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Sex, Time and Power: How Women's Sexuality Shaped Human Evolution

Sex, Time and Power: How Women's Sexuality Shaped Human Evolution

List Price: $25.95
Your Price: $16.35
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Leonard Shlain has done it again!
Review: This new book by Dr. Shlain is as provocative as his earlier ones. When I read The Alphabet and the Goddess, I was struck by how much intelligence the author showed in his very new concepts. I confess I had the thought that there had been misogyny and patriarchal dominance before the alphabet. Now, in this new book, I am once again reading with astonishment a possible explanation of our early development as male and female homo sapiens. Our brain size and the accomodation of female body structure as well as hormonal shifts over time seem to come to life in this delightful book. The ideas make sense. I find it to be thought-provoking and plausible as well as easy and interesting to read. I look forward to many lively discussions around the ideas posited here. Thank you for another excellent piece of writing, Dr. Shlain!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Some interesting ideas, some incorrect facts
Review: While at least one central premise of the book - that women lose iron through a variety of ways, and this binds them to men in a hunter/gatherer society, is at least new to me and stands up well to scrutiny, there were numerous other factual errors in the book, as well as completely unfounded conclusions. After spotting about the sixth obvious factual error, I was forced to start taking the rest of the book far less seriously - after all, if I could spot that many, how many had I missed?

In addition to some of the other errors cited by other reviewers here, one that stood out that hasn't been yet mentioned was the author's contention that only mammals have a functional memory (even fish have been demonstrated to have memory, as any aquarium keeper will tell you). Among the authors dubious conclusions are that ancient female humans (which he calls gynosapiens) developed a detailed sense of time before the male - which is certainly not proven, or even suggested, by any of the evidence he presents.

Overall, the book made me very frustrated. It could have been such a good, good book. Instead, it was merely somewhat interesting, and not at all credible.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: disappointing
Review: You'll probably find, like me, the topics and theories in this book are incredibly fascinating and I'm sure he'd be a fascinating dinner guest. But as a scientist myself, I had trouble accepting many of his conclusions. Shlain does begin with some facts and research, but then he comes to conclusions that are a real stretch sometimes. Author Eric Van Daniken (Chariots of the Gods) would often begin with facts and then leap to outlandish theories, so merely having some research results to begin with is no guarantee that the conclusions are at all based on science. You might rather read Clan of the Cave Bear than this book. My two cents.


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