The Descent of Woman

by Elaine Morgan and Morgan Elaine

Book Overview

The Descent of Woman is a pioneering work, the first to argue for the equal role of women in human evolution. On its first publication in 1972 it sparked an international debate and became a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0812814584
• ISBN13: 9780812814583
• Release Date: January 1972
• Publisher: Stein & Day
• Length: 258 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Life changing book for women

I've spent my life working as a librarian and this is one of few books which I can say changed my life and ideas about humanity.I read this book over 20 years ago and still quote from it. The theories presented here shifted the way I thought about men and women. Entertainingly presented, there are many serious and some funny arguments on the topic of womanly evolution of the human race. Author Elaine Morgan impressed me so much that today I went online to buy a copy for my growing daughter only to find out it has been re-released. A must for feminists, but a hoot for us all. Bravo!

the classic work on Human Evolution

A quarter century ago, Elaine Morgan kept alive a theory of human origins which at the time was ignored by many. In hindsight, her bestseller appears prophetic. The theory that humans once passed through a semi-aquatic phase, which caused us to depart radically from the standard ape model (hairlessness, bipedality, subcutaneous fat, etc.), has gained increasing support from scientists. Harvard University recently invited her to speak on the theory. Her writing style is lively, iconoclastic, scientific, and always engaging. Her other works on the theory are equally great reading. Descent of Woman is a feministic classic as well as a scientific work.

The wonders of a well thought out book about our evolution.

A good friend of mine recomended "The Decent of Woman". Having read more than my share of Feminist books, I was expecting nothing more from this. What I got was truely astonishing. Elaine Morgan has compiled a truely astounding collection of circumstantial evidence to explain her theory. But the exciting part of the story is that, unlike some theories that I had read before, Elaines contentions just makes sense. Elaine makes both the evolution of her theory, and the suporting information an entertaining journey to both the scientific sofisticates, and neophytes. Highly recomended!!

More difinitive than Desmond Morris "The Naked Ape"

In 1980 I bought this book thinking it was a feminist tract but once I began to read I was entranced and thoroughly enjoyed her writing. Her "new" theory of evolution began with her reading of Morris' book and his mention of Sir Alister Hardy's idea that somewhere along the line our ancestors spent a great deal of time in an aquatic environment. I had read that information in Desmond's book but unlike Ms. Morgan, I didn't put much weight on it until I read her book. She covers every facet of evolution that no one can explain by "Man the Great Hunter" theory. Her explaination of everything from our nose (so different than the other "great apes") to our power of speech (do hunters really yell while they are stalking prey?) are covered in this book. I highly recommend this book (The Descent of Woman) even if you aren't into anthropology because Elaine Morgan is a witty and thorough writer. Her next book, "The Aquatic Ape", covers the response to "The Descent of Woman" but it's out of print.I wish they would re-issue the second book (The Aquatic Ape) because in it professionals in various disciplines (geology, biology, anthropology, etc.) found places that could have been the origination of our very aquatic species.

One of the most influential books on human evolution ever.

I encountered this book as a male undergraduate at Harvard University in the early 1980's majoring in Biological Anthropology. What a revelation to find an alternative hypothesis to the one's we had been studying -- an altogether different explanation for the traits that make us uniquely human. Elaine Morgan's popularization of the idea that Homo sapiens passed through a long aquatic phase and that the activities of women had a more influential role in our phylogeny than the old "man the mighty hunter of the savannah" model may have caused the single greatest epiphany in my undergraduate career. The repercussions are still echoing in my work today (an educational docu-drama we are producing with inner city students in Los Angeles called "mammals of the ocean" contains a music video inspired by this book -- explaining each human trait by comparing us with marine mammals and explaining how selection pressures operating on child bearers really affect evolution.) The book also transformed me into a "feminist" (though persistently macho) male. Read it guys..