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Mother Nature: A History of Mothers, Infants, and Natural Selection Hardcover – September 21, 1999

by Sarah Hrdy (Author)
51 customer reviews
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Product Details

  • Hardcover: 752 pages
  • Publisher: Pantheon; 1st edition (September 21, 1999)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0679442650
  • ISBN-13: 978-0679442653
  • Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.8 x 1.6 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 2.5 pounds
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (51 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #612,673 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
A valuable corrective to male-centered sociobiology
By Hagios on August 26, 2009
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
Sociobiology has historically been centered on males. Consider the classic case of the langur monkey. When an alpha male deposes a rival male and claims his harem the first thing he does is kill the infants. That brings the females into heat sooner and allows him to reproduce sooner. Infanticide is in his rational self-interest (Sarah Blaffer Hrdy was actually the one who figured this out). The implication is that males are in a life and death struggle to become alpha and females just want to breed with the winner. To be sure, traditional sociobiology has some modest correctives for the myth of the "coy female and promiscuous male." In the case of a monogamous species males and females partner up. In that case the alpha males cannot claim a harem of females. But females can still breed with an alpha male by having an adulterous affair. Not every woman can marry an alpha male but she certainly can copulate with one. In fact, cryptic female choice shows that females often stage sperm competitions in their vagina. The strategy is simple: copulate with many males in a short period of time and let the fittest sperm win. Gangbangs clearly falsify the "coy female" model. But even so, they continue to reinforces the same tired narrative: males are locked in a struggle for status while females are only interested in breeding with the winner.

Sarah Blaffer Hrdy convincingly shows that females are locked in their own brutal status-seeking competition. Females are bigger and stronger than the males in many species such as mole rats, jackrabbits, marmosets, and bats. Among solitary species these "big mothers" are able to control a larger territory than their smaller and weaker rival females. That means more food for their offspring.Read more ›
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A beautiful discourse...
By Benjamin M. on February 20, 2015
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
It's easy to get lost in the internet and space exploration when all we need is right here in our history. Thanks Hrdy!
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AN ANTHROPOLOGIST LOOKS AT MOTHERHOOD FROM AN EVOLUTIONARY PERSPECTIVE
By Steven H Propp TOP 100 REVIEWER on February 26, 2013
Format: Hardcover
Sarah Blaffer Hrdy (born 1946) is an American anthropologist and primatologist, and is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of California at Davis, where she remains involved with the Animal Behavior Graduate Group. [She is also married, and the mother of three, if that is of interest; she admits, "I personally am partial to the companionate monogamous marriage." (Pg. 232)] She has also written books such as The Woman That Never Evolved: With a New Preface and Bibliographical Updates, Revised Edition and Mothers and Others: The Evolutionary Origins of Mutual Understanding.

She wrote in the Preface to this 1999 book, "In the course of revising ideas about mothers, I have had to discard much received wisdom... the mothers who gradually came into focus for me almost seemed a new life-form... Mothers were multifaceted-creatures, strategists juggling multiple agendas. As a consequence, their level of commitment to each offspring born was highly contingent on circumstances." (Pg. xviii) She says, "as I will show in this book, from contemporary programs in which women live in a state of ecological release, no longer constrained by having to forage enough food each day to stay alive and with a broad range of reproductive options, to other parts of the world where they are less fortunate, women are constantly making tradeoffs between subsistence and reproduction that are similar in outline." (Pg. 8)

She observes, "Far from 'opposing forces,' maternity and ambition are inseparably linked.Read more ›
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0 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Antro book
By Karina on December 15, 2013
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
Had to get this book for my antro class. It is interesting but not for me. I might take a look at it at a later point in my life.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Excellent book on motherhood
By beaverkeeper on September 5, 2013
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
I only wish I had had this book to read when my own children were young. Sarah Hrdy is a creative and courageous explorer - how she managed to set off on her line of inquiry, coming out of the fiercely patriarchal Harvard-Cambridge MA setting in the 1960's amazes me. We are lucky to have such a logical, thoughtful, and adventurous explorer in our midst.
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Five Stars
By AC on February 12, 2015
Format: Hardcover Verified Purchase
thank you
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Mostly brilliant. She over-extends her arguments at times
By Edward Gallagher on February 26, 2015
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
Mostly brilliant. She over-extends her arguments at times.
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New insight into human behaviors
By Author Jane B Night on September 11, 2013
Format: Paperback
I really enjoyed this book. Some non fiction books can get really bogged down and beyond the understanding of someone who is only a bit familiar with the subject matter. This was not one of those books. This book was easy to understand and everything was explained in layman terms.
Being a mother but also a woman interested in women's issues I really liked the subject matter. It also was a book that brought questions (and extrapolated answers) to the surface about the things I see in the world around me and just go "?".
For instance, in some primates promiscuity is used to enhance the survival of infants. A female of the species will mate with males who might eventually take over her group. If she does, he is less likely to kill her offspring. Also, in some primates the males will help feed and protect children that might be theirs. As modern humans we have DNA tests and I am in no means encouraging promiscuity. But it seems to me that in out human history there were times when the people most likely to breed healthy babies were women who had many men offering some help.
Also, in a family where there are many resources and children have a high chance of survival then it makes sense to breed just a few and invest all parental resources in them. If a family has few resources and low survival rates then it makes sense to breed as many as possible so that someone will be able to add the family genes to the future. This made a lot of sense especially when I had wondered why it seemed that humans least able to care for offspring seem to breed the most.
Overall, I think this book was pretty amazing and a great read for anyone interested in mother and infant issues in primates (including themselves).
Review written by Jane B Night author of Educating Autumn
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