Customer Reviews

Lucy's Legacy: Sex and Intelligence in Human Evolution

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

 

 

"Lucy's Legacy" is an impressive book. If you've an interest in how much we've learned about where homo sapiens came from, read it. I'm giving it 4 stars because Jolly does such a great job of providing an overview, starting the beginning of life on earth. I'm not aware of anything in the field with the range of "Lucy's Legacy". Clear writing and a wonderful sense of humor make it easy to read. It's not getting the fifth star because coverage is a bit skimpy in places and because of the comments noted below.

If you keep the idea in the back of your head that most of what she writes about is fairly recently discovered while you read "Lucy's Legacy", you can't help but be amazed at the pace with which we're beginning to understand ourselves, even though Jolly doesn't make a big thing of it. Of course she also makes it clear that we don't know far more than we do.

And, oh yes, she makes a very good point that it's possible for selfish behavior at the level of genes to result in altruistic behavior by animals.

I do have a few criticisms, though they shouldn't discourage anyone from reading the book. They stem mostly from an attempt to do too much in under 450 pages, but her biases and areas of expertise undoubtedly play a role. Here are some samples.

First, the bibliography is mostly adequate, but there's too much to cover in one book and it would have been very useful to have pointers to books to go to for further reading in specific areas.

Second, important references are missing. Jolly cites work discussed in the excellent Walker/Shipman "Wisdom of the Bones", but fails to include that book. Similarly, she describes Roger Fouts' work with chimps and the personal problems he encountered because of his love for the animals but fails to cite his "Next of Kin. And, amazingly, the discussion of language and linguistics is done without a mention of Noam Chomsky.

Third, it's cruel to tell us that DNA's very efficient without explaining how efficiency is being measured.

Fourth, though she describes positions on two sides of the sociobiology wars, Jolly's not really fair to what I'll call the Gould camp. It's not, for example, intellectually honest to dismiss Gould's objections on the grounds that we're "programmed to deeply distrust - or even detest - the theory of sociobiology." It's also a jump from quoting Gould and Lewontin as saying theories like it "provided an important basis for the enactment of sterilization laws and restrictive immigration laws by the United States between 1910 and 1930 and also for the eugenics policies which let to the establishment of gas chambers in Nazi Germany" to her claim they were asserting that "proposing biological bases for human behavior leads straight to justifying the gas chambers." Gould wrote what I think was his best book, "The Mismeasure of Man", about the sordid history of testing for intelligence and how theories that came out of such efforts have been used to justify political positions. Unfortunately it's not cited (I'd have worked Carol Travis' "Mismeasure of Woman" into the discussion too, because we routinely see newspaper articles about how some newly discovered small physiological difference between the sexes explains behavioral differences).

Despite those objections - as you may have guessed, I do have serious reservations regarding the perspective from which Jolly views the subject - it was a great read. I imagine she's a wonderful teacher and that it's even more delightful to take her classes. I know I'd be thrilled to talk with her about the contents of her book.

Although I originally read this book for Professor Jolly's class, I have since recommended it to friends and family as an excellent, well rounded introduction into human evolution. It tries to examine, in an objective way, the degree to which natural selection has affected both physical and psychological human attributes.

Unlike writers such as EO Wilson who seem to argue that science has little if anything to learn from the humanities, Jolly believes that a comprehensive theory of human nature needs to draw on both the sciences and humanities to arrive at a synthetic view. I agree with her view that we cannot reduce humans to their genes, but nor can we ignore the role they play in our behavior.

The book is quite well written, and draws liberally on poetry, short stories, and politics as well as science to illustrate her points.

This is an engaging and comprehensive introduction to where primate studies have taken us in the last half century, with a fine elucidation of sociobiology as a theoretical tool. Alison Jolly, a pioneering lemur watcher (as well as Lecturer in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University and Past President of the International Primatological Society) is particularly attuned to the needs and weaknesses of students and scholars "on the other side of the tree": in the humanities. She poses questions that only someone trained in the biological sciences would (or should) be bold enough to consider seriously, such as--Why sex? Why gender? What is intelligence? Where did it come from? Where is it going? And she considers possible answers clearly and thoroughly and gracefully enough for anyone to appreciate. One's knowledge of the human condition can only be deepened by following this exploration into the history before history.

Jolly has written one of the most elegant examinations of ourselves from an evolutionary perspective. She dialogues with feminists, biologists and others while crafting a wonderful foray into "sex and intelligence in human evolution" (the book's subtitle). She covers a heterogeneous set of topics, from why to cooperate to how humans give birth. In the spirit of Diamond's The Third Chimpanzee, she shows what excellent writing and a fine choice of subject matter can do when put together. This wide-ranging topical focus leaves the book without an oft-repeated thesis, or a strong idea to take away from reading it. But it does succeed in producing a book well worth recommending.

Jolly's basic thesis is that the portrayal of evolution as "red in tooth and claw" is overblown. Species survival requires at least as much co-operation as competition. There are continuous compromises made in nature, each of which is as likely to aid in survival of the participants as elimination of opposition would. Jolly isn't attempting to replace competition as the root of evolution so much as temper it. The tempering force is sex. Always a subject of mystery among biologists, the origins of sex remain shrouded in mystery. Only the legacy of its inception becomes clear in hindsight. Sex provides genetic variety and a melange of social orders among animals. According to Jolly, sex generates interactions between individuals and groups that likely wouldn't have arisen otherwise.

