Social Behavior Of Female Vertebrates by Samuel Wasser
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
The preface in this book notes that sexism within human culture is reflected in animal behavior studies by casting males and females within human roles. This favors males of a species as having more agency than females of a species. This collection of essays seeks to demonstrate that females have, at times, greater agency in competing with each other and determining which mates they should choose.
While many of these essays are not about humans, they all note that resource allocation and wealth division plays a role in organizing the nature of sexual interaction (monogamy, polygamy, and so on) between all individuals. This goes on, even between birds, to demonstrate that some level of trust is required between individuals, even when child rearing is mostly limited to sitting on eggs.
It would be of great interest to analyze and then test an economic hypothesis of animal behavior. While animals do not use money, so money cannot be a metric to determine value, we can see that valuation is passed between individuals as a way of evaluating the desirability of mates and what mates can offer. For instance, in courtship rituals, male birds often demonstrate their ability to hold onto territory. I would have liked this book to be larger, with more variety of essays, but considering the amount of work it takes, I suppose this is a rare sampling to begin with.
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