Eve's Seed: Biology, the Sexes, and the Course of History

by Robert S. McElvaine

Book Overview

In this provocative reinterpretation of the human experience, Robert S. McElvaine has broken ranks with his fellow historians and answered the call made by E.O. Wilson in Consilience, that humanistic... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0071355286
• ISBN13: 9780071355285
• Release Date: October 2000
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies
• Length: 453 Pages
• Weight: 1.89 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

What a great insight!

This book has been especially useful for a university paper I was working on. It passed some time since that but the concepts I read are still fresh in my memory, since it were concepts I've been suspicious for a long time. One might think that the author forced a note in affirming the male dominance is caused by the male "impotence", but if you take an impartial look you'll find he is right. Don't get me wrong: I have no problems in beeing a man, but I'm honest enough to recognize that the western world is based on a patriarchal figure, on a concept of a man that needs constantly to prove to himself and to others that he is no woman, that he is not a sissy or a gay - wich is even worse -, but, on the contrary, that he is a real macho, a sex machine that can "score" as many women as he wants since they are so inferior that they get completely overwhelmed by his mere presence. It's sad but it's the reality. Fortunately, things are changing. In Spain we had notice of the first girl (she's 16) that joined a senior male soccer team as an advancee. In Germany, Angela Merkel is the first woman to be nominated chancelor. In the great majority of western countries, the armed forces do accept equally male and female recruits. It reminds me the movie of 007 "Goldeneye", when the Admiral said to M (a woman) that she didn't had the "balls" to stand in face of the situation, to wich she replied that she had the advantage of not having to be thinking with them all the time... It would be nice if in the future our leaders will think less with the "balls" and more with the brains...

An Important and All Too Timely Book

After reading an editorial in the Washington Post written by this author concerning the Taliban's treatment of women, I had to read this book. This is truly an important and timely book that touches on everything that vexes our society today - women's rights, where men fit into the modern society, racism, and how religion has played an unfortunate part in keeping women down, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. It is a dense and challenging, but worthwhile read. And when you get your copy, pass it around. It should be shared. PS. Someone should tell Bill Maher about this one. It's right up his alley.

Challenges and Syntheses

Eve's Seed is the best synthesis of these topics that I have read to date. The book falls in the category of 'revisionist' literature/history, but that terminology should be discarded because it only serves to reinforce the cultural bias so skillfully illustrated in McElvaine's book. Another reviewer below, makes the point that the word 'biology' in the subtitle is misleading because McElvaine doesn't vigorously cite biological research in support of his arguments. Rather, the reviewer suggests that 'religion' would be a better substitute in the subtitle due to the thorough analysis religion receives. I respectfully disagree. Religion (at least the Christian incarnation of religion with which I am most familiar) is a historical phenomenon, and thus it has been documented via written records by its various practitioners since its inception. McElvaine is a historian by training and, as such, a thorough analysis of religion (via its historical writings) is warranted. As a biologist, I would have enjoyed more research and discussion regarding biological evolution, but the interpretations and analysis of human biology are sound.With this in mind, lets return to the subtitle: Biology, the Sexes, and the Course of History. To replace biology with religion is a mistake that misses the thesis of the book; females and males are '...a little different (on average) and wholly equal.' McElvaine's arguments are built around this thesis. Analysis of religion represents a part of the arguments, but not the thesis. 'Hell hath no fury like a man devalued' is due to the misconception that the sexes are not equal (men are from Mars, women are from Venus - sound familiar?).If you are a strong proponent of what is often termed 'traditional' values, and if you long for a return to some long-past utopia where those values played themselves out everyday, then Eve's Seed is for you! The strength and clarity of these arguments will cause you to struggle internally to rationalize the denial that you will continue to externalize. If you already think you are enlightened and open-minded then Eve's Seed is for you, too! The wit and logic presented are delightfully crisp and the conclusions will leave you asking yourself 'why hasn't my own thinking come this far yet?' Maybe some readers have made this intellectual journey, I possessed the pieces, but was still a few years from this level of understanding.Eve's Seed is about challenges and syntheses - isn't that what life is about?PS Hannah: 'The Ovary of Eve' is next on my reading list.

Great read for Women's History Month

After reading many of the great reviews about Robert McElvaine's new book, Eve's Seed, I went right out and bought it. The book is extremely thought-provoking and truly does provide an almost never-before-heard-of interpretation about women and how perceptions and misperceptions about them have shaped all of history. I enjoyed the way that McElvaine explored so many different disciplines to come to the conclusions that he has. I suggest to everyone that I can to select this book for their book clubs -- there are endless topics to discuss! It is amazing to go back to events that took place 10,000 years ago and see how they have affected the way men and women are today. In one word: Enlightening!

Refreshingly Ambitious

This is a refreshingly ambitious book that takes on a really big issue and does it by making grand survey of Western history.   The "it" is Robert McElvaine's attempt to apply the findings of contemporary research on human evolution and the physiological differences between men and women to the writing of history.   And his focus throughout is the social relationships between men and women with an emphasis on how (in his view) much of historical civilization has been built around men's fears and the need to contain certain antisocial characteristics that evolved as particularly "masculine."He uses the "Eve's seed" metaphor to describe how the transition from hunter-gatherer cultures to agricultural ones affected the way men saw their roles in life.   In contrast to some of the "evolutionary psychologists" he criticizes, McElvaine uses admirable balance and restraint in integrating the finds of biology and paleontology with his historical narrative.He shows similar restraint in evaluating archaeological finds of very ancient female figurines. He discusses their implications for his theory while refuting the popular theories of prehistoric matriarchal societies and universal goddess worship.Any book about sex differences has some intrinsic appeal.   But this one explores aspects of the topic one is not likely to hear on "Oprah!" or the "Jerry Springer Show."  His analysis sheds light on questions of community in large urban groups, our attitude toward the environment and contemporary politics.In the book's first half, he gives special emphasis to the evolution of religious ideas and how they both reflected and influenced the relations between men and women.   In the second half, he focuses more on European and American history in the last two centuries, dealing with material that will be more familiar to most readers.   One of the intriguing aspects of the book is that, even though it's highly critical of certain historically "male" attitudes and practices, the analysis focuses largely on men's perception of their roles and the institutions they built on that basis.Along the way he offers surprising insights into the many ways the relations between the sexes influences the way we understand even seemingly objective information.   For instance, he finds that one of the results of the dissemination of Darwin's ideas was to de-feminize nature in people's minds and thus emphasize the idea that nature is a competitor to men, something to be conquered.McElvaine's analysis in some places raises more questions than it answers.   For example, he describes the Roman Empire as a place where "male" tendencies to over-consumption, violence and cruelty were carried to great excess, and takes the dualistic Mithra religion as embodying those negative male attributes.   But in pointing out that a partial legal and social liberation of Roman women did not to curb those excesses, he doesn't answer the obvious question, why not? If male domination produced particular