Jolly argues that the interactions have led to various forms of altruism. In turn, the social "games" needed to maintain co-operation and altruism have generated higher levels of intelligence. Co-operation requires communication, further stimulating intelligence. This is most clearly manifest in the primates, particularly humans, of course. The rise of sociobiology [deemed "evolutionary psychology" by the timid] has added fresh pointers to our natural origins. Jolly is adept at equalizing the contending forces in this field and fending off its more strident critics. In one chapter, she expresses admiration for the growing number and influence of women scholars in the field. She then spends time gently dissecting a "deconstructionist" view of primatology, her own field. Her balanced views and reasonable approach are among the more admirable aspects of this book.

Her narrative style is light and conversational. There are even personal asides to keep the presentation from becoming rigid or pedantic. Regrettably, her desire to reach many readers and avoid axe-grinding led her down an unfortunate path. She sprinkles poetry samples throughout the text, many of these of doubtful value to the narrative. Her choice of illustrations is even worse. In charity, we might blame this on faulty editing. The topic is far too important to distract the reader with empty non-sequiturs. She imparts the importance well, but erodes it with these asides. The importance is maintained when you reach her References. This is an admirably complete source list and repays a careful look. It reflects Jolly's aim at reaching the general reader new to the topic. If you are just starting in this area, this book is an exceptional starting point.
- Review by stephen a. haines, Ottawa, Canada

As a biochemist with an interest in origins of life research, I enjoyed the human evolution aspect of the book and recommend it for that reason.

When the author discussed molecular biology though, her attempt at making ideas accessible introduced irritating errors. One sentence mistakenly lumped Y chromosomes together with mitochondrial DNA as non-nuclear genetic material. She has the grating habit of referring to eukaryotes and prokaryotes as 'cells' and 'bacteria', respectively, without defining what she means by 'cells' until later. I also found her account of chemical evolution and the origins of the first self-replicating systems to be somewhat incoherent and it's probably misleading to a lay reader.

Minor errors in molecular biology dotted the book and proved a distraction. Jolly is a primatologist, not a molecular biologist, but some good editing or advice from someone familiar with the field would have greatly improved the book. It's still worth reading though.

Lucy's Legacy is a wonderful book that is highly reccommended to all who are concerned with the fields of sociobiology, evolution, anthropology, linguistics, sociolinguistics, microbiology, and sociology. The breadth of information in Lucy's Legacy is astounding, proving that Jolly is one of the foremost talented academians in her field. Three cheers to Jolly for this super creation. Good Luck Professor Jolly in all your future endevours. You deserve only the best. Sincerely, J Dog Money

Alison Jolly tells a fascinating story of how we came from the original life forms up to where we are now, with all our cultural varieties and complexity. She shows what the biological basis is for much of how we respond in many situations, and she tells with wit and sympathy, many of the arguments about that story. She is not afraid to share her personal experience as a lemur researcher in the forests of Madagascar or as a mother in New York City. Her account of the controversies of how the story should be told is enlightening and reassuring. Because of her clear-eyed account of all that goes into making up the story and the debates surrounding it, I end up trusting her when she talks about the possible future scenarios.

Just to warn anyone who thinks this book has anything to do with intelligence in the sense of psychometric tests, it doesn't. But it also has very little to say about the evolution of intelligence.

One of the main problems with this book is that the author is obviously enamoured with her own writing ability, leading to excessive length and the inclusion of apparently every irrelevant fact that came to mind. The author mentions a few times that her mother was an artist, and she obviously feels the trait is heritable: the book is littered with terrible poetry written by God knows who.

As the book progressed the subject matter became increasingly nebulous, until the author launched into a ludicrously protracted socialist rant / earth as living organism metaphor. Luckily by this stage of the book I was in skimming mode, but still managed the misfortune of reading the clearly delirious Jolly lamenting the income gap between rich and poor, before exclaiming with appropriate exclamation marks how few resources it would take to feed the world's poor, followed by the inevitable expression of dismay at the exponentional growth of the human population. Jolly then goes on to claim human populations only stabilize once there is ample food, water, shelter etc. Yes I'm sure once everyone is getting free food and water they'll lose all desire to reproduce in massive numbers. As a primatologist she loves demonstrating the parallels between primate behaviour and human behaviour, yet when it comes to 'socially progressive policies', throw all that out the window! Or maybe if chimps all had ample food and water they'd have a little group meeting and decide to have two child families and henceforth live forever in harmony with mother earth and their fellow animals.

Aside from the total inanity of the scattershot finale, the book is bloated by the author's lack of focus. While it can be impressive when someone demonstrates knowledge in many fields, it just becomes exasperating in this case, as the author sprints off on tangent after tangent. Eventually the book becomes a series of facts about differing topics, most irrelevant or uninteresting, with each being only tenuously related to its precursor. The novel's lack of cohesiveness, as well as it's lack of any real subject, makes for, at best, an unsatisfying read. At worst I'd say it's a colossal waste of time.