Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity

Rating:
Summary: Prediction: This book will outlive us all.
Review: Anthropology, geology, and even most all religions have all "updated" their views on the way the world works, based on our ever-unfolding knowledge and new discoveries. It's time that zoology has done the same! In Biological Exuberance, Bruce Bagemihl exposes the data that cries out for a new acceptance and understanding of animal behavior.

In the first part of the text, he systematically builds a case for "updating" our views. He explains why we can no longer continue believing that the very core of animal nature is based on scarcity and reproduction. By compiling the reports written by hundreds of scientists all over the world who have been "into the field to peek under the rocks," Bagemihl demonstrates without question that we must awaken to a new set of theories about wildlife, if we are to remain honest with the facts. A most interesting portion of this work is his uncovering of several reasons why these reports have been misused, overlooked, edited for content, or simply "tucked away" over the course of history. The last section of this part of his book is a dance into "the possible," in which he eloquently proposes some modifications we ought to consider to the traditional evolutionary theory. He has titled the book after these revolutionary ideas, and declares them merely a starting point for a dialogue he hopes he has initiated.

Seemingly unending descriptions of individual animals compose the second part of the book. Bagmihl has created the world's first sourcebook for future reference on the subject. (Try asking any librarian for a book on animal sexuality! This one's the only one you'll find!)

This book has been reviewed in dozens of mainstream city newspapers, in TIME Magazine, and has been featured in many radio programs across the U.S. All that I've seen are outstanding reviews. This book has become a gift from my heart to many of my friends and relatives. But sadly, I have a deep suspicion that Bagemihl's work might only become truly popular--first in the academic fields--long after we have all passed on.

Rating:
Summary: At 800 pages, it exceeds my interest, but good
Review: As a straight person, I guess I only have so much interest in the animal homosexual behavior - and this book exceeds it. It is 800 pages and I really didn't finish all of it. But, I have some amount of interest as I at least used to hear Christians claim that homosexuality is "unnatural" which this books seems to show fairly convincingly otherwise.

I enjoyed the chapters discussing possible reasons for the existence of homosexuality. The author agrees that it doesn't serve any obvious purpose. However, he discusses a few possible theories. One theory about at least one species of bird is that male pairs do better at gathering food and protecting territory. So, a male pair, so long as at least one of the males engages in some heterosexual activity to produce an offspring, could have some evolutionary advantage. But the author admits the evidence for this or other theories is scant at best. The conclusion seems to be that much sexual behavior, in animals and people, serves no obvious purpose - it just is.

So, if you have some interest in the subject, I'm sure you'll like it. But if your interest is only moderate, it may be too much.

Rating:
Summary: So Much Written, So Little Conveyed...
Review: Bagemihl belongs to the genre of writers who write a great deal but convey very little. His huge book is divided into two parts; the second part describes case studies of homosexual behaviors among several animal species, and the first part provides what could-with great difficulty-be called an analysis of these reports.

Bagemihl groups sexual behavior in terms of five broad categories: courtship, affection, interactions involving mounting and genital contact, pair-bonding, and parenting activities. Such broad categorization risks confounding social interactions with sexual behavior, possibly leading one to mistakenly assume that a preference for specific social partners is a sexual preference for these partners.

Bagemihl alleges same-sex sexual partner preference in at least some individuals in over 50 bird and mammalian species, based on five types of interactions: intersexual competition for same-sex sexual partners, sexual interactions between the object of intersexual competition and a same-sex competitor, repeated pair-bonding with same-sex individuals or repeated selection of same-sex sexual partners, reuniting with same-sex partners following prolonged separations with opposite-sex individuals, and engaging in sexual activity with same-sex individuals in the presence of opposite-sex individuals. Whereas these criteria are consistent with a same-sex sexual partner preference, none of them definitively prove a same-sex sexual partner preference, and an examination of the examples presented by Bagemihl reveals that the majority of the cases of same-sex courtship, mounting, and genital contact can be explained without assuming a same-sex sexual partner preference [see P. L. Vasey, Ann Rev Sex Res 13, 141 (2002)]. Besides, the large number of case studies cited by Bagemihl notwithstanding, his book cannot be used to claim that homosexual behavior is widespread in the animal kingdom because Bagemihl's case studies are drawn from a less than miniscule non-random fraction of the millions of animal species out there.

