Mother Nature: Maternal Instincts and How They Shape the Human Species - Softcover

Hrdy, Sarah

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0345408934 ISBN 13: 9780345408938

Publisher: Ballantine Books, 2000

Synopsis

Maternal instinct--the all-consuming, utterly selfless love that mothers lavish on their children--has long been assumed to be an innate, indeed defining element of a woman's nature. But is it? In this provocative, groundbreaking book, renowned anthropologist (and mother) Sarah Blaffer Hrdy shares a radical new vision of motherhood and its crucial role in human evolution.

Hrdy strips away stereotypes and gender-biased myths to demonstrate that traditional views of maternal behavior are essentially wishful thinking codified as objective observation. As Hrdy argues, far from being "selfless," successful primate mothers have always combined nurturing with ambition, mother love with sexual love, ambivalence with devotion. In fact all mothers, in the struggle to guarantee both their own survival and that of their offspring, deal nimbly with competing demands and conflicting strategies.

In her nuanced, stunningly original interpretation of the relationships between mothers and fathers, mothers and babies, and mothers and their social groups, Hrdy offers not only a revolutionary new meaning to motherhood but an important new understanding of human evolution. Written with grace and clarity, suffused with the wisdom of a long and distinguished career, Mother Nature is a profound contribution to our understanding of who we are as a species--and why we have become this way.

About this title

Review:

Mother Nature: A History of Mothers, Infants, and Natural Selection should be required reading for anyone who happens to be a human being. In it, Hrdy reveals the motivations behind some of our most primal and hotly contested behavioural patterns--those concerning gender roles, mate choice, sex, reproduction and parenting--and the ideas and institutions that have grown up around them. She unblinkingly examines and illuminates such difficult subjects as control of reproductive rights, infanticide, "mother love" and maternal ambition with its ever-contested companions: child care and the limits of maternal responsibility. Without ever denying personal accountability, she points out that many of the patterns of abuse and neglect that we see in cultures around the world (including, of course, our own) are neither unpredictable nor maladaptive in evolutionary terms. "Mother" Nature, as she points out, is not particularly concerned with what we call "morality". The philosophical and political implications of our own deeply rooted behaviours are for us to determine--which can be done all the better with the kind of understanding gleaned from this exhaustive work.

Hrdy's passion for this material is evident, and she is deeply aware of the personal stake she has here as a woman, a mother and a professional. This highly accomplished author relies on her own extensive research background as well as the works of others in multiple disciplines (anthropology, primatology, sociobiology, psychology and even literature). Despite the exhaustive documentation given to her conclusions (as witness the 140-plus-page notes and bibliography sections), the book unfolds in an exceptionally lucid, readable and often humorous manner. It is a truly compelling read, highly recommended. --Katherine Ferguson

Review:

"A truly monumental work, as elegant as it is insightful."
-ELIZABETH MARSHALL THOMAS
Author of The Hidden Life of Dogs

"A BRILLIANT, LIBERATING BOOK ON A PROFOUNDLY IMPORTANT SUBJECT."
-E.O. WILSON
Author of Consilience

"THOROUGH, THOUGHTFUL, AND CLEARLY WRITTEN . . . A TROVE OF FACTUAL TREASURES . . . A cornucopia of data and ideas about the biology and behavior of mothers great and small."
-Scientific American

About this edition

• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0345408934
• ISBN 13: 9780345408938
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 756