The Woman That Never Evolved

The Woman That Never Evolved PDF

Author: Sarah Blaffer Hrdy

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2009-07-01

Total Pages: 303

ISBN-13: 0674038878

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What does it mean to be female? Sarah Blaffer Hrdy--a sociobiologist and a feminist--believes that evolutionary biology can provide some surprising answers. Surprising to those feminists who mistakenly think that biology can only work against women. And surprising to those biologists who incorrectly believe that natural selection operates only on males. In The Woman That Never Evolved we are introduced to our nearest female relatives competitive, independent, sexually assertive primates who have every bit as much at stake in the evolutionary game as their male counterparts do. These females compete among themselves for rank and resources, but will bond together for mutual defense. They risk their lives to protect their young, yet consort with the very male who murdered their offspring when successful reproduction depends upon it. They tolerate other breeding females if food is plentiful, but chase them away when monogamy is the optimal strategy. When "promiscuity" is an advantage, female primates--like their human cousins--exhibit a sexual appetite that ensures a range of breeding partners. From case after case we are led to the conclusion that the sexually passive, noncompetitive, all-nurturing woman of prevailing myth never could have evolved within the primate order. Yet males are almost universally dominant over females in primate species, and Homo sapiens is no exception. As we see from this book, women are in some ways the most oppressed of all female primates. Sarah Blaffer Hrdy is convinced that to redress sexual inequality in human societies, we must first understand its evolutionary origins. We cannot travel back in time to meet our own remote ancestors, but we can study those surrogates we have--the other living primates. If women --and not biology--are to control their own destiny, they must understand the past and, as this book shows us, the biological legacy they have inherited.

Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale

Patriarchy and Accumulation on a World Scale PDF

Author: Maria Mies

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2014-07-10

Total Pages: 277

ISBN-13: 1783602589

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'It is my thesis that this general production of life, or subsistence production - mainly performed through the non-wage labour of women and other non-wage labourers as slaves, contract workers and peasants in the colonies - constitutes the perennial basis upon which "capitalist productive labour" can be built up and exploited.' First published in 1986, Maria Mies's progressive book was hailed as a major paradigm shift for feminist theory, and it remains a major contribution to development theory and practice today. Tracing the social origins of the sexual division of labour, it offers a history of the related processes of colonization and 'housewifization' and extends this analysis to the contemporary new international division of labour. Mies's theory of capitalist patriarchy has become even more relevant today. This new edition includes a substantial new introduction in which she both applies her theory to the new globalized world and answers her critics.

Women and Deviance: Issues in Social Conflict and Change

Women and Deviance: Issues in Social Conflict and Change PDF

Author: Nanette J. Davis

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-12-22

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 1317287401

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This book, first published in 1984, is a selective, annotated bibliography on women and deviance that includes historical, cross cultural, sociological, psychological, political, legal, philosophical, and social policy perspectives. This title is concerned with the origins, change, conflict, and consequences of deviant behaviour and "women’s adaptation to their changing roles." It encompasses monographs, journal articles, books, and government documents in English. This title will be of particular interest to students of sociology and criminology.

The Creation of Patriarchy

The Creation of Patriarchy PDF

Author: Gerda Lerner

Publisher: Women and History; V. 1

Published: 1986

Total Pages: 362

ISBN-13: 9780195051858

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A radical reinterpretation of Western civilization argues that male dominance has resulted from, and can be ended by, historical process, and identifies key developments.

When Men and Women Mattered

When Men and Women Mattered PDF

Author: Onaiwu W. Ogbomo

Publisher: Boydell & Brewer

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 244

ISBN-13: 9781878822789

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Drawing upon narrative tradition, reenactment ceremonies, legends of gods and goddesses, and the fusion of numerous genealogies, this book examines gender relations among the Owan people of southern Nigeria between c.1320 and the beginning of the twentieth century. The author challenges the orthodox view that patriarchy has been the norm in all societies, adding to our understanding of the origins of patriarchy and placing its development in an historical perspective. He also suggests a new definition of matriarchy, not simply as rule by women, but also as a phase in the history of societies in which gender equality existed. The book argues that the Owan people once had a social order very close to matriarchy. Despite a large influx from neighbouring peoples with a strong patriarchal tradition, Owan women retained their high social status and power because of their virtual control of the cotton trade, but after the demand for cotton decreased sharply after 1700, their social position declined rapidly until the beginning of the twentieth century, when it was altered legally by the establishment of British rule.ONAIWU W. OGBOMOteaches history at Allegheny College, Pennsylvania.

The Roman Family

The Roman Family PDF

Author: Suzanne Dixon

Publisher: JHU Press

Published: 1992-04

Total Pages: 588

ISBN-13: 9780801842009

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Brings together what historians, anthropologists, and philologists have learned about the family in ancient Rome. Among the topics: family relations and the law, marriage, children in the Roman family, and the family through the life cycle. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Does the Woman Exist?

Does the Woman Exist? PDF

Author: Paul Verhaeghe

Publisher: Other Press, LLC

Published: 2013-04-16

Total Pages: 371

ISBN-13: 1590516710

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This book describes how Freud attempted to chart hysteria, yet came to a standstill at the problem of woman and her desire, and of how Lacan continued along this road by creating new conceptual tools. The difficulties and upsets encountered by both men are examined. This lucid presentation of the dialectical process that carries Lacan through the evolution of Freud’s thought offers profound insights into the place of the “feminine mystique” in our social fabric. Patiently and carefully, Verhaeghe applies the Lacanian grid to Freud’s text and succeeds in explaining Lacan’s formulations without merely recapitulating his theories. The reader is informed, along the way, not only of Lacan’s take on Freudian ideas, but also of the array of interpretations emerging from other trends in post-Freudian literature, including feminist revisionism.

Gender and Feminist Theory in Law and Society

Gender and Feminist Theory in Law and Society PDF

Author: Madhavi Sunder

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2017-11-30

Total Pages: 823

ISBN-13: 1351157744

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This volume chronicles a quarter-century of feminist theorizations on equality and liberty. The essays demonstrate a continuing commitment to feminist method (a democratic notion that all people have a right to participate in the production of knowledge of the world, including legal knowledge) and manifest feminism's continuing critical tradition (namely, theorists' willingness to see multiple factors, including feminism itself, as obstructing enlightened constructions of the world). Taken together, the essays suggest that liberty to make the world is not just a means to an end - equality - but is a substantive end in itself.