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Strong on moralizing, but also containing excellent examples from genetic studies (but lacking either footnotes or a bibliography!) this book gives us all food for thought. Why do we (those of us who are attracted to prepubescent and pubescent males) find the physical characteristics that we do so sexually attractive? Could it be in our genetic makeup? This book helps to answer those questions--despite its expressed goal as a "self-help" book to inform we humans how we need to get over our basic instinctual nature! The authors claim that it's our instincts that are holding us back! But without our instincts, would we even be here? The book promotes a somewhat "woke" perspective on many topics, including on gender equality, but at least it clearly explains the biological differences between males and females. Apparently, it's testosterone that drives us (both men AND women) mad! SEE ALSO: https://www.amazon.com/Mean-Genes-Taming-Primal-Instincts/dp/0738202304 M. But neither sexual perversions or pedophilia are mentioned in the book. That's one good point, isn't it?... Mean Genes: From Sex to Money to Food: Taming Our Primal Instincts Terry Burnham and Jay Phelan Basic Books; Perseus Pub, 1, 2000 CONTENTS: Contents......Page 4 Introduction (1)......Page 6 Thin Wallets and Fat Bodies (13)......Page 17 Debt: Laughing all the way to the Darwinian bank (15)......Page 18 Fat: Please don't feed the humans (35)......Page 38 Constant Cravings (57)......Page 60 Drugs: Hijacking the pleasure pathway (59)......Page 61 Risk: Thrill-seeking genes take us for a ride (83)......Page 85 Greed: Running fast on the happiness treadmill (105)......Page 107 Romance and Reproduction (129)......Page 131 Gender: Girl against the boys (131)......Page 132 Beauty: It's more than skin deep (153)......Page 153 Infidelity: Our cheating hearts (173)......Page 173 Family, Friends, and Foes (197)......Page 196 Family: The ties that bind (199)......Page 197 Friends and Foes: Keep friends close and enemies closer (213)......Page 211 Conclusion: Surviving desire (243)......Page 241 Acknowledgments (255)......Page 251 Index (257)......Page 253 "Mean Genes is brilliant-well-grounded evolutionary biology, clear-eyed realism, and advice that is both practical and moral. Delightfully readable."-- E.O. Wilson SEE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E._O._Wilson Description Short, sassy, and bold, Mean Genes uses a Darwinian lens to examine the issues that most deeply affect our lives: body image, money, addiction, violence, and the endless search for happiness, love, and fidelity. But Burnham and Phelan don't simply describe the connections between our genes and our behavior; they also outline steps that we can take to tame our primal instincts and so improve the quality of our lives. Why do we want (and do) so many things that are bad for us? We vow to lose those extra five pounds, put more money in the bank, and mend neglected relationships, but our attempts often end in failure. Mean Genes reveals that struggles for self-improvement are, in fact, battles against our own genes — genes that helped our cavewoman and caveman ancestors flourish but that are selfish and out of place in the modern world. Why do we like junk food more than fruit? Why is the road to romance so rocky? Why is happiness so elusive? What drives us into debt? An investigation into the biological nature of temptation and the struggle for control, Mean Genes answers these and other fundamental questions about human nature while giving us an edge to lead more satisfying lives. Alternative description Why do we want--and why do we do--so many things that are bad for us? And how can we stop? In Mean Genes economist Terry Burnham and biologist Jay Phelan offer advice on how to conquer our own worst enemy--our survival-minded genes. Having evolved in a time of scarcity, when our ancestors struggled to survive in the wild, our genes are poorly adapted to the convenience of modern society. They compel us to overeat, spend our whole paycheck, and cheat on our spouses. But knowing how they work, Burnham and Phelan show that we can trick these "mean genes" into submission and cultivate behaviors that will help us lead better lives. A lively, humorous guide to our evolutionary heritage, Mean Genes illuminates how we can use an understanding of our biology to beat our instincts--before they beat us Alternative description Explains the genetic role behind modern problems such as thrill-seeking, infidelity, eating disorders, and addiction. EXCERPT [beginning page 145]: [...]Are there genes for homosexuality? How does evolutionary biology deal with a behavior that seems at odds with reproduction? Natural selection certainly seems to place a premium on having babies, and exclusive homosexuality appears an unlikely route to reproductive success. The short answer is that no one has a satisfactory explanation for the prevalence of