Bagemihl, failing to find themes behind homosexual behaviors among animals, offers a concept of biological exuberance, whereby homosexual behavior is pursued for pleasure and is a goal by itself that need not serve any purpose other than pleasure. Whereas this may be true, it is difficult to believe that this could be the result of normal developmental processes. Even among humans where much heterosexual behavior is non-conceptive, non-conceptive heterosexual behaviors typically occur as a prelude to or in conjunction with conceptive sexual behaviors. Additionally, the pleasure that accompanies orgasm not only prompts heterosexuals to repeatedly indulge in conceptive intercourse but also facilitates pair-bonding, which would come in handy if an offspring results from the union. Bagemihl's thesis on homosexuality, within a paradigm that he calls non-Darwinian biology, is meaningless for species that are capable of sexual reproduction only.

On the other hand, whereas Bagemihl fails to provide evidence for a same-sex sexual partner preference among the animal studies he cites, it has been proven that homosexual behaviors and a same-sex sexual partner preference are natural (i.e., occur irrespective of human intervention) in some individuals in some breeds of some animal species. However, nobody, let alone Bagemihl, has shown that homosexual behaviors are normal in some animals, i.e., result from development in accordance with design. Whereas the question of the normality of homosexual behaviors among some individuals of various animal species remains unanswered, a considerable amount of information shows that human homosexuality results from abnormal development, specifically prenatal developmental disturbances. See a newly published book in this regard: "The Nature of Homosexuality: Vindication for Homosexual Activists and the Religious Right."

Rating:
Summary: A wealth of information
Review: I first saw this book being discussed on television. Then I bought a copy for a friend's birthday gift.

I've now read through some of the book, and it is amazing how much information is in this book. It full of "did you know" information.

It's not a book you'd read cover-to-cover, but instead you might pick through it, sharing information and laughs as you go.

Rating:
Summary: I'm with Gervais on this one...
Review: In his first and only standup comedy special, entitled ANIMALS, Englishman Ricky Gervais (of The Office fame) discusses this book and displays some of the illustrations to be found within its cover. Indeed, the author has gone about using line drawings as evidence that animals have homosexual sex, and as Gervais points out, using simple drawings to support your argument in an age when even photographs can be faked is a bit naff. Indeed, some of the illustrations are pure gold--for instance the one of a male porpoise copulating with another male porpoise's blowhole. The topic is fascinating and is very worthy of serious study, but I just wish Bagemihl had spent many more years working on it, filling up his coffers with all kinds of photographs and undisputable evidence. As it is, the book feels a bit preempted, maybe, and long-winded. Still, I applaud him and the knock-out drawings. I love having this book on my shelf--I'm almost always sharing it with friends who stop by.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent summary of Data, but some questionable analysis
Review: It was a very comprehensive listing and explanation of the various form of homosexuality, transgender, etc found in nature, though it entirely concentrated on birds and mammals. it also deals very, very well with biases, both intentional and unintentional in biological analysis and data gathering on the subject.

however, in one section, the author deals with all the many proposed 'causes' of homosexuality in nature, refuting them with examples of individual discrepancies, but then asserting that all are thus totally flawed, and there is no reason. Surely he should have realized that you cannot expect a single universal purpose across even the modest diversity of birds and mammals. I analogize it to expecting a single purpose of forelimbs. We see many applications and variations (hands, flippers, wings) and even total limblessnes, yet we do not assert them to be purposeless because one purpose cannot cover them all. It would have been far more logical to posit that homsexuality, or sexual plasticity, evolved at some point, and nature has since altered it in every species it is incorporated into, so that it's purpose in one species might be opposite that of another, or it might have no current purpose, simply tagging along as a neutral trait that offers neither benefit nor penalty until the species reaches a point where selection acts on it. I also feel that further investigation into homosexuality etc in "lower" organisms which are more instinct-driven would have added some valuable insight into this, and cannot help but wonder at their ommission.

