Why We Do It: Rethinking Sex and the Selfish Gene

by Niles Eldredge

Overview

A major refutation of the almighty status of genes in evolution and human behavior.

Why do people have sex? Is it solely for the purpose of passing on genetic information, or are there other reasons? "A candid, no-punches-pulled interpreter of the core ideas of evolutionary biology" (Science News), author Niles Eldredge unravels the origins of our coital instincts. Whereas other scientists dismiss human sexuality as a helpless response to the same deep-set biological imperatives that govern the behavior of lesser animals, Eldredge points to various examples of customs, taboos, laws, and other cultural forces that run counter to our most primal desires. Directly assaulting the reductionist "selfish gene" theory, whereby sex is reduced to a purely procreative act, Eldredge draws on Darwin's ideas about evolution as well as modern economic theory to describe the delicate cultural and societal interaction that exists between survival, sex, and procreation in the human species.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393326956
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	06/17/2005
Edition description:	Revised ed.
Pages:	270
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Niles Eldredge is a paleontologist and a curator at the American Museum of Natural History and the author of many books on evolutionary theory.

Table of Contents

Part 1	The Duality of Life
Chapter 1	Obsessed with Genes	13
Chapter 2	Chickens and Eggs: The Two Sides of Life	29
Chapter 3	The Natural Economy	51
Chapter 4	The Consequences of Baby Making	62
Chapter 5	Economics + Babies + Time = Evolution	76
Chapter 6	Clones, Colonies, and Social Life	95
Part 2	Human Singularities
Chapter 7	Naught So Queere as Folke: The Strange Biology of Modern Humans	115
Part 3	The Human Triangle
Chapter 8	Sex Decoupled	129
Chapter 9	Up Close and Personal: Sex, Power, Money, and Babies	142
Chapter 10	Sex, Economics, and Babies in Social Systems	169
Chapter 11	A Moral to the Story	221
	Notes	237
	Index	259

Editorial Reviews

In Why We Do It, the eminent paleontologist Niles Eldredge, of the American Museum of Natural History, takes up the problem. His goal in this accessible book, however, is not so much to solve the puzzle as to discover the purpose of life, which for him is not sex. He takes his stand against scientists who adhere to the theory of the selfish gene and, more generally, the doctrines of sociobiology and evolutionary psychology. They (prominently, Richard Dawkins and E. O. Wilson) maintain that most of life's activities are ultimately aimed at procuring a sex partner for the propagation of one's genes.
— The New York Times

Robert J. Richards

As the title promises, this is all about sex, but not the way you might think. Eldredge (The Triumph of Evolution and the Failure of Creationism, etc.), a paleontologist and curator at the American Museum of Natural History, believes that sociobiologists like Richard Dawkins and E.O. Wilson are dead wrong in their explanation of life as a mechanism by which "selfish genes" try to propagate and ensure their own survival. Explaining that life as we know it combines two drives, one economic and one reproductive, Eldredge writes that "the drive to eat and simply stay alive" is as fundamental as the drive to reproduce. In fact, he argues, the very fact that we've evolved to have sex, a "horribly inefficient way of passing genes along," seems to indicate that there's more at play in our sex lives than the machinations of selfish genes. Eldredge persuasively describes sex itself as having been "decoupled" from reproduction and bound up with the economic side of human life (sex for "fun, profit, and power," as he puts it). While at moments it can be a bit difficult to wrap one's mind around his argument, Eldredge has thankfully picked up at least one thing from the sociobiologists: their clear and friendly prose style (among other things, the book contains perhaps the most accessible overview available of the history of evolutionary biology). Eldredge doesn't offer as simple an answer to his eponymous question as those against whom he is arguing, and his insightful thesis that genes alone do not govern human behavior is bound to provoke controversy in the evolutionary biology world. (May) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

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