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    The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex
    The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex
    The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex
    Ebook932 pages18 hours

    The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex

    By Charles Darwin, John Tyler Bonner and Robert M May

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    About this ebook

    In the current resurgence of interest in the biological basis of animal behavior and social organization, the ideas and questions pursued by Charles Darwin remain fresh and insightful. This is especially true of The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex, Darwin's second most important work. This edition is a facsimile reprint of the first printing of the first edition (1871), not previously available in paperback.


    The work is divided into two parts. Part One marshals behavioral and morphological evidence to argue that humans evolved from other animals. Darwin shoes that human mental and emotional capacities, far from making human beings unique, are evidence of an animal origin and evolutionary development. Part Two is an extended discussion of the differences between the sexes of many species and how they arose as a result of selection. Here Darwin lays the foundation for much contemporary research by arguing that many characteristics of animals have evolved not in response to the selective pressures exerted by their physical and biological environment, but rather to confer an advantage in sexual competition. These two themes are drawn together in two final chapters on the role of sexual selection in humans.


    In their Introduction, Professors Bonner and May discuss the place of The Descent in its own time and relation to current work in biology and other disciplines.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPrinceton University Press
    Release dateSep 2, 2008
    ISBN9781400820061
    The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex
    Author

    Charles Darwin

    Charles Darwin (1809–1882) was an English naturalist and geologist best known for his contributions to the field of evolutionary biology. After sailing around the world on the HMS Beagle in 1831, Darwin wrote On the Origin of Species, which put forth his theory of natural selection.  

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    4.5/5

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    • 5/5
      This is Darwin's final major book with a focus on man. The primary focus is on man's origin in Part I, and sexual selection in Parts II & III. I found the discussion of moral sense and social instincts to be particularly enlightening with his focus on "sympathy" and "habit" as discussed by the Scottish philosophers (cf. Adam Smith, The Theory of Moral Sentiments). Notably he rejects God as the source of conscience. The bulk of the text, however, contains detail examples and discussion of the process of sexual selection.
    • 3/5
      This is a difficult book to read in some ways. The main one being that it is so dense, the amount of information, observations, and evidence presented to the reader is staggering, all of it with the purpose of supporting the central theories of the book. These being that sexual selection plays a part in evolution as well as natural selection, with the former being a specific mechanism of the latter. The book is about man, and his evolution, but the majority of the examples are from other species, which support homologous principles in human evolution. There are quite a few pictures, which aren't bad. Some readers may be put off by the authors regard of different races of people, which will be considered "non p.c" by many, though it is really just scientific observation, despite it getting some geneticists into trouble to this day. The main problem is that this book is very long, and the evidence in support of the theory is greatly in excess to what would have been sufficient. At the time the theories were not things which were going to be readily accepted, and this is probably why the book goes into so much detail. I would struggle to recommend this book to anyone, as it seems so long and unnecessary, and does not make fascinating reading, as you can tell where a chapter is going when you start reading it, and then it seems like a painful slog to finish it. I have no doubt that this book made good reading when first published, but today it just seems like flogging a dead horse to read it as we don't need convincing of the theories. Maybe an evolutionary sceptic would enjoy it much more than I.

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