Customer Reviews

The Descent of Woman: The Classic Study of Evolution

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I found Elaine Morgan's "The Descent of Woman" to provide some highly interesting concepts to think about, and I have no doubt that her outsider "alternative" view of evolution caused a considerable uproar in the scientific community when the book was first published in 1972.

At the core of Morgan's theory is the idea that women played an equal (or possibly superior) role in human evolution, and were NOT just submissive second-class childbearers while the "strong and brave hunter men" ("Tarzanists") were shaping the evolution of the species. In presenting her case, Morgan draws heavily on the Aquatic Ape Theory (first presented by Sir Alister Hardy in the 1920's) for explanations of how humans moved from the trees to walking upright, how they became hairless, the development of speech, and the physiological factors that make us radically different from other primates.

The book doesn't portray the male half of humanity in a very favorable light-- which, in itself, I don't really have a problem with. However, the tone of the writing sometimes crosses the line from scientific to slightly condescending and "preachy," and in doing so, the work perhaps loses a bit of credibility from a scientific standpoint-- almost as if the author couldn't quite decide between "Science" and "Feminism." Nonetheless, Morgan should be commended for questioning male-centric evolutionary theories put forth by a historically male-dominated scientific community, and readers should not lose sight of the fact that she is more of an "outsider" than a member of the "establishment."

I am not sure if the designation "Classic Study of Evolution" is deserved-- the core CONCEPTS were somewhat revolutionary at the original time of publishing, but the actual presentation tastes more of "pseudoscience" than hard science. At the end of the book, I felt that I had been presented with a very interesting (and plausible) POSSIBILITY, but without being CONVINCED that This Is How It Is. That, of course, is just my OPINION-- I am not a scientist.

Overall rating: Recommended (7 bookmarks out of a possible 10). Women readers will feel good/vindicated; open-minded men will hopefully feel somewhat enlightened. The writing style is eloquent, at times humorous, at times somewhat dry and scholarly. A well-developed is vocabulary recommended!

In 1980 I bought this book thinking it was a feminist tract but once I began to read I was entranced and thoroughly enjoyed her writing. Her "new" theory of evolution began with her reading of Morris' book and his mention of Sir Alister Hardy's idea that somewhere along the line our ancestors spent a great deal of time in an aquatic environment. I had read that information in Desmond's book but unlike Ms. Morgan, I didn't put much weight on it until I read her book. She covers every facet of evolution that no one can explain by "Man the Great Hunter" theory. Her explaination of everything from our nose (so different than the other "great apes") to our power of speech (do hunters really yell while they are stalking prey?) are covered in this book. I highly recommend this book (The Descent of Woman) even if you aren't into anthropology because Elaine Morgan is a witty and thorough writer. Her next book, "The Aquatic Ape", covers the response to "The Descent of Woman" but it's out of print.I wish they would re-issue the second book (The Aquatic Ape) because in it professionals in various disciplines (geology, biology, anthropology, etc.) found places that could have been the origination of our very aquatic species.

I really haven't paid any attention to evolutionary debates and whether the Aquatic Ape Theory is accepted or debunked or whether something else has risen to takes its place. However, I am left with the impression that the author has constructed a straw man to argue against and some of her claims and lines of argument are bothersome. She makes several claims that I am pretty sure are false: that only humans aggress against other humans, that only humans rape, that only humans have homosexuality and that this is because of the "lack of aim" engendered by the movement of the vagina. In her discussion of orgasm she is curiously silent on how other aquatic mammals deal with this movement of the vagina -- despite using them to bolster her argument in almost every other area. She makes the point that male primates don't initiate sex unless the female gives off certain signals but then later on claims that it was only male's continued rape in the absence of these signals that kept the human race going. She seems to want to have it both ways. Also her arguments about the rise of face-to-face sex don't address the fact that humans are still capable of performing in a variety of other positions when they feel like it with no apparent affect on rates of procreation.

In short, I think the first few chapters of her book are interesting and intriguing. Once she hits the chapters of orgasm and love I began to feel less convinced by her arguments. On the whole it was not an entirely convincing book because of the straw man feel she gives to her opponents but she certainly advances an interesting idea.

