The evolving female : a life history perspective /

A human female is born, lives her life, and dies within the space of a few decades, but the shape of her life has been strongly influenced by 50 million years of primate evolution and more than 100 million years of mammalian evolution. How the individual female plays out the stages of her life--from...

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Bibliographic Details
Corporate Authors: De Gruyter.
Group Author: Galloway, Alison; Morbeck, Mary Ellen; Zihlman, Adrienne
Published: Princeton University Press,
Publisher Address: Princeton, N.J. :
Publication Dates: [1997]
©1997
Literature type: eBook
Language: English
Edition: Course Book.
Subjects:
Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1515/9781400822065
http://www.degruyter.com/doc/cover/9781400822065.jpg
Summary: A human female is born, lives her life, and dies within the space of a few decades, but the shape of her life has been strongly influenced by 50 million years of primate evolution and more than 100 million years of mammalian evolution. How the individual female plays out the stages of her life--from infancy, through the reproductive period, to old age--and how these stages have been formed by a long evolutionary process, is the theme of this collection. Written by leading scholars in fields ranging from evolutionary biology to cultural anthropology, these essays together examine what it means to be female, integrating the life histories of marine mammals, monkeys, apes, and humans. The result is a fascinating inquiry into the similarities among the ways females of different species balance the need for survival with their role in reproduction and mothering.The Evolving Female offers an outlook integrating life history with an intimate examination of female life paths. Behavior, anatomy and physiology, growth and development, cultural identity of women, the individual, and the society are among the topics investigated. In addition to the editors, the contributors are Linda Fedigan, Kathryn Ono, Joanne Reiter, Barbara Smuts, Mariko Hiraiwa-Hasegawa, Mary McDonald Pavelka, Caroline Pond, Robin McFarland, Silvana Borgognini Tarli and Elena Repetto, Gilda Morelli, Patricia Draper, Catherine Panter-Brick, Virginia J. Vitzthum, Alison Jolly, and Beverly McLeod.
Carrier Form: 1 online resource (344 pages) : illustrations
ISBN: 9781400822065
Index Number: GN281
CLC: Q981.1
Contents: Frontmatter --
Contents --
Contributors --
Acknowledgments --
What Is Life History? --
1. Life History, the Individual, and Evolution /
2. Changing Views of Female Life Histories /
Introduction: What It Means to Be a Mammal --
3. Sea Lions, Life History, and Reproduction /
4. Life History and Reproductive Success of Female Northern Elephant Seals /
Introduction: What It Means to Be a Primate --
5. Social Relationships and Life Histories of Primates /
6. Development of Sex Differences in Nonhuman Primates /
7. The Social Life of Female Japanese Monkeys /
8. Natural History of Apes: Life-History Features in Females and Males /
Introduction: What It Means to Be a Catarrhine --
9. Reading Life History in Teeth, Bones, and Fossils /
10. The Cost of Reproduction and the Evolution of Postmenopausal Osteoporosis /
11. The Biological Origins of Adipose Tissue in Humans /
12. Female Primates: Fat or Fit? /
Introduction: What It Means to Be a Human --
13. Women s Bodies, Women s Lives: An Evolutionary Perspective /
14. Sex Differences in Human Populations: Change through Time /
15. Growing Up Female in a Farmer Community and a Forager Community /
16. Institutional, Evolutionary, and Demographic Contexts of Gender Roles: A Case Study of !Kung Bushmen /
17. Women s Work and Energetics: A Case Study from Nepal /
18. Flexibility and Paradox: The Nature of Adaptation in Human Reproduction /
Introduction: Life History, Females, and Evolution --
19. Social Intelligence and Sexual Reproduction: Evolutionary Strat