2013/05/16 by Anne Campbell · 1 citation
Psychology · #Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior #Primatology #Beauty #Evolutionary psychology #Psychology #Darwin (ADL) #Subject (documents) #Sexual selection #Charles darwin #Darwinism #Developmental psychology #Psychoanalysis #Biology #Social psychology #Evolutionary biology #Epistemology #Ecology #Philosophy
paper · doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199609543.001.0001
openalex publication_date 2013/05/16 · openalex created_date 2020/12/07 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Males have been center stage in evolutionary theory ever since Darwin described “passionate” males and “coy” females. As males fought each other for copulation opportunities, females waited on the sidelines to be inseminated. They were relegated to the passive bearers of alpha males’ offspring. Yet it is now clear that females (like males) were subject to sexual selection, described by Darwin as “the advantage that certain individuals have over other individuals of the same sex and species, in exclusive relation to reproduction.” Females varied in their ability to produce and raise offspring, and this variability was the fodder for evolution. This book examines how sexual selection sculpted women’s minds as well as their bodies. It examines psychological adaptations for their key relationships as mates, mothers, allies, and rivals, bringing together research from anthropology, primatology, behavior genetics, endocrinology, and neuroscience. Beyond the description of sex differences and the telling of Just-So adaptationist stories, it addresses the underlying psychological and hormonal processes that mediate sex differences. The human ability for culture brings a new strand to evolutionary thinking: Does evolutionary theory still have a place in a world with contraception, media-promoted standards of beauty, and the breakdown of the nuclear family?