On the Origins of Gender InequalityIn our fast-paced world of technology and conveniences, the biological origins of women's inequality can be forgotten. This book offers a richer understanding of gender inequality by explaining a key cause-women's reproductive and lactation patterns. Until about 1900, infants nursed every fifteen minutes on average for two years because very frequent suckling prevented pregnancy. The practice evolved because it maximized infant survival. If a forager child was born before its older sibling could take part in the daily food search, the older one died. This practice persisted until the modern era because until after the discovery of the germ theory of disease, human milk was the only food certain to be unspoiled. Lactation patterns excluded women from the activities that led to political leadership. During the twentieth century the ancient mode declined and women entered the labor market en masse. Joan Huber challenges feminists toward a richer understanding of biological origins of inequality-knowledge that can help women achieve greater equality today. |
Contents
Why the Search for Human | 13 |
From Primates to Humans | 29 |
The Hominids Appear | 53 |
Copyright | |
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adult Africa aggression ancestors animals apes areas baboons became behavior benefits biological bipedal locomotion bonobos brain breast breast-fed breastfeeding Cavalli-Sforza child chimpanzees costs of breastfeeding cultural anthropology developed DeVore diet early ecology effects elite enabled Europe evolutionary evolved explain Fedigan feminist fertility forager Frans de Waal frequent and prolonged gender inequality herding hominid hormones Huber human evolution human milk human origins hunter hunting ideology increased infant invention Irven DeVore juveniles Lancaster larger Lawrence and Lawrence Lenski living male dominance mammals mammary gland mate maternal military modern monkeys mother natural selection nonhuman primates offspring owing pattern pelvis percent period physiological plow political pongid population postmodernism primates primatologists problems production relatively reproductive scholars sex differences sexual Smuts social sciences social scientists societies sociobiology sociology species stratification studies suckling survival tend theory tion Trevathan twentieth century warfare Washburn wet nurse woman Zihlman