A quarter century ago, Elaine Morgan kept alive a theory of human origins which at the time was ignored by many. In hindsight, her bestseller appears prophetic. The theory that humans once passed through a semi-aquatic phase, which caused us to depart radically from the standard ape model (hairlessness, bipedality, subcutaneous fat, etc.), has gained increasing support from scientists. Harvard University recently invited her to speak on the theory. Her writing style is lively, iconoclastic, scientific, and always engaging. Her other works on the theory are equally great reading. Descent of Woman is a feministic classic as well as a scientific work.

The only reason I give it four stars is because of its schizophrenic attempt to be both an anthropological study of evolution and a socio-political feminist tract. When I first heard the Aquatic Ape theory, it felt so truthful and explained so much, by Occam's Razor it immediately became my belief. But it was so disappointing to see the theory mangled into weak support for the cheesy, dated "descent of women" hypothesis of the prehistoric origins of female disenfranchisement. On the other hand, the discussion of current events in culture and feminism stands out as a balanced, mature and eerily prescient analysis, in stark contrast to the more lunatic ravings of that era. It is also remarkable as another chapter in the long history of cross-disciplinary assaults on acadame. This book is a fine example of another outsider who shifted the paradigm right out from under the curmudgeonly feet of an arrogant and insular discipline. Furthermore, Morgan's open and accessible style is a solid blow against a body of literature whose stilted prose obfuscates some of the poorest reasoning in modern science. This literary classic of amateur science should be required reading.

I encountered this book as a male undergraduate at Harvard University in the early 1980's majoring in Biological Anthropology. What a revelation to find an alternative hypothesis to the one's we had been studying -- an altogether different explanation for the traits that make us uniquely human. Elaine Morgan's popularization of the idea that Homo sapiens passed through a long aquatic phase and that the activities of women had a more influential role in our phylogeny than the old "man the mighty hunter of the savannah" model may have caused the single greatest epiphany in my undergraduate career. The repercussions are still echoing in my work today (an educational docu-drama we are producing with inner city students in Los Angeles called "mammals of the ocean" contains a music video inspired by this book -- explaining each human trait by comparing us with marine mammals and explaining how selection pressures operating on child bearers really affect evolution.) The book also transformed me into a "feminist" (though persistently macho) male. Read it guys..

an interesting book. She addresses some of the problems that evolutionists blow off - such as why do women have breasts, and comes up with a logical answer that has nothing to do with "because that's what the men wanted".
It takes a bit to get to the subject, but once there, she is coherent and consice, simply presenting the evidence and letting you make your own decsions about the question.
Anyone who believes in evolution and is not satisfied with 6ft Homo Erectus sttod to see over the grass while 3ft Baboon did not, they moved to the ground filled with predators to make it easier to find food, this book will get you thinking.
And it appears to have spawned an entire controversy as well as 4 sequels (maybe there're more)

I've spent my life working as a librarian and this is one of few books which I can say changed my life and ideas about humanity.
I read this book over 20 years ago and still quote from it. The theories presented here shifted the way I thought about men and women. Entertainingly presented, there are many serious and some funny arguments on the topic of womanly evolution of the human race.
Author Elaine Morgan impressed me so much that today I went online to buy a copy for my growing daughter only to find out it has been re-released. A must for feminists, but a hoot for us all. Bravo!

A good friend of mine recomended "The Decent of Woman". Having read more than my share of Feminist books, I was expecting nothing more from this. What I got was truely astonishing. Elaine Morgan has compiled a truely astounding collection of circumstantial evidence to explain her theory. But the exciting part of the story is that, unlike some theories that I had read before, Elaines contentions just makes sense. Elaine makes both the evolution of her theory, and the suporting information an entertaining journey to both the scientific sofisticates, and neophytes. Highly recomended!!

This book left me feeling cheated, deeply and utterly cheated - that my Anthropology major had never mentioned, never once even alluded to the Aquatic Ape theory or to Elaine Morgan. This is the most sensible, logical explanation of how the human has evolved. As a feminist Anthropologist, I can honestly say that the androcentric attitudes toward the emergence of homonid from anthropoid are true. The "tarzanist" view of evolution is still ingrained in the minds of the general public, and as a great perpetuating machine it is taught in colleges and universities as the be-all, end-all theory of existence.

Not only do her words and theories make sense, Morgan feels no great compelling need to convolute her writing by trying to go above the heads of the general reader. Her style is ironic, satirical, and deeply humorous. Never have I enjoyed laughing at the stupidities of misogynistic academia more.