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Anders : gender door de ogen van een…
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Anders : gender door de ogen van een primatoloog (origineel 2022; editie 2022)

door Frans de Waal (Auteur)

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"New York Times best-selling author and world-renowned primatologist Frans de Waal explores sex and gender in both humans and other animals. Though many scholars now argue that gender differences are purely a product of socialization, primatologist Frans de Waal illustrates in Different the scientific, evolutionary basis for gender differences in humans, drawing on his decades of experience working with our closest ape relatives: chimpanzees and bonobos. De Waal illuminates their behavioral and biological differences, and compares and contrasts them with human behavior: male domination and territoriality in chimpanzees and the female-led pacific society of bonobos. In his classic conversational style and a narrative rich in anecdotes and wry observations, de Waal tackles topics including gender identity, sexuality, gender-based violence, same-sex rivalry, homosexuality, friendship, and nurturance. He reveals how evolutionary biology can inform a more nuanced-and equitable-cultural understanding of gender. Ultimately, he argues, our two nearest primate relatives are equally close to us, and equally relevant. Considering all available evidence, we can learn much about ourselves and embrace our similarities as well as our differences"--… (meer)
Lid:YolaNL
Titel:Anders : gender door de ogen van een primatoloog
Auteurs:Frans de Waal (Auteur)
Info:Amsterdam Uitgeverij Atlas Contact 2022
Verzamelingen:Gelezen, maar niet in bezit
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Different: Gender Through the Eyes of a Primatologist door Frans de Waal (2022)

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This is the primatologist side of the evopsych questions raised in books like [b:Why Is Sex Fun? The Evolution of Human Sexuality|1991|Why Is Sex Fun? The Evolution of Human Sexuality (Science Masters)|Jared Diamond|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1431354333l/1991._SY75_.jpg|1087981], and has a lot more of the hard science answers that book couldn't provide, in regards to our various cousins and their sexual behaviours and gender roles. That's what the first part of this book is about and it's great, building on de Waal's long experience in the field (there's some repetition if you've read his previous books like [b:Mama's Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us about Ourselves|45894068|Mama's Last Hug Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us about Ourselves|Frans de Waal|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1568276393l/45894068._SX50_.jpg|62339663]).
De Waal is a good resource for expanding the often narrow and shallow view of animal psychology and behaviour, but the problem is a lot of these books want to create lessons for or about humans and that's the tenuous part of the equation that unfortunately gets the least supporting evidence.

So it is with this book, where we can catch glimpses of gender divisions and hierarchies handled in different ways by different primates; the very brutal world of chimps contrasted with the casual sex of bonobo society. De Waal is aware of the biased adoption of both of these cases by various political sides trying to promote human agendas, appealing to one or the other cousin as part of the legitimacy of their worldview. Is life a nasty, brutal competition for the top spot or should we all be living in some polyamorous hippie community? As he points out neither caricature is true to the animals, nor are their "conclusions" about life much use to us as humans.

But then De Waal himself attempts to use his primate background to draw conclusions about humans, and that's where the book breaks down. Having a more nuanced view of the complexity of our cousins doesn't really help him come up with solid conclusions about humans. He takes an "old liberal" stance of asserting biology matters, but that the alpha/beta type talk is not applicable to humans and that our social interactions are much more complex and allow for a society that can be free from whatever biology has thrown into the mix (as in more egalitarian than nature might suggest). This might have been an applause line in the 90s but is likely to offend the current polarized politics from both sides.

My main problem is rather that it all becomes "just so" stories where what's plausible sounding takes precedence over asking the question "how the hell can we draw these conclusions". De Waal shies away from examining biological determinism in the way Murray did with The Bell Curve, and is fairly agnostic about how our apelike ancestors divided things according to gender. There's a lot of sore toes he doesn't care to step on. In lieu of such hard biological stances we're reduced to "seems to me" type statements pointing to similarities here and there, and fair enough, the comparisons are interesting. But there aren't answers.

Subtitle should read more like "gender through the eyes of a guy who also happens to be a primatologist". ( )
  A.Godhelm | Oct 20, 2023 |
Dem Buchtitel ist absolut nichts hinzuzufügen.
Ein tolles Buch.