the last section, however, was thoroughly disappointing. incorporating myths of anciet tribes as a source of knowledge (when we know they're wrong more often than not), extoling the virtues of these tribes in natural resource management (when we know they're responsible for the death of much of the pleistocene megafauna, and can watch species disappear in the fossil record the moment human fossils appear in a location), adding in Gaia theory (which can be falsified with even cursory examination of paleoecology), and an obscure philosophy about exuberance (which offers no qunatative analysis to support it), he concocts an awkward theoretical explanation which seems to be mostly a hasty addition in the need for some sort of conclusion.

Rating:
Summary: Great reference book!
Review: Now, this is a book that definitly can not be read in one sittiing! But it is filled with information about nature and animal sexuality. Most of which, has been hidden. ...the next time someone says homosexuality does not happen in nature, point them to this book!

Rating:
Summary: Half-baked theory
Review: The book's extensive documentation of homosexuality in animals may be valuable, but the book's style doesn't leave me with much confidence that its interpretations of the research are sufficiently unbiased to be relied upon.
The book's discussions of why it is hard to provide an evolutionary explanation of homosexuality are mostly reasonable, but the alternative to evolution that the book proposes isn't sufficiently well thought out to qualify as a testable scientific hypothesis. Evolutionary theory has a good enough track record at explaining things that appear at first glance to be counterproductive that people shouldn't reject it without finding an alternative with a good deal of explanatory power. But exuberance is an idea which explains very little. And anyone who has made impartial observations of typical natural ecosystems should see that the extravagance and waste that the book worships are sufficiently uncommon as to be hard to reconcile with the book's characterization.

Rating:
Summary: Fascinating account of animal homosexuality
Review: The first part of the book is an independent 262 page exposition of homosexual, bisexual and transgendered animal sexuality. If you want to know what the birds and the bees are doing when Jerry Falwell isn't looking, this is the place to find out. Don't expect to find traditional family values in these pages. What you will discover instead is that animals aren't doing it for Darwin, they are doing it for fun. There are amazingly detailed descriptions, pictures and illustrations here of animals having all kinds of sex (that will amaze you), and most of it isn't for procreation.

More interesting to me, though, is the speculation on the sexual origins of language and culture in chapter 2 and the devastating examination in chapter 3 of bigotry in the biological sciences in over two hundred years of observations of animal homosexuality. Bagemihl shows, for example, that in science as in society, there's a presumption of heterosexuality. Field researchers have commonly assumed, with no independent verification, that whenever they see a pair of animals engaging in what appears to be sexual behavior they are observing a male-female pair. Conversely, whenever they observe a known same-sex pair engaging in behavior that would be classified as sexual between a male and female, they classify it in some other way. This protocol largely precludes the gathering of data about animal homosexuality even when it's being observed. In some cases, though, it resulted in published studies being repudiated as much as 20 years later when it was discovered that what was presumed to be heterosexual behavior in a population was really entirely homosexual. (It's an interesting fact that in some species heterosexuality has never been observed by scientists even when they go to great lengths to observe it over periods of many years.) Also, a lot of animal homosexuality that has been recognized as such has simply been excluded from the published reports. As a result, there is still widespread belief among scientists and the public that animal homosexuality is rare or nonexistent. People will believe otherwise after reading this book.

Chapter 4 looks at the attempts to explain away animal homosexuality and chapter 5 considers arguments on the other side that try to attach evolutionary value to homosexuality. Bagemihl rejects all the proposals on both sides, demonstrating the weakness of all the explanations and typically showing that they are plainly inconsistent with the evidence of animal behavior. Finally, he arrives at the question that the reader has been waiting for for almost 200 pages: "Why does same-sex activity persist--reappearing in species after species, generation after generation, individual after individual--when it is not 'useful'?" His answer is not to show that it is useful, but rather to treat the plain existence of homosexuality as a reductio ad absurdum argument against the biologists' assumption that only traits that contribute to reproduction will survive (i.e. are useful). In pursuing this line of thought Begemihl offers interesting descriptions of animals that are nonbreeders, animals that suppress reproduction, animals that segregate the sexes so that reproduction can't happen, animals that engage in birth control, and animals that engage in other nonreproductive behaviors. He also shows that a lot of the sex that actually occurs is not for reproduction, but apparently for pleasure. All of this he believes calls for a new conception of the natural biological world.

