Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution
This is one of those books that I think I will reread (or relisten) to with my daughter when she gets to the age where she does’nt mind reading non-fiction. The book is one of those that I feel, even if its not scientifically accurate, gets you thinking about how the human body works and why the human body works the way it does.
The book takes the viewpoint that Human Evolution was driven in large part by the Female body, and it makes sense in a way. Females are the reproductive engines of the species and the male really only contributes a very small part biologically speaking into producing new offspring. The actual carrying and prenatal and post natal care of the offspring has historically been a female undertaking. The male does provide in many other ways, but past the delivery of the sperm, you can argue that the male is largely unneeded.
With that said, there are many topics that the book covers. From the Womb, to legs, to Brain, and menopause, these are all topics that affect women in a very specific way. I felt educated and intrigued to find out more about the topics that the authoress speaks of, and in that journey to satiate my curiosity found that there were more than a few inaccuracies or liberties that the authoress takes. I don’t think that detracts from the actual book itself, but you really have to do some extra research to cover over some of the biases that the authoress has.
All in all, I did not feel a waste of time in reading the book and felt it was really well written. See it as a starting point into looking at the biology of women (something that the authoress points out is vastly understudied. Most studies are done on male bodies!) and you’ll find there’s really a dearth of data on women specific studies.
Well worth the time, in my opinion!