Sex is bothersome and yet has persisted tenaciously. What is the purpose of sex? It is the queen of evolutionary problems. ('However fast they went, they never seemed to pass anything.') Marriage is a blend of or balance between cooperation and exploitation/conflict. The Red Queen concept derives from Lewis Carroll 'Through the Looking Glass': The faster you run, the more the world moves with you and the less you make progress. Time erodes any temporary advantage, progress is relative and futile, the struggle is Sisyphean. The human intellect itself has evolved to contribute to reproductive success. The goal is not just to survive but to breed. We are descended from men who preferred fertile women. People are attracted to people of high reproductive potential, the consequences of which are sexual selection. The differences between individuals are attributable to individual variation (85%), tribal/national variation (8%), and racial variation (7%). 30 generations back, in 1066, you had a billion ancestors. The human brain developed current its form and capacity 3M to 100K years ago on African savanna-100K years is only 3000 generations ago. There is selective competition for genes. Richard Dawkins 1970s argues that the body is merely an evolutionary vehicle for our genes-the genes force the body to do things to perpetuate them. We have laws against racism that allow persons to calculate the consequences of violating them though they may be acting racist because of human nature. Human culture is a product of human nature, not just of our free will or invention. Reproductive success is the examination that all human genes must pass. Nothing in our natures has not been carefully chosen.

Reproduction is the sole goal for which human beings are designed. The nature of human nature is the theme of the book, how it evolved, how human sexuality evolved.

The author studied zoology before becoming a journalist and science writer. There are no diagrams or other helpful visual aids that might be expected, just pure text. Overall Impression: This is a rather wordy book that is filled with details but a little shy on well demarcated conclusions. Quotations are for the most part taken from that work, as Summary by Michael McGoodwin, prepared 2001Īcknowledgement: This work has been summarized using the Penguin Book 1994Įdition. The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature

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