Sarah Blaffer Hrdy Knihy

Většina českých dětí dnes vyrůstá v nukleárních rodinách, ve kterých to velmi často vypadá následovně: Nevyspalá, strhaná a podrážděná maminka na “mateřské samotce” neví, zda doma dřív vařit, uklízet, pečovat o děti nebo na chvíli nabrat dech. Tatínek je většinu času nepřítomný, neboť někde mimo domov vydělává na hypotéku. Biologická rodina je daleko a sousedi jsou cizí lidé. O narůstajícím fenoménu rodičů "samo-živitelů" ani nemluvě. Homo Sapiens přitom patří k druhům s tzv. kooperativní výchovou. Abychom vychovali zdravé, netraumatizované dítě a nám samotným z výchovy "nevypadaly vlasy", dítě potřebuje minimálně tři primární vazby s tzv. spolu-rodiči. Do minimálně třech let věku dítěte je třeba, aby byl vždy minimálně jeden z těchto dospělých - odpočatý, v klidu, bez známek stresu - připraven o dítě pečovat a chovat ho.

"Mother Nature presents a radical new way of understanding how mothers act and why, and how this new understanding is changing the way scientists think about how evolution works." "Drawing on anthropology, history, literature, developmental psychology, and animal behavior, Sarah Hrdy examines the distinct biological and genetic elements that constitute maternal instinct. She strips away the biases implicit in conventional stereotypes of female nature to give us very different and provocative perspectives on maternal ambivalence, the links between maternity and ambition, mother love and sexual love, and she explains why age-old tensions between the sexes persist and are being played out today in efforts to control women's reproductive choices."--Jacket.

The book explores the phenomenon of infanticide across various mammalian species, highlighting its prevalence in both animal and human contexts. By integrating field studies and evolutionary theories, the authors provide a comprehensive analysis of this behavior, examining the underlying causes and implications for maternal and offspring survival. Through a comparative lens, the work delves into the evolutionary significance of infanticide, offering insights into its role in the animal kingdom and its parallels in human societies.

This work argues that evolutionary theorists' emphasis on sexual competition among males for access to females overlooks selection pressures on females themselves. This account seeks to demolish myths about sexually passive, coy, compliant, exclusively nurturing females.

If the young were to survive in a world of scarce food, they needed to be cared for, not only by their mothers but also by siblings, aunts, fathers, friends - and, with any luck, grandmothers. This title finds the key in the primatologically length of human childhood.

Mother Nature: A History of Mothers, Infants and Natural Selection should be required reading for anyone who happens to be a human being. In it, Hrdy reveals the motivations behind some of our most primal and hotly contested behavioural patterns--those concerning gender roles, mate choice, sex, reproduction, and parenting--and the ideas and institutions that have grown up around them. She unblinkingly examines and illuminates such difficult subjects as control of reproductive rights, infanticide, "mother love" and maternal ambition with its ever-contested companions: Child care and the limits of maternal responsibility. Without ever denying personal accountability, she points out that many of the patterns of abuse and neglect that we see in cultures around the world (including, of course, our own) are neither unpredictable nor maladaptive in evolutionary terms. "Mother" Nature, as she points out, is not particularly concerned with what we call "morality." The philosophical and political implications of our own deeply-rooted behaviours are for us to determine--which can be done all the better with the kind of understanding gleaned from this exhaustive work.Hrdy's passion for this material is evident and she is deeply aware of the personal stake she has here as a woman, a mother and a professional. This highly accomplished author relies on her own extensive research background as well as the works of others in multiple disciplines (anthropology, primatology, sociobiology, psychology and even literature). Despite the exhaustive documentation given to her conclusions (as witness the140-plus-page notes and bibliography sections), the book unfolds in an exceptionally lucid, readable and often humorous manner. It is a truly compelling read and highly recommended. --Katherine Ferguson, Amazon.com

Somewhere in Africa, more than a million years ago, a line of apes began to rear their young differently than their Great Ape ancestors. From this new form of care came new ways of engaging and understanding each other. How such singular human capacities evolved, and how they have kept us alive for thousands of generations, is the mystery revealed in this bold and wide-ranging new vision of human emotional evolution."Mothers and Others" finds the key in the primatologically unique length of human childhood. If the young were to survive in a world of scarce food, they needed to be cared for, not only by their mothers but also by siblings, aunts, fathers, friends--and, with any luck, grandmothers. Out of this complicated and contingent form of childrearing, Sarah Hrdy argues, came the human capacity for understanding others. Mothers and others teach us who will care, and who will not.From its opening vision of "apes on a plane"; to descriptions of baby care among marmosets, chimpanzees, wolves, and lions; to explanations about why men in hunter-gatherer societies hunt together, "Mothers and Others" is compellingly readable. But it is also an intricately knit argument that ever since the Pleistocene, it has taken a village to raise children--and how that gave our ancient ancestors the first push on the path toward becoming emotionally modern human beings.

