The Red Queen Summary (8/10)

The Red Queen is about how humans behave, and what led them to behave this way. Ridley compares the human mammal to other animals, and finds patterns that we have in common. The most universal of those patterns, Ridley argues, is sexuality. The explanations for why males and females exist, why they behave differently, why human intelligence developed to the extent that it did, why aesthetic beauty is universal, and whether we are monogamous or polygamous, all have their roots in the sexual imperative,

Chapter 1: Human Nature

To say that all human motivation can be boiled down to sexual motivation seems an astonishingly hubristic claim. It seems to deny free will, ignore those who choose chastity and portray human beings as programmed robots bent only on procreation. But throughout the book the case is made, that human sexuality is the essential precursor to all human endeavor.

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Chapter 2: The Enigma

This chapter asks: why does sex exist? why aren’t there more efficient ways to procreate?

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Chapter 3: The Power Of Paristes

The Red Queen’s first prophet, Leigh Van Valen, was a devout student of evolution. In 173, he was searching for a phrase to express a new discovery he had made while studying marine fossils. The

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Chapter 4: Genetic Mutiny and Gender

The tragedy of the commons is when individuals reap benefits at the expense of the community, such as when villagers shared a single field. The individual who grazes too many cows reaps the benefits individually but shares the costs collectively.

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Chapter 5: The Peacock’s Tale

Every female animal wants a mate with sufficient genetic quality to make a good husband and good father. Every male animal wants as many wives as possible, and to sometimes find good mothers and dams – rarely to find good wives.

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Chapter 6: Polygamy and the Nature of Men

The Incas had strict rules for who would be able to mate with their women. They organized these rights according to a hierarchy, and any man who violated these rules would be put to his death, along with his family. Most of the Incas were descendants of powerful men.

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Chapter 7: Monogamy and the Nature of Women

Consistent monogamy, not polygamy sets humans apart from mammals (including apes). Of the four apes (gibbons, orangutans, gorillas, and chimpanzees) only gibbons are monogamous.

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Chapter 8: Sexing the Mind

This chapter is about the differences between men and women. Men are better at spatial tasks than women. Spatial skills and polygamy go together in several species.

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Chapter 9: The Uses of Beauty

Are beauty standards cultural whims or innate drives? Incest may give us a hint.

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Chapter 10: The Self Domesticated Ape

Mankind is a self-domesticated animal; a social ape; an ape in which the male takes the initiative in courtship and females usually leave home; an ape in which men are predators, women herbivorous foragers; an ape in which males are hierarchical, females egalitarian.

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Related posts:

1. Chapter 10: The Self-domesticated Ape (The Red Queen)
2. Chapter 6: Polygamy and The Nature of Men (The Red Queen)
3. Chapter 7: Monogamy and the Nature of Women (The Red Queen)
4. Chapter 8: Sexing the Mind (The Red Queen)