Description |
xix, 723 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 25 cm |
Contents |
Pt. 1. Look to the Animals. 1. Motherhood as a Minefield. 2. A New View of Mothers. 3. Underlying Mysteries of Development. 4. Unimaginable Variation. 5. The Variable Environments of Evolutionary Relevance -- Pt. 2. Mothers and Allomothers. 6. The Milky Way. 7. From Here to Maternity. 8. Family Planning Primate-Style. 9. Three Men and a Baby. 10. The Optimal Number of Fathers. 11. Who Cared? 12. Unnatural Mothers. 13. Daughters or Sons? It All Depends. 14. Old Tradeoffs, New Contexts -- Pt. 3. An Infant's-Eye View. 15. Born to Attach. 16. Meeting the Eyes of Love. 17. "Secure from What?" or "Secure from Whom?" 18. Empowering the Embryo. 19. Why Be Adorable? 20. How to Be "An Infant Worth Rearing" 21. A Matter of Fat. 22. Of Human Bondage. 23. Alternate Paths of Development. 24. Devising Better Lullabies |
Summary |
"Mother Nature presents a radical new way of understanding how mothers act and why, and how this new understanding is changing the way scientists think about how evolution works."--BOOK JACKET. "Drawing on anthropology, history, literature, developmental psychology, and animal behavior, Sarah Hrdy examines the distinct biological and genetic elements that constitute maternal instinct. She strips away the biases implicit in conventional stereotypes of female nature to give us very different and provocative perspectives on maternal ambivalence, the links between maternity and ambition, mother love and sexual love, and she explains why age-old tensions between the sexes persist and are being played out today in efforts to control women's reproductive choices."--BOOK JACKET |
Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references (pages 603-690) and index |
Subject |
Evolution (Biology)
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Females -- Evolution.
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Mother and child.
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Motherhood -- Psychological aspects.
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Natural selection.
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Parental behavior in animals.
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Working mothers.
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LC no. |
99013092 |
ISBN |
0345408934 (paperback) |
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0679442650 |
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