Auch das Leben unserer näheren Verwandten ist kein "Ponyhof". Auch unter ihnen gibt es Gewalt und "Kriege". Aber es ist bei ihnen auch eine grosse Toleranz gegenüber "Andersartigen" der eigenen Gruppe zu beobachten.
  lg4106 | Mar 1, 2023 |
Wonderful book to have as a background for thinking about sex and gender issues with people. And reading about our primate cousins is really interesting. DeWaal is a gentle and friendly writer. ( )
  steve02476 | Jan 3, 2023 |
It is always a pleasure to read Frans de Waal. He is ever entertaining while being rigorous, thorough and neutral. If there is any ulterior motive or bias, it is to be fair. So with the timely Different, his new book on the differences between the sexes. Neurologically, biologically, and culturally, there are differences in the sexes that explain a lot and also nothing, but that should give humans guidance in the ever more difficult battle of the ever more numerous sexes. The primates show the sexes to be different and equal, with direct lines to Man. De Waal says: "While our species is equipped with language and a few other intellectual advantages, socio-emotionally we are primates through and through."

De Waal is a primatologist. He has spent his life working with colonies of apes, monkeys - and humans. In addition to his own studies, he is constantly visiting other primatologists and learning what they have discovered in their lifelong examinations of various colonies around the world. He has built personal relationships with all kinds of primates, earned their respect, merited their love, and discovered their personalities, capabilities, activities, weaknesses, and cultures. They are not so different from humans, he says, and people can learn a lot by studying them - or just reading this book. De Waal says primatology suffers from misinformation and fake news, just like so much else. He is here to display some truths.

The first thing to learn is that nature, as in evolution, is not wrong. The way things are are the way things are. Humans have to accept that animals adapt to their environs and their colonies according to their current abilities and gifts. Criticizing them for their differences is pointless. (Scientists love to come down hard on chimps and scoff at bonobos, for example). This also applies to humans.

There is no doubt in his mind that nature assigns differences according to sex. "These tendencies manifest themselves early in life, such as in the high energy level and roughhousing of young males, and in the attraction to dolls, infants, and baby-sitting of young females. This archetypal sex difference marks most mammals, from rats to dogs and from elephants to whales...Yet not even this pronounced sex difference is absolute."

Gender is a kind of cultural overlay to sex, at least among humans: "Gender identity in general and sexual orientation in general are inalienable, inalterable aspects of every person," he says. Gender roles are culturally assigned, while sex is bi-modal. They are not choices, they are not irrational, and they cannot be undone by therapy. Coming to grips with discovering that the real you is in the wrong body is difficult enough, without all the external pressure to overcome it or be subjected to meds and surgery. About six-tenths of one percent of the population goes through this trauma. In the USA, that means 1-2 million people. But it is not predictable: "A person's genome cannot tell us their sexual orientation."

He spends a lot of time on experiments with toys, and how male infants always go for the wheeled toys they can shove and drag, while females go for the doll shapes they can carry, cuddle and care for, even if it is just a baby-sized piece of wood. He also has seen young apes invent and play with invisible toys when so moved. It is not aberrant behavior for them or for humans.

He wants to make it clear that human babies are not blank slates that can be molded into whatever sex the parents desire. That does not work, despite constant training, deprogramming and hormone therapies, and he has proof from cases of those who believed otherwise. He says forcing children into gender-specific toys, and cross-gender toys "is arrogant". He would like to see the gendered sectioning of toy stores disappear, and that adults respect the choices made by their children themselves.

Apes are no less instinctive than humans. But instincts need to be learned. Primates have the same long learning processes, the same need to evaluate others, make assumptions about personalities, and to manipulate others as needed. They are as calculating and political as humans.

All the complex and difficult aspects of motherhood aren't innate; they are learned. Females train the young to be competent mothers. The community helps one and all. De Waal has examples of chimps that had been isolated and were not automatically competent caregivers. Even the process of giving birth needs instruction, and it is willingly shared.

As for father chimps, the birth of a child increases their levels oxytocin and decreases testosterone, making them more amenable to dealing with infants. Experiments show that when a female is in the room, males will leave caregiving to them, but alone with an infant, males take over nurturing duties automatically. "It is part and parcel of our species' biology," De Waal says.

The chimpanzee is Man's closest relative, and it is striking to follow their daily machinations. There is daily drama: jealousies, power plays, training, nurturing, positioning, and sex. Not necessarily in that order. Their cousins the bonobos, basically across the river in DR Congo, have managed to evolve a different, far less bellicose society. Where chimps fight, bonobos have sex. But they are comparably attentive, responsible, nurturing and hierarchical. Just a whole lot more flirtatious and sex-driven.

Where an alpha male leads chimp colonies, an alpha female leads bonobos. Where he is young, strong and imperious, she is older, wiser and popular. Where he rules by threat and will soon be overthrown, she has the total respect of both sexes, and will be number one for life. He instills fear. She builds alliances.

