September 25, 2004
36. Sex, Time, and Power: How Women's Sexuality Shaped Human Evolution, Leonard Shlain
In a few words, this book is convoluted and fascinating. Shlain starts with the question of why human females (as opposed to most other mammals, even other primates) not only have naturally lower iron counts than men, but why they also lose so much iron through the course of normal bodily functions (menstruation, childbirth, nursing, etc.). He traces his thesis through some pretty wild territory, ending up with an explanation for exactly how and why patriarchy and misogyny arose and why it persists to this day.
I confess, I don't know nearly enough biology or anthropology to judge just how feasible Shlain's theories are, but they made for some thought-provoking reading. I'm definitely going to spend some time finding out what some of the other experts think about the ideas in this book.
Posted by Lisa at September 25, 2004 01:38 PM | 2004Well, I definitely don't think that Shlain was ever suggesting that women are in poorer health than men, nor did he suggest that women "must suffer with much lower ways of clear thinking". In fact, he spent a lot of time looking at how the issue of iron loss was beneficial from an evolutionary standpoint--and promoting general poor health and poor thinking could not ever be beneficial from such a standpoint, particularly in the half of the species that carries the unborn young.
Posted by: Lisa at October 25, 2004 07:56 PM