BOOKS
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" feminine" in a traditi ona ll y sexi st way because she does not want to
change the term until the phenomenon itself is understood; she does
not want to fin esse, by a shift in terms, a p roblem so rooted in
institutions and culture tha t it mi ght be simplisti c to think there is any
su re way to solve it. But her failure to ta ke a position on the rela tion–
shi p between capitali sm, sexi sm, and sentimentalism leaves us with, at
leas t, a basic ambi guit y, and more, the feeling tha t she mi ght not be as
politi call y committed as she wo u ld have us beli eve.
It
seems, in short, a
sentimental stance itself. For wha tever reason , thi s is a book that,
driving towa rd th e hi sto rical and economi c roots of a p roblem, has not
come to the po int where the fin al assertions can be made. Douglas'
q uest has dri ven her to su ch exten sive research and to such a level of
analys is tha t her book will be the one to correct and cl arify. It is so well
done tha t one wonders wh y the author reli ed upon and then left so
confused such a bas ic and volati le concept as "femini zati on " itself.
GARY STEPHENS
SOCIOBIOLOGY IN THE DOCK
THE USE AND ABUSE OF BIOLOGY: AN ANTHROPOLOGICAL
CRITIQUE OF SOCIOBIOLOGY. By Marshall Sahllns.
The University
of Michigan Press. $3.95.
Mos t bi ologists would p robabl y agree tha t the study of the
social beh avior of animals in an evoluti ona ry context is not onl y a
who ll y reason a ble undertaking but one tha t is crucial for an y under–
standing of the ori gin of the species. Obviously, na tural selection
opera tes not onl y on the structural and dynamic fea tures of the body
parts of animals but also on their social forms. Just as bi ologists can
legitima tely enquire into how evo luti on managed
to
achi eve the
intri cate and superbly adapted facet eye of the honeybee, so can they ask
how it was poss ible for na tural selecti on to give rise
to
the intricate and
superbly adapted society of the beehive. Although Darwin himself was
we ll aware of the importance of behavior for his theory, it was onl y in
the 1930s th a t the evoluti onaril y oriented study of animal behavior
reall y got under way, with Konrad Lorenz as a Founding Father. By the
1950s, the subj ect had become an es tablished academic di scipline under
