrational behavior when doing so is biologically advantageous.
My fundamental distress with this premise is that it diminishes the value of human reason, which is something that evolved through generations just as much as the biological drive to reproduce. While Mr. Ridley premise is that one of the main values of being smart is that it allows the brainy people to outwit their sexual competitors, I get depressed when I think of us as essentially no more than reproductive machines.
Mr. Ridley writes a good story that adds some nice twists to understanding human behavior. The writing did not move as quickly as I would have hoped, and some of the details about other species' sexual behavior dragged at times, but I recommend this book to anyone who is looking for explanations for behaviors that might not otherwise make sense.
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Title: The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins ISBN: 0192860925 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: September, 1990 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The Mating Mind : How Sexual Choice Shaped the Evolution of Human Nature by Geoffrey Miller ISBN: 038549517X Publisher: Anchor Pub. Date: 17 April, 2001 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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Title: Nature Via Nurture : Genes, Experience, and What Makes Us Human by Matt Ridley ISBN: 0060006781 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 29 April, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Genome by Matt Ridley ISBN: 0060932902 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 03 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Origins of Virtue: Human Instincts and the Evolution of Cooperation by Matt Ridley ISBN: 0140264450 Publisher: Penguin USA (Paper) Pub. Date: April, 1998 List Price(USD): $15.00 |
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