Looking for a Few Good Males: Female Choice in Evolutionary Biology
| AUTHOR | Milam, Erika L. |
| PUBLISHER | Johns Hopkins University Press (09/01/2011) |
| PRODUCT TYPE | Paperback (Paperback) |
2010 Outstanding Academic Title, Choice Magazine
Why do female animals select certain mates, and how do scientists determine the answer? In considering these questions, Erika Lorraine Milam explores the fascinating patterns of experiment and interpretation that emerged as twentieth-century researchers studied sexual selection and female choice.
Approaching the topic from both biological and animal-studies perspectives, Milam not only presents a broad history of sexual selection--from Darwin to sociobiology--but also analyzes the animal-human continuum from the perspectives of sex, evolution, and behavior. She asks how social and cultural assumptions influence human-animal research and wonders about the implications of gender on scientific outcomes.
Although female choice appears to be a straightforward theoretical concept, the study of sexual selection has been anything but simple. Scientists in the early twentieth century investigated female choice in animals but did so with human social and sexual behavior as their ultimate objective. By the 1940s, evolutionary biologists and population geneticists shifted their focus, studying instead how evolution affected natural animal populations. Two decades later, organismal biologists once again redefined the investigation of sexual selection as sociobiology came to dominate the discipline.
Outlining the ever-changing history of this field of study, Milam uncovers lost mid-century research programs and finds that the discipline did not languish in the decades between Darwin's theory of sexual selection and sociobiology, as observers commonly believed. Rather, population geneticists, ethologists, and organismal biologists alike continued to investigate this important theory throughout the twentieth century.
Outstanding Academic Title, Choice Magazine
Why do female animals select certain mates, and how do scientists explain their choices? In considering these questions, Erika Lorraine Milam explores the fascinating patterns of experiment and interpretation that emerged as twentieth-century researchers studied sexual selection and female choice.
"Milam uses the topic of female choice as a lens through which to view intellectual, disciplinary, and social developments in the life sciences . . . An invaluable synthesis for historians of biology, scientists, and those with a popular interest in animal studies."--Science
"The discussion of how female choice in humans was treated throughout this time period is especially illuminating, as is the contention that there has never been a lull in interest on this topic. Highly recommended."--Choice
"Excellent and fascinating history . . . Anyone interested in our ambivalence over the degree to which humanity's roots lay in its animal nature will benefit from reading this book."--PsycCRITIQUES
"Milam demonstrates that sexual selection has been contentious and politically loaded ever since Charles Darwin first proposed it . . . An accessible and important contribution to the history of an active topic of biological research today."--American Scientist
"By taking on the historical relationship between gender and evolution, humans and animals, and science and social analysis, Milam's study makes an important and fascinating contribution to numerous historical sub-disciplines."--Gender and History
Outstanding Academic Title, Choice Magazine
Why do female animals select certain mates, and how do scientists explain their choices? In considering these questions, Erika Lorraine Milam explores the fascinating patterns of experiment and interpretation that emerged as twentieth-century researchers studied sexual selection and female choice.
Milam uses the topic of female choice as a lens through which to view intellectual, disciplinary, and social developments in the life sciences . . . An invaluable synthesis for historians of biology, scientists, and those with a popular interest in animal studies.--Science
The discussion of how female choice in humans was treated throughout this time period is especially illuminating, as is the contention that there has never been a lull in interest on this topic. Highly recommended.--Choice
Excellent and fascinating history . . . Anyone interested in our ambivalence over the degree to which humanity's roots lay in its animal nature will benefit from reading this book.--PsycCRITIQUES
Milam demonstrates that sexual selection has been contentious and politically loaded ever since Charles Darwin first proposed it . . . An accessible and important contribution to the history of an active topic of biological research today.--American Scientist
By taking on the historical relationship between gender and evolution, humans and animals, and science and social analysis, Milam's study makes an important and fascinating contribution to numerous historical sub-disciplines.--Gender and History
--Angela N. H. Creager, Princeton University "Wilson Journal of Ornithology"2010 Outstanding Academic Title, Choice Magazine
Why do female animals select certain mates, and how do scientists determine the answer? In considering these questions, Erika Lorraine Milam explores the fascinating patterns of experiment and interpretation that emerged as twentieth-century researchers studied sexual selection and female choice.
Approaching the topic from both biological and animal-studies perspectives, Milam not only presents a broad history of sexual selection--from Darwin to sociobiology--but also analyzes the animal-human continuum from the perspectives of sex, evolution, and behavior. She asks how social and cultural assumptions influence human-animal research and wonders about the implications of gender on scientific outcomes.
Although female choice appears to be a straightforward theoretical concept, the study of sexual selection has been anything but simple. Scientists in the early twentieth century investigated female choice in animals but did so with human social and sexual behavior as their ultimate objective. By the 1940s, evolutionary biologists and population geneticists shifted their focus, studying instead how evolution affected natural animal populations. Two decades later, organismal biologists once again redefined the investigation of sexual selection as sociobiology came to dominate the discipline.
Outlining the ever-changing history of this field of study, Milam uncovers lost mid-century research programs and finds that the discipline did not languish in the decades between Darwin's theory of sexual selection and sociobiology, as observers commonly believed. Rather, population geneticists, ethologists, and organismal biologists alike continued to investigate this important theory throughout the twentieth century.