Synopses & Reviews
Conflict between males and females over reproduction is ubiquitous in nature due to fundamental differences between the sexes in reproductive rates and investment in offspring. In only a few species, however, do males strategically employ violence to control female sexuality. Why are so many of these primates? Why are females routinely abused in some species, but never in others? And can the study of such unpleasant behavior by our closest relatives help us to understand the evolution of men's violence against women?
In the first systematic attempt to assess and understand primate male aggression as an expression of sexual conflict, the contributors to this volume consider coercion in direct and indirect forms: direct, in overcoming female resistance to mating; indirect, in decreasing the chance the female will mate with other males. The book presents extensive field research and analysis to evaluate the form of sexual coercion in a range of species — including all of the great apes and humans — and to clarify its role in shaping social relationships among males, among females, and between the sexes.
Review
"This volume...examines the consequences of intersexual conflict for primate females. Although not all conclusions derived from this book are comforting, all are illuminating for understanding the relations between the sexes." Joan Silk, Department of Anthropology, UCLA
Review
"[I]lluminates both similarities and differences between human and nonhuman sexual coercion and encourages further research to determine which comparisons and contrasts matter most to efforts to understand and reduce human inter-sexual violence. It should be read by anyone interested in this important topic." Barbara Smuts, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan
Review
"This is an extraordinary book that looks at sexual coercion in the Primates, properly including humans with their close relatives." Jane B. Lancaster, Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico Albuquerque
Review
"Are domestic violence and sexual assault simply human homologues of the same conduct seen in chimpanzees and baboons? Many social scientists bristle at this suggestion, with its invocation of biological determinism. This volume's authors, many of them female researchers, do an excellent job of sensitively exploring the boundary between phenotype and environment that is the stuff of which human behavior is made." Craig Stanford, American Scientist (read the entire )
Synopsis
In only a few species do males strategically employ violence to control female sexuality. Why are females routinely abused in some species, but never in others? And can the study of such unpleasant behavior help us to understand the evolution of men's violence against women? The book presents extensive field research and analysis to evaluate sexual coercion in a range of species--including all of the great apes and humans--and to clarify its role in shaping social relationships among males, among females, and between the sexes.
About the Author
Richard W. Wrangham is Professor of Anthropology at Harvard University.
Martin N. Muller is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico.
Table of Contents
Introduction and Theory
- Male Aggression and Sexual Coercion of Females in Primates
Martin N. Muller, Sonya M. Kahlenberg and Richard W. Wrangham - Evolution of Sexual Coercion with Respect to Sexual Selection and Sexual Conflict Theory
Jana J. Watson-Capps - Inter-Sexual Conflict in Primates: Infanticide, Paternity Allocation, and the Role of Coercion
Parry Clarke, Gauri Pradhan and Carel van Schaik Sexual Coercion and Mate Guarding in Non-Human Primates
- Orangutans: Sexual Coercion Without Sexual Violence
Cheryl Knott - Male Aggression Against Females in Mountain Gorillas: Courtship or Coercion?
Martha Robbins - The Causes and Consequences of Male Aggression Directed at Female Chacma Baboons
Dawn M. Kitchen, Jacinta C. Beehner, Thore J. Bergman, Dorothy L. Cheney, Catherine Crockford, Anne L. Engh, Julia Fischer, Robert M. Seyfarth and Roman M. Wittig - Female-Directed Aggression and Social Control in Spider Monkeys
Andres Link, Anthony Di Fiore and Stephanie N. Spehar - Male Aggression Against Females and Sexual Coercion in Chimpanzees
Martin N. Muller, Sonya M. Kahlenberg and Richard W. Wrangham - Sexual Coercion in Dolphin Consortships: a Comparison with Chimpanzees
Richard C. Connor and Nicole L. Vollmer - Male Aggression toward Females in Hamadryas Baboons: Conditioning, Coercion, and Control
Larissa Swedell and Amy Schreier Sexual Coercion and Mate Guarding in Humans
- Coercive Violence by Human Males Against Their Female Partners
Margo Wilson and Martin Daly - The Political Significance of Gender Violence
Lars Rodseth and Shannon Novak - Intimate Wounds: Cranio-Facial Trauma in Women and Female Chimpanzees
Shannon Novak and Mallorie Hatch - Human Rape: Revising Evolutionary Perspectives
Melissa Emery Thompson Female Counterstrategies
- “Friendship” with Males: A Female Counterstrategy to Infanticide in Chacma Baboons of the Okavango Delta
Ryne Palombit - The Absence of Sexual Coercion in Bonobos
Tommaso Paoli - Sexual Coercion, Patriarchal Violence and Law
Diane L. Rosenfeld Summary and Conclusions
- Sexual Coercion in Humans and Other Primates: The Road Ahead
Richard W. Wrangham and Martin N. Muller
- List of Contributors
- Index