By Joan Roughgarden
During this cutting edge occasion of range and confirmation of individuality in animals and people, Joan Roughgarden demanding situations permitted knowledge approximately gender identification and sexual orientation. A unusual evolutionary biologist, Roughgarden takes at the clinical institution, the Bible, social science--and even Darwin himself. She leads the reader via a desirable dialogue of variety in gender and sexuality between fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals, together with primates. Evolution's Rainbow explains how this variety develops from the motion of genes and hormones and the way humans come to vary from one another in all elements of physique and behaviour. Roughgarden reconstructs fundamental technological know-how in mild of feminist, homosexual, and transgender feedback and redefines our knowing of intercourse, gender, and sexuality. Witty, playful, and bold, this booklet will revolutionize our figuring out of sexuality.
Roughgarden argues that critical parts of Darwinian sexual choice concept are fake and indicates a brand new conception that emphasizes social inclusion and keep watch over of entry to assets and mating chance. She disputes a variety of medical and clinical suggestions, together with Wilson's genetic determinism of habit, evolutionary psychology, the life of a homosexual gene, the function of parenting in identifying gender id, and Dawkins's "selfish gene" because the motive force of ordinary choice. She dares social technology to recognize the employer and rationality of various humans; exhibits that many cultures internationally and all through heritage accommodate humans we label this present day as lesbian, homosexual, and transgendered; and calls at the Christian faith to recognize the Bible's many passages endorsing variety in gender and sexuality. Evolution's Rainbow concludes with daring strategies for making improvements to schooling in biology, psychology, and medication; for democratizing genetic engineering and clinical perform; and for construction a public monument to confirm variety as one among our nation's defining principles.
Reviews:
From Publishers Weekly
This outstanding and obtainable paintings of organic feedback has the capability to revolutionize the way in which readers conceive of gender and sexuality within the flora and fauna. Roughgarden, a professor of biology at Stanford college and a member of the Academy of Arts and Sciences, argues that the variety of gender and sexuality one reveals in lots of species means that evolutionary biologists of a strictly Darwinian bent are frequently erroneous, for the reason that, based on Roughgarden, they erroneously think a universally acceptable gender binary in all species. the 1st half the booklet brings that sexual range to gentle via innumerable examples between birds, reptiles, fish and mammals supplied in hugely readable anecdotes. the importance of this primary part lies not just during this startlingly unique portrait of nature, but additionally in the way it means that modern Darwinian sexual choice conception is partially due to the cultural bias, because it "predicts that the baseline final result of social evolution is sexy, good-looking, fit warriors paired with discreetly discerning damsels." Roughgarden evaluations this idea via an expansive examine of organic scholarship, highlighting the common contradictions among such claims and the knowledge used (and, she argues, manipulated) to end up them. the second one and surely extra debatable part discusses sexual variety in people. Taking as a given the presence in our personal species of homosexual, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, transsexual and intersex folks, she reads present clinical writing-on a meant "gay gene," on gender reassignment and different issues-through a viewpoint that sees range as a bonus, now not a handicap. Readers extra acquainted with conventional different types of gender and sexuality in people will absolutely be shocked at how diverse a portrait emerges from Roughgarden's deeply own and insistently moral perspective.
“A attention-grabbing dialogue approximately variety in gender and sexuality in [the] residing world.”
(Evelyne Bremond-Hoslet Mammalia 2011-01-01)
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Additional info for Evolution's Rainbow: Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People
Example text
Three hours on this one day is all the family life a squirrel has. TWO-GENDER FAMILIES 51 A successful date for a male squirrel means walking behind a female while sniffing and licking her genitals, going with her into a burrow, mating there for five minutes, and then reemerging. As a sign of successful mating, the female acquires a “sperm plug” that can be seen by a human observer and probably by other squirrels as well. ” About every forty minutes, he follows her back into the burrow, where they mate again.
MALES CHANGING TO FEMALE Sex changes from male to female also occur. A group of damselfish are called clown fish because their bold white strips remind one of the white makeup used by clowns. These fish live among the tentacles of sea anemones, which have cells in their tentacles that sting any animal who touches them. To survive in this lethal home, a clown fish secretes a mucus that inhibits the anemone from discharging its stinging cells. Although living within the anemone’s tentacles provides safety for the clown fish, the size of its house is limited by how big its sea anemone grows.
Indeed, in some species, males (apart from making sperm) look and behave much as females do in other species, and females (apart from making eggs) look and behave much as males do in other species. If these species could express their thoughts about us, they would describe our gender distinctions as reversed. BODY SIZES REVERSED Anglerfish are deep-sea fish who have what looks like a tiny fishing pole attached to their head. A spine projects out in front of the fish, and somewhat upward, with a frilly or luminescent bulb at its tip to lure prey.