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Summary: if you only have time to read one book this year . . .
Review: . . . this is the one! Hrdy's writing is simultaneously scholarly and accessible, her scope wide-ranging, her findings thrilling. I had to make a conscious effort to leave the book at home so that I could get my work done while at work. Otherwise, every waking moment was spent reading this book. As it was, the other waking moments were spent thinking about the book (and trying to get other people to read it so that I could have someone to talk to about the ideas in the book). The Kirkus review was very apt--read it for some idea of the content and scope of Hrdy's book. Oops, I have to get back to work!
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Summary: I have been recommending this book to everyone
Review: As a wildlife biologist by training, I have often been leery of sociobiologists and the analogies they draw between human behavior and that of, say, ducks. With this in mind, I devoured this book until I had to return it to the library. I then haunted the library until it had gone through all 13 holds before I could get it back, several months later. Sarah Blaffer Hrdy takes a cross-cultural, historical and biological look at human and primate mothers. She makes it very clear that humans have used many, many ways to solve problems of childcare and the conflicts for resources between mothers and their infants and other older children. She uses other primate species not as proof of human ways so much as to re-evaluate and reflect on those human ways. She is a biologist, and she is very clear about not confusing what some primates do as proof for what humans do, whether closely or distantly related. "Mother Nature" gave me great insight into my relationship with my mother, my two younger brothers, my male partner, and my decision to delay reproduction. I enjoy my designation as an "allo-mother" (someone other than the mother who helps with childcare), and am pleased to learn that the level of protectiveness that I feel for the girls and young women in my Girl Scout troops have been biologically based: those who care for children, beyond the birth mothers, will have elevated levels of the hormone prolactin. I find it fascinating that my enjoyment of environmental education has a biological base! This book also elevated my concern for the girls I work with who are teens, coming from teen mothers (who also came from teen mothers), who seem to be fast careening towards motherhood without the resources and the patience that are critical to successful rearing of children. I liked her discussion of how girls change from pre-adolescence to adolesence in foraging societies: The pre-adolescents are the girls who are more interested in learning childcare, as opposed to the adolescents, who are more interested in dating. Anecdotally, I would confirm this! In foraging societies, girls do not gain enough fat until their late adolescence to their early twenties, and thus they do not reproduce as early as their well-fed American counterparts. For me, this is all the more reason to take measures to mentor kids, so that they have children when they will it and are ready, rather than simply because they may be biologically capable of it.
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Summary: Hrdy sets the record straight
Review: At last, a stunning synthesis that shows how evolutionary psychology, sociobiology and their allied disciplines offer a rigorous, humane and rich explanation for the central role played by mothers in human evolution. Any psychological or sociological account of motherhood must be consistent with the insights offered here. Any that don't simply fail the test of good science. I will never view the proprietory behavior of high-status male primates in quite the same light!
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Summary: The dominant paradigm takes a hit in the hypothalamus
Review: At long last, a book on the nurturing impulse has been written without sentimentality or wishful thinking. Blaffer Hrdy brings her scientific training, intellectual drive, and obvious warmth and humor to this project. If you're a woman who values your full human potential as much as, or more, than your ability to populate, and if anyone has ever tried to make you feel guilty about such an "unnatural" set of priorities, this is the book for you. Especially valuable is Blaffer Hrdy's openly avowed love for her spouse and children; it serves to remind the reader that you're not reading a political manifesto, but deeply thought-out, sensible scholarship by a caring, gifted individual. If you're looking for slick excuses for your point of view, whatever it is, don't look here. If you seek understanding of what you are -- and what we all are -- then read this enjoyable book. Anyone who wants children certainly should.
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Summary: An Honest Search For Truth
Review: Biology has an agenda. Squirrels, whales, and crickets do not have our language facility, thus they do not have self-help books, preachers, or legions of well-meaning advisors. Yet they are born with the genetically provided rules (feelings) that allow them to be successful squirrels, wonderful whales, and competent crickets. We too have genetically provided rules, which sociobiologists and such are trying to discover. This wonderful book is the author's attempt to explain some of the conditions of motherhood, the relations between mothers and babies, and sometimes tough choices mothers have to make. This work is, in my opinion, magnificent. NOTE TO REVIEWERS: If one starts off a review with phrases like "goofy liberal", "ranting conservative", or "clueless libertarian", readers like me read no further. Plus my estimation of the reviewer's intelligence is halved.
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Summary: An Honest Search For Truth
Review: Biology has an agenda. Squirrels, whales, and crickets do not have our language facility, thus they do not have self-help books, preachers, or legions of well-meaning advisors. Yet they are born with the genetically provided rules (feelings) that allow them to be successful squirrels, wonderful whales, and competent crickets. We too have genetically provided rules, which sociobiologists and such are trying to discover. This wonderful book is the author's attempt to explain some of the conditions of motherhood, the relations between mothers and babies, and sometimes tough choices mothers have to make. This work is, in my opinion, magnificent. NOTE TO REVIEWERS: If one starts off a review with phrases like "goofy liberal", "ranting conservative", or "clueless libertarian", readers like me read no further. Plus my estimation of the reviewer's intelligence is halved.
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Summary: Breathtaking
Review: Fantastic book that combines science with literature, history, HUMOR (great illustrations), personal stories, feminist critique, science critique, speculation, political polemic, and weird facts. I especially recommend the book for people interested in biology, history of humanity, feminism, and parenting. Hrdy is sure to win a major award for this book. I read every page.
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Summary: We need more strangers to care for infants, Hrdy says
Review: Hrdy provides many interesting facts and anecdotes as she builds her argument that while a baby clearly, by all evidence and experience, needs one devoted caregiver, that caregiver doesn't have to be mom. She actually calls the undeniable needs of an infant a "tyranny" and "enslavement" of the mother. It's a bizzare view of mothering, which I experience as joyous and rewarding and the source of much growth - as well as demanding. Her ideological bias against "full-time" mothering ruins an interesting read: why insist that women don't need to mother the children they conjure forth? Hrdy says the problem is that there aren't enough well qualified "allo[substitute]-mothers" to care for infants. Oddly, nearly every infant is born with an actual mother, but this lactating mother is, to Hrdy, the LEAST logical person to nurture and nourish the newborn. As she acknowledges the problems that arise when infants and toddlers don't have nearly 24/7 access to their mom, Hrdy goes so far as to say that children with disturbed attachment may do better since we are creating a society full of people with disturbed attachment. As a feminist, I think something is gravely wrong with this elevating of female ambition above even a civil society. A feminist perspective informed by the facts Hrdy so eloquently provides would demand that mothering be carefully considered, then exalted, PAID - with health insurance and social security credits, and even trained for. This is the book of someone who can't face the truths she's unearthed and struggles rhetorically to uphold the patriarchal values she thinks she's fighting: the needs of the powerless count for nothing compared to the one with power.
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Summary: Fabulous!! A clear,fascinating picture of life as a mother!
Review: Hrdy's book is one in a million! Tracing the history of wet-nursing and mothering through modern times, Hrdy captivates her audiences with wonderful anecdotes and incredible writing. Accompianed by hundreds of pictures, _Mother Nature_ is a delight to the senses. Not only is it a great read, it also rings true in the ears of any mother. Read this book!!
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Summary: Amazing book
Review: Hrdy's book, Mother Nature must be read by all mental health workers who work with children and should be read by all parents, teachers and others who work with children. It is very well-written and combines the best of anthropological, primatological and human behavior studies. I learned more about child developmenther book except for Bow;by's work. This book is an amazing accomplishment. Gerald E. Nelson, MD
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