homosexuality in humans and other species. Still, there are some interesting hints. First, we know that homosexuality has a strong genetic component. Scientists often examine twins to try to untangle the role of genes. Identical twins have the exact same set of genes, whereas fraternal twins share only about half of their genes. Traits like eye color are determined by genes and are always shared by identical twins. Other traits like height are influenced, but not completely determined, by genes. So identical twins are closer to each other in height than are fraternal twins. One study looked at sexual orientation in 55 pairs of identical male twins and 55 pairs of fraternal male twins. In each pair, one of the twins was known to be gay. The researchers sent a questionnaire to the brother, asking about his sexual orientation. Among the identical twins, in 52% of the cases both brothers were gay. Among the fraternal twins, in only 22% of the pairs were both gay. Second, human homosexuality appears to be affected very little by childhood influences. One researcher looked at a sample of families where sons had "girlish" habits. A quarter of the parents were distraught enough that they enlisted the help of psychologists trained to discourage homosexual tendencies. Did it work? Not one bit. As adults, three-quarters identified themselves as gay or bisexual, actually a slightly higher percentage than those boys who received no counseling. Further evidence of the relative unimportance of a child's environment comes from some societies in New Guinea. In an area called the "semen belt," tradition demands that all young males engage in homosexual acts, teaching that the consumption of semen is required for a boy's growth to manhood. The best studied of these societies, the Sambia, are among the most warlike of all cultures. After their adolescent years of exclusive homosexuality, most adult men marry women and become exclusively heterosexual. In fact, despite the childhood indoctrination, the prevalence of adult homosexuality among the Sambia is lower than that in the United States. Finally, if we look beyond humans, we find that same-sex stimulation takes place in many species. Our close genetic neighbors the chimpanzee-like bonobos are particularly enthusiastic participants in all sorts of sex. Females pair up frequently for what is called g-g rubbing, in which they face each other and grind their clitorises together with 2.2 side-to-side moves per second, the same timing as a male during intercourse. Sometimes a panting and ecstatic female bonobo will even fall out of a tree and crash to the ground, stunned, when she becomes so caught up in her little pleasure session that she forgets to hold on to something. In addition to same-sex contact, humans, apes, and some other large-brained species have separated sex from procreation. For example, bonobo adolescents -- male and female alike -- frequently perform oral sex on young males, and it is common for adult males to masturbate adolescent males. In humans, many heterosexual couples engage in sex that could not result in babies, such as sex during most of the woman's reproductive cycle, sex during pregnancy, and oral, anal, and masturbatory sex. So the non-reproductive nature of human homosexual contact is shared with many other behaviors. What may be unique, however, is that many humans retain an exclusive homosexual orientation throughout their life. In contrast, many animals have homosexual contact only in specific situations. Among gelada baboons, for example, the biggest adult males maintain harems of females. Smaller males that are left without any females, meanwhile, travel together in male groups with frequent homosexual stimulation. Once one of these males attains a female, however, he engages exclusively in heterosexual behavior. Even these switch-hitting baboons lead boring lives compared with members of some species who can naturally change sex. For example, the blue-headed wrasse is a fish that lives on coral reefs. All wrasses begin life as females and continue to pump out eggs as they age and grow larger. Every reef section has one extremely large, territorial male that fertilizes up to forty batches of eggs a day. When the male dies, the largest female spontaneously changes sex and starts producing sperm. Wrasses have simply pushed the concept of gender to its logical conclusion. As we have seen across the animal kingdom, one sex inevitably invests more in the production of offspring and the other sex competes for access to these choosy, committed parents. The greater the disparity of investment, the more dramatic the differences -- physical and behavioral between the sexes. Beyond the question of why we see gender differences, there is the practical question of how these differences are actually brought about. Genes that underlie a behavior -- say, mate choosiness or territoriality -- can find themselves in a male or female body. Depending on which it is, the genes