Product Description

'The Descent of Woman' is a pioneering work, the first to argue for the equal role of women in human evolution. On its first publication in 1972 it created an international debate and became a rallying-point for feminism, changing the terminology of anthropologists forever. Starting with her demolition of the Biblical myth that woman was an afterthought to the creation of man, Elaine Morgan rewrites human history and evolution. This lively, informative book sets out to solve the riddle of our origins; its answer is controversial. Elaine Morgan has made the 'Aquatic Ape Hypothesis' a plausible alternative to conventional theories of evolution and 'The Descent of Woman' first set out an understanding of who humans are and where they come from.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #50968 in Books
• Published on: 2001-02-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

'The Guardian'
"Part feminist polemic, part evolutionary bombshell."

'The Observer'
"It was one of the most outrageous, improbable evolutionary ideas
ever proposed... now the idea... is becoming respectable."

'Sunday Telegraph'
"She is more scientific than Genesis, more up to date than
Darwin... and she writes better than Desmond Morris."

Customer Reviews

Putting women in the picture
I've bought about 5 copies of this book since the first edition was published in the 1970s: they were lent to friends because the book is so good, and not returned for the same reason.

Elaine Morgan provides a refreshing and plausible account of how we got where we are today, how you cannot consider evolution without considering women, and challenges many of the men-the-mighty-hunter myths.

What puzzles me is that her theories (based on Hardy) have now got wide-spread credence, but it is still possible to find recently-published books on evolution that make no reference to the aquatic theory.

A brilliant book: informative, readable ... and - added bonus - funny.

Convincing. Makes a lot of sense.
We hear a lot today about the ascent of man or woman, how humans evolved. This seems to be logical how humans split from other primates. I found it interesting concerning Ms Morgan's view that by the time humans 'left' their aquatic lifestyle, there has only been one human species.

I do not disagree or agree with that. It hints at a possibility concerning those 'semi-species' that might have co-existed with modern man at any time prehistory - their differences may have been only racial rather than a separate human species. Ms Morgan suggests that even the earliest austropicalus africanus, were far more human like in appearance than the general view among experts.

Still, her view on why people are what they are seems logical enough. She argues in this book that it was 10 million years ago when certain apes were forced to take to the water for protection while in the book Aquatic Ape, she decided that it was only 5 million years ago.

But even if woman and man are much older, there is no reason why he and she couldn't have evolved from a semi-aquatic lifestyle.

A fascinating and interesting book.

So you thought Anthropology was for men?
Elaine Morgan's Descent of Woman argues against some of the oldest superstitions of "Tarzanian" (Ms Morgan's term) physical anthropology. Her seminal work casts serious doubt on the andro-centric hypotheses which ascribe Women's physical attributes to the sexual needs of men. Today her theories have been all but proved, yet her book still makes illuminating reading, and a source of wonder!