Sexism and Science

by Evelyn Reed

Book Overview

Are human beings innately aggressive? Does biology condemn women to remain the ?second sex?? Taking up such biases cloaked as the findings of science, Reed explains that the disciplines closest to... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0873485416
• ISBN13: 9780873485418
• Release Date: March 1978
• Publisher: Pathfinder
• Length: 251 Pages
• Weight: 0.52 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.3" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Tell it like it is, written by my friend Ruth C

Sexism and Science author Evelyn Reed, writing her Introduction in November, 1977, explains that this book is as important as and similar in purpose to the books written to reveal the racism that infiltrated supposedly scientific researchers in biology, genetics, zoology, sociology, and anthropology. As a lifelong student of anthropology, Reed has no problem exposing many authors as unscientific and sexist by quoting and then destroying their main arguments. Among these are Lionel Tiger, author of Men In Groups, Robert Ardrey, author of The Territorial Imperative, Konrad Lorenz who wrote On Aggression, and Desmond Morris, writer of aked Ape. She reserved a whole chapter for the famed Harvard zoologist Edward O. Wilson and has a field day describing his version of 'social Darwinism'--the erroneous view that human societies are simply varieties of animal societies and human nature is identical with animal nature. Women surrounded today by these same backward ideas will love this book. for its confident and well-researched content. The ardent animal lovers of today also should read this small, powerful book for our differences and similarities are intriguing in the able hands of this Marxist-feminist author.

A Liberating View of Human Evolution

This book by Evelyn Reed sweeps away the sexist, unscientific views that have prevailed among academics for decades. When she wrote these articles twenty-five years ago, Reed warned that this trend in anthropology would be used to blunt the lessons of the women's liberation movement and submerge our thinking about the future of humanity in a morass of pessimism and liberal guilt. "Animal Rights" is the perfect example of what Reed was warning about. If you look at the way humanity created itself out of the primates, you get a liberating respect for what we can accomplish. If you look at the tremendous accomplishments of the long period of female dominance (without romanticizing it) you are in a position to refute the idea that women will always suffer domination. If humanity is to avoid capitalism's descent into barbarism (and we will), women will once again play the leading role.

On the nature of human society, its problems and prejudices

This is a fascinating collection of articles by Evelyn Reed, a long-time socialist activist and Marxist writer, author of Woman's Evolution and other works. She tackles questions of the evolution of human beings and human society out of earlier animal species; emphasizing things that make humans different, including tool-making, intellectual capacity and the ability to organize in broad social groups to be able to transform nature to meet the needs of human beings. Reed also analyzes the divisions of society into classes of producers and exploiters, the emergence of patriarchal society from earlier matriarchal forms, and the deep-seated roots of woman's oppression today. "Sexism and Science" polemicizes extensively on facts and methodology with academics whose views on anthropology and biology are warped by the prejudices of modern capitalist society. Among those are Desmond Morris, author of "The Naked Ape," Edward O. Wilson, author of "Sociobiology," and the prominent anthropologist Claude Lévi-Strauss. Want to understand better the roots of poverty, racism, and sexism today and figure out a way forward for humanity? You'll find the issues raised, the facts presented and the materialist methodology Reed employs are extremely useful.