must often be expressed in dramatically different ways. Let's take a look at how they can do this. Hormones induce many gender-specific behaviors. Young males are said to suffer from "testosterone poisoning." The label is appropriate: testosterone is a proven carcinogen, and, as we saw earlier, males without testicles live much longer than intact males. While all humans make testosterone, the level in men is about ten times that in women; it is one of the primary fuels generating male behavior. We can learn a lot from people taking testosterone for bodybuilding and other athletic purposes because testosterone and a few of its chemical variants are so widely used. Look at some of the behaviors of men on steroids. Gary had a friend videotape him while he drove his new Corvette into a tree at thirty-five miles per hour. On three separate occasions, Steve chased down the drivers of cars that cut him off in traffic. He then terrorized the drivers, smashing their windows with a tire iron. Chris rammed his head through a wooden door in a fit of anger. And Donny beat and almost killed his dog. Their names have been changed to protect the stupid, but each of these moments of steroid-induced "glory" -- besides being true -- makes a case for testosterone as an important component of male madness. You see, none of these men had any history of violence. Women, too, are powerfully affected by testosterone. On average, women with naturally higher levels of testosterone are hairier and have had more sexual partners. Among female prisoners, those with high testosterone levels are more violent. When women take testosterone supplements, they report increased confidence, added sexual desire and satisfaction, and are happier overall. Except for the minor fact that it can kill us and can cause violence, testosterone is a wonder drug that makes us powerful, confident, and happy. Female hyenas have spectacularly high levels of testosterone. The result: they are larger than males and socially dominant. They also sport a pseudo-penis that -- unless you're another hyena -- looks just like the real deal. Nevertheless, female hyenas surpass the males when it comes time to care for the young. Testosterone may be the hormone with the most dramatic effects on behavior, but it's not the only one. Estrogen, too, is a powerful force that can induce typical gender-specific behaviors. This was humorously -- and perhaps a bit cruelly demonstrated in experiments with rats. First, some males were castrated at birth. Then, at puberty, they were injected with a little dose of estrogen. How did they respond? The confused male rodents immediately assumed the female mating position. In this stereotypical behavior -- called lordosis -- the male's front paws are lowered and his hind legs are raised, his back is arched, and his tail is moved to one side. The obliteration of gender roles was made complete in this study when some females had their ovaries removed and were injected with a bit of testosterone. Sure enough, these females mounted other females and went through all of the thrusting motions of copulation. The researchers, of course, couldn't resist bringing the experiments to their logical conclusion. Putting together a "male" that had been treated with estrogen and a "female" treated with testosterone, they created a bumbling -- but apparently satisfied -- pair of feverishly aroused animals in which an eager male in lordosis was mounted and "mated" by a female. The road ahead. In a 1970s perfume commercial an Enjoli woman sang, "I can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan, and never ever let you forget you're a man, cuz I'm a woman." The advertisement reflected the gender politics of its time. Women, freed from historical shackles, could take on traditional male roles. If gender differences were entirely cultural, there should be no barrier to the complete homogenization of men and women. Some universities even went so far as to have coed bathrooms. Today the picture is much less clear. Many traditional barriers to women's advancement have been torn down, but emulating males seems unlikely to emerge as the road to female happiness. Part of the reason is that so many of the things that make women and men happy are simply different. With advanced technology, women no longer need to breastfeed infants. It's not much of a stretch to imagine a world in which pregnancy is accomplished by some technological feat, but even in that world, men and women would be different. Our genes come from an earlier era; our brains and emotional structures reflect that period and will not change anytime soon. These biological differences complicate the push for equal rights. If men and women were identical, we might expect, or even require, equal representation in all jobs and in all majors at college. In light of our different tastes, however, it seems unwise to mandate equal outcomes. For example, the majority of young pediatricians and gynecologists