"A masterful synthesis of how it came to be that today men are taking care of very young babies given that this is unprecedented in the history of mammals, apes, and humans"--

Dlaczego ludzkie dzieciństwo trwa tak długo? Jakie ewolucyjne czynniki za tym stoją? Jak opieka nad potomstwem zmieniła nas jako gatunek? Jak ewolucja uzasadnia, że do wychowania dziecka potrzebna jest cała wioska? Matki i inni to szeroko zakrojona nowa wizja ewolucji emocjonalnej człowieka, która odkrywa, w jaki sposób rozwijały się poszczególne ludzkie zdolności i jak dzięki nim przetrwaliśmy przez tysiące pokoleń. To także fascynujący wgląd w to, jaki przebieg obrała ludzka ewolucja, choć sprawy mogły się potoczyć inaczej, gdy w Afryce, ponad milion lat temu, jedna z linii małp zaczęła wychowywać swoje młode w inny sposób niż ich przodkowie. Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, antropolożka i prymatolożka, pokazuje, jak wygląda opieka nad potomstwem wśród innych ssaków - małp szerokonosych, szympansów, wilków i lwów - i wskazuje na wyjątkową długość ludzkiego dzieciństwa w kontekście ewolucji. Jeśli potomstwo miało przetrwać w świecie niedoboru żywności, musiały się nim opiekować nie tylko matki, ale także rodzeństwo, ciotki, ojcowie, przyjaciele - i, przy odrobinie szczęścia, babcie. Z tej przypadkowej w istocie formy wychowywania dzieci zrodziła się ludzka zdolność rozumienia innych. Żeby przetrwać, musieliśmy wiedzieć, na kim można polegać. Sarah Blaffer Hrdy jedna z najwybitniejszych antropolożek i prymatolożek, która wniosła istotny wkład w rozwój psychologii ewolucyjnej i socjobiologii, profesorka Uniwersytetu Kalifornijskiego.

Dieses bahnbrechende Werk einer der weltweit führenden Soziobiologinnen verändert auf radikale Weise unser Denken über Natürliche Selektion und mütterliches Verhalten. Bisher hatte die Evolutionsbiologie in erster Linie und einseitig die Vertreter des männlichen Geschlechts im Blick, die sich im permanenten Konkurrenzkampf um das angeblich passive und laut Darwin scheue„ weibliche Geschlecht befinden und den Fortbestand der eigenen Gene sichern wollen. Seit einigen Jahren wandelt sich das Denken von Darwinisten über Frauen jedoch dramatisch - und Sarah Blaffer Hrdy zählt zu den Pionierinnen dieser neuen Richtung. Brillant, provozierend und umfassend schreibt Hrdy in ihrem Buch die Evolutionsgeschichte der weiblichen Wesen - im Tierreich und in primitiven Jäger-Sammler-Gesellschaften ebenso wie in hochentwickelten Nationen zu Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts. Sie verwirft alle möglichen Vorurteile über Frauen und legt sich dadurch mit Feministinnen und Konservativen gleichermaßen an. Sie nimmt das menschliche Konzept von Mutterschaft neu in den Blick und erklärt, was es gegenwärtig sowohl in biologischer als auch genetischer Hinsicht eigentlich bedeutet, über den vielbeschworenen Mutterinstinkt“ zu sprechen. In ihrer eindrucksvollen Studie verbindet sie Anthropologie und Geschichte, Literatur und Mythos, sie liefert Beispiele aus dem Tierreich ebenso wie vom Menschen, erkundet die Entwicklungen in der Neurowissenschaft und Biologie, entlarvt Stereotypen und geht ausführlich auf das nach wie vor tabuisierte Phänomen der Kindstötung ein. Sie beschreibt den Selektionsdruck und die evolutionären Prozesse, die auf Mütter und Kinder gleichermaßen wirken und erweitert damit radikal das Verständnis der weiblichen Natur.