The last chapter describes some ideas for a new paradigm, which he calls Biological Exuberance and I must say that it is much less convincing than the rest of the book. It is interesting nonetheless. Much of the last chapter is a description of the myths about animals of native North Americans, the tribes of New Guinea, and indigenous Siberian people. When I started reading this chapter I began to wonder if I had accidentally picked up a different book, but in the end he makes a connection between the myths and biological reality. In fact, he shows that some of these myths contain more facts about animals than you can find in any scientific text. Some of the most bizarre of the myths turn out to be true.

So where does it end? In mystery. "Our final resting spot--the concept of Biological Exuberance--lies somewhere along the trajectory defined by these three points (chaos, biodiversity, evolution), although its exact location remains strangely imprecise." "Nothing, in the end, has really been 'explained'--and rightly so, for it was 'sensible explanations' that ran aground in the first place."

That's not a very satisfactory answer to my mind, but the book is nonetheless a source of many interesting phenomena and ideas. I enjoyed it greatly. I expect most people who read this long book will do as I have done--read part one completely and then selectively read about some particular animals in part two. The second part is an encyclopedia of the queer sexuality of approximately 300 species of mammals and birds. An appendix contains a long list of reptiles, amphibians, fishes, insects, spiders and domesticated animals in which homosexuality has been observed.

Rating:
Summary: Secondary Research Brings Traditional Values into Question
Review: The largest payoff for "Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity" is its author's thorough research through published materials to gather observations of homosexuality in the animal kingdom. It has been traditional for biological field observers to place any such information in footnotes or appendices, maybe with a joking, slighting reference. A result of this, in combination with pressure from Family Values pressure groups, is a complete absence of the mention of animal homosexuality in standard biology textbooks. Bagemihl's compilation of others' research empowers exploration of alternative views.

The author presents various attempts at explaining the causes and uses of homosexuality. As science moves along, these themes will get more detailed attention and explanation.

For me, the transforming lesson runs like this. Everywhere scientists look there is evidence of homosexual behavior in primates, other mammals, reptiles, fish, birds, and insects. Occam's Razor (I.e., the simplest solution is the best one.) suggests that when they differentiated themselves from the rest of animals over 400 million years ago, vertibrates and insects were designed to allow a minority of individuals to display some homosexual behavior. Despite ongoing evolution and the mass extinctions at the end of the Permian, Triassic, Cretaceous, and other periods, the occasional homosexual proclivities of these species was not eradicated. This says to me that homosexuality is a part of Original Design and has been reaffirmed by its survival from crises that obliterated many species. The true religious view is that homosexuality is a part of creation that God wants and loves, for whatever reason.

Human civilization is quite recent. Abrahamic religion is two- to three-thousand years old and has been molded partially into the role of supporting the secular culture, which is centered on child-rearing, property ownership and inheritance, and on cultural precepts of majority rule and nobody is above the law. Homosexuals do not fit easily into the mainstream secular paradigm, as it is glorified and reinforced by organized religion.

If one takes this view, it becomes logical to say that criticisms of homosexuals as unnatural or against God's intent are blasphemies against God and His Creation. Pronouncements that homosexuality is to be punished because it is against God's will are takings of the Lord's name in vain. People who rely on the winks or preachings of religious leaders to excuse violence against or stealings from homosexuals may be in for a surprise when they arrive at the Pearly Gates.

In sum, "Biological Exuberance" provides a useful counterweight to traditional biological research, standard textbooks, and rote religious attacks on homosexuality. This book is not a special pleading but an objective gathering of information from sources who had no intention of helping the cause of homosexuals. The book may trigger some rethinking of the legitimacy of homosexuality in the world.