are women. Does this mean male medical students are being discriminated against? Not necessarily. Similarly, college enrollments are becoming increasingly dominated by women despite no apparent bias in admissions. Women get better grades in high school and appear to be more interested in getting college degrees. So women are still from Venus and men from Mars. There is no simple path to ensuring gender equality. The hope is, however, that by combining equal rights with a deeper understanding of human nature, we can all be happier. A polling firm asked, "If you were to be born again, would you rather return as a male or female? " Fifty years ago, most women wanted to come back as men and not a single man wanted to come back as a woman. In 1996, men still liked being men but women said they'd prefer to be reborn as a woman. Beauty It's more than skin deep Beauty is in the eye of the gene. What is beauty? At first glance the answer appears to depend on where and whom you ask. Among the Yanomamo of South America, for example, men use bright red makeup to advertise scars on their heads. Members of some cultures spend years enlarging their lips or stretching their necks. In many cultures, women never cover their breasts, while in others men spend inordinate amounts of time and money inducing women to uncover them. Even within a culture the definition of "beauty" changes dramatically over time. In nineteenth-century America, feminine beauty involved pale skin and rounded bodies; current tastes lean in exactly the opposite direction. In the absence of any obvious common themes, we're left to conclude that beauty fads, like those in fashion and music, are controlled by the magazine editors, advertisers, and cosmetics companies of Madison Avenue. Right? Wrong. The winds and whims of culture certainly play an important role, but beauty fads and fashions still rest squarely on a biological foundation. Consider the obvious, and practically invisible, connection between beauty and health. Who would you rather kiss, a person with clear, healthy skin or someone showing multiple symptoms of disease? A graceful athlete like Michael Jordan or a clumsy sluggard? Does a runny nose turn you on? The answers seem like common sense, but where does that common sense come from? Was it necessary for your mother and father to teach you to be disgusted by open sores? Healthy, physically robust individuals are universally attractive, and this isn't an accident. Better genes are more likely to live in better bodies. We are descended from people who chose healthy, agile partners, and we have inherited their genetic standards of beauty. We're no different from other animals in this respect . Female rabbits of some species chase males at high speed for long periods of time. Only after successfully running a mini-marathon is a male accepted into the role of father. Similarly, many snakes engage in vigorous male-female wrestling matches before sex. The meek may inherit the earth, but they will not be the descendants of slow rabbits or weak snakes. Other sexual rituals have a health checkup built right in. Among the Ugandan kob (a relative of the antelope), all mating takes place while literally hopping across the African savanna. Males and females too clumsy or unhealthy to hop and hump at the same time are left behind in this mating game. Among many monkey species, intercourse requires males to balance themselves acrobatically on the hind legs of females. Not a feat to be attempted by the sick, feeble, or tired. Humans across the world favor clear skin. As with the running rabbits, wrestling snakes, and hopping antelopes, there is a health reason. Parasitic infection, disease, and other illnesses often manifest themselves in the skin. A clear complexion advertises health among humans, just as vigor and strength do for animals. One study found that cultures where parasitic infections are common put an even higher value than others do on clear skin. If we are interested in genetic quality, we're not limited to the skin. Good genes reveal themselves in other, subtler ways as well. As we mentioned in the introduction, one of these ways is physical symmetry -- a feature that humans subconsciously find attractive. If we were perfectly constructed, we would be exactly symmetrical. Why is that? Humans have a single genetic blueprint that specifies how to build both the left and right sides of the body in the form of "hand genes," "breast genes;' and "eye placement genes." Individual genes do the work for both sides of our bodies. Departures from complete symmetry can be thought of as scars reflecting rough environmental conditions during development and a set of genes unable to cope with them. No one, not even a supermodel, is built perfectly, though. We [...] An easy read, but many things one could quibble about. DOWNLOAD VARIOUS FORMATS: https://annas-archive.li/search?q=Mean+Genes+Terry+Burnham [@nonymouse] [Guardster] [Proxify] [Anonymisierungsdienst] |