Alphas have mastered the fine art of splitting their offices. In daily life they will favor family and allies. But in their leadership role, they will demonstrate neutrality and be above the fray. They will break up fights, physically, themselves, keep the antagonists separated, and mete out punishment later. Females in particular are politically activist, grooming each other - even to bald excess - to keep alliances active. When an alpha female must control an angry male, she can literally line up a row of other females behind her, and stare down the transgressor until he backs off.

Females will take the children and gather available food, while males will hunt and bring back meat that they decide how to share. Females will take in an orphan and nurture it. Males might kill it.

Males will fight bitterly but kiss and make up immediately, go together to break up another fight, or have sex with each other. But when overthrowing the alpha male, it can mean ugly death.

As for the real function of sex among mammals, De Waal says Man is the only one who knows what it is for. None of the apes, cats, whales or rodents understand that it transfers sperm which fertilizes eggs, which leads to pregnancy and a newborn. Sex is a drive. If an animal has that drive, it will strive to have sex. It has no greater purpose that they know of.

Taking the example he knows best, the bonobos, sex is for everyone, any time. Homosexual sex, lesbian sex, informal sex, masturbation - anything goes, and any time is a good time. For females, a swollen behind is an all but glowing invitation to sex from males, as that is when they are most fertile. But bonobos are most famous for having sex every which way, numerous times per day, whether consummated or not. It is only human religion that attempts to curtail all sexual activity outside of purposeful reproduction. It is difficult to make sense of it. De Waal says "Sexuality is a forbidden fruit that we guard with a devotion and indignation that would be ridiculous in any other domain."

Despite all the possessiveness of alpha males, females have numerous partners. When the baby is born, numerous males feel they might be the father, having been close with the female in recent months. This has the advantage of preventing males from killing the baby, and calming the males in its presence. For the females, it is good strategy, but also very risky, as getting caught with another male can lead to the same consequences seen everywhere.

The act of rape among humans also comes under the magnifying glass. De Waal says it originated with research into scorpion flies, whose clamps help males force copulation. But in human societies, the "species is far too loosely programmed for highly specific behavior, such as rape, to be heritable." In other words, rape is an outcome of circumstances, not something innate in human males. Men are not (normally) rapists.

He says for natural selection to favor rape, there are two conditions to meet: Men should have genetic coding that makes them sexual predators (and they do not). Plus, rapists would seek to spread their genes (and they do not). Rape is now generally assessed as an act of violence, not of procreation. And needless to add, homosexual rape is clearly outside the bounds of procreation.

In trying to determine whether things originate biologically or culturally, De Waal cites Hans Kummer, who said asking if something is due to nature or nurture is like "asking whether the percussion sounds in the distance are produced by a drummer or a drum. It's a silly question, because on their own, neither one makes any noise."

Obviously, there must come divergence at some point. De Waal says he must leave aside things like economic disparities, household labor, access to education and cultural rules for attire, where there are no animal parallels. (But female apes will adorn themselves in garlands of vines, and put moss or leaves on their heads as if they could be hats. Males, do not.) But for everything else, from nurturing to fighting, there is a chapter in Different.

Different is a global adventure, and a time machine. In it, readers will visit their ancestors to see where it all came from, and learn a trick or two that the mirror does not tell them. But regardless, the sexes are different. Different and equal. They have specific roles to play in life. With very limited flexibility or overlap. Trying to turn one into the other is a fool's errand. Man can't alter that, only mess with it.

David Wineberg ( )
2 stem DavidWineberg | Mar 13, 2022 |
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"New York Times best-selling author and world-renowned primatologist Frans de Waal explores sex and gender in both humans and other animals. Though many scholars now argue that gender differences are purely a product of socialization, primatologist Frans de Waal illustrates in Different the scientific, evolutionary basis for gender differences in humans, drawing on his decades of experience working with our closest ape relatives: chimpanzees and bonobos. De Waal illuminates their behavioral and biological differences, and compares and contrasts them with human behavior: male domination and territoriality in chimpanzees and the female-led pacific society of bonobos. In his classic conversational style and a narrative rich in anecdotes and wry observations, de Waal tackles topics including gender identity, sexuality, gender-based violence, same-sex rivalry, homosexuality, friendship, and nurturance. He reveals how evolutionary biology can inform a more nuanced-and equitable-cultural understanding of gender. Ultimately, he argues, our two nearest primate relatives are equally close to us, and equally relevant. Considering all available evidence, we can learn much about ourselves and embrace our similarities as well as our differences"--

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