Sex, Genes and Rock 'n' Roll: How Evolution Has Shaped the Modern World PDF
Preview Sex, Genes and Rock 'n' Roll: How Evolution Has Shaped the Modern World
Sex, Genes & Rock ’n’ Roll Rob Brooks is Professor of Evolutionary Biology at the University of New South Wales and author of more than a hundred scientific papers, mostly on how sex and reproduction impacts the lives of animals and humans. In 2010 he was made an Australian Research Council Professorial Research Fellow and awarded the Australian Academy of Science’s Fenner Medal. www.robbrooks.net ‘In this engaging and witty book, biologist Rob Brooks shows how human nature interacts with social and economic conditions to explain some of the most troubling aspects of modern human life – obesity, environmental degradation, over-population, sexual conflict, polygyny, female-biased abortion, and heavy metal music. His science is good, his writing is clear, and his policy suggestions would make the world a better place. A must-read for the evo-curious.’ — Geoffrey Miller, author of The Mating Mind and Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior ‘Evolution is much more than a history lesson; properly employed, it is an illuminating guide to the present and a powerful prophet of the future. And Rob Brooks uses evolutionary thinking not just properly, but superbly ... Sex, Genes and Rock ’n’ Roll offers up a humane, accessible and scientifically informed vision of how evolution is always with us.’ — David P. Barash, University of Washington, co-author of Payback: Why We Retaliate, Redirect Aggression and Seek Revenge ‘Finally, a book about evolution that’s as readable as a Rolling Stone article without any loss of depth or rigour. On the contrary, even as he stage-dives into the most controversial subjects, Brooks’ rock and roll writing style still comes fast and feverish with the facts, a dazzling tour of the hidden evolutionary logic behind modern life.’ — Baba Brinkman, creator of The Rap Guide to Evolution Sex, Genes & Rock ’n’ Roll How evolution has shaped the modern world Rob bRookS A New South book Published by University of New South Wales Press Ltd University of New South Wales Sydney NSW 2052 AUSTRALIA www.unswpress.com.au © Robert Brooks 2011 First published 2011 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 This book is copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Inquiries should be addressed to the publisher. National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Author: Brooks, Robert C., 1970– � Title: Sex, genes and rock ’n’ roll: how evolution has shaped the modern world/by Rob Brooks. � ISBN: 978 1 74223 160 0 (pbk.) � Subjects: Social evolution. � Social change. � Human ecology. � Evolution (Biology) – Social aspects. � Rock music – Social aspects. � Dewey Number: 303.4 � Design Avril Makula Cover design Nada Backovic Design Cover images Image of Venus: Photolibrary; image of guitar: iStockphoto Printer Ligare This book is printed on paper using fibre supplied from plantation or sustainably managed forests. If we’re ‘above’ nature, it’s only in the sense that a shaky-legged surfer is ‘above’ the ocean. — Christopher ryan and CaCilda Jethá > Ecology is the overall science of which economics is a minor specialty. — Garrett hardin > I believe in equity for all women and men in the world. Not equality. Equity is justice, freedom from bias, the opportunity to use your capabilities to their fullest. Equality is sameness, one mold. — irene tinker For Patti and Ben, my immediate ancestors, � Ben and Lily, my descendants, � And Jacqui, my partner. � Contents Prologue 1 � 1 The weight of our ancestry 17 � 2 Obesity is not for everyone 38 � 3 Weapons of massive consumption 58 � 4 Dwindling fertility 78 � 5 Shakespearean love 98 � 6 Wrapped around your finger 124 � 7 Love is a battlefield 150 � 8 Where have all the young girls gone? 175 � 9 Blame it on the Stones 200 � 10 About a boy 222 � 11 Immortality 248 � Thanks 269 � Notes 272 � Bibliography 285 � Index 296 � Prologue At least it is what I might have considered a dream I have a dream job. job in my adolescence; I am paid to think about sex. I am an evolu- tionary biologist who studies how natural selection has shaped the bodies and behaviours of animals, including humans. Admittedly most of my field observations and lab experiments are on insects and tropical fish, but it is still more fun than working in a bank, the pay is better than waiting tables and it is altogether more secure than playing in a rock and roll band. For evolutionary biologists – as for many adolescents – there are few subjects as compelling and mysterious as sex. That is because natural selection, the process by which evolution occurs, is all about reproduction. Forget everything you have heard about ‘survival of the fittest’. Sur- vival is only a subplot in the grand story of evolution. Each animal, plant, fungus, bacterium and virus on earth today is here because its parents, grandparents and every one of its ancestors succeeded in having and raising at least one offspring. Natural selection is simply what happens when some individuals reproduce and others don’t. It is a wasteful and inefficient way of designing things, but that is because it is not about design at all. All of the exquisite functionality in the living world, from the delicate wings of a dragonfly to our human capacity for language, is the by-product of one utterly boring fact: that in every generation of every species some individuals reproduce more successfully than others. 1
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