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book reviews

Competition between women A Mind of Her Own: The Evolutionary Psychology of Women by Anne Campbell Oxford University Press: 2002. 402 pp. £21.99, $40 Elizabeth Cashdan This provocative book argues that competition among women has been an important, yet largely ignored, force in human sexual selection. Competition between males is usually thought to be more intense than female competition because greater male variance in reproductive success means that men are playing for higher stakes. But Campbell suggests that this is misleading: “The variance may not be as great as between males but that is irrelevant because females are not in competition with males, they are in competition with other females.” Mothers (not fathers) are critical to offspring survival, and differences among women in their success in this endeavour have shaped the way that women think, feel and behave. The book opens with a sharp and satis- Kept in captivity fying critique of postmodernist biophobia Lionesses Pacing in a Cage by Max Slovegt depicts Gardens in the West by Eric Baratay and and a skilful rebuttal to those who distrust the experience of wild animals put on public Elisabeth Hardouin-Fugier (Reaktion Books, evolutionary psychology’s scientific meth- display. From Zoo: A History of Zoological £28, $40), recently translated from French. ods and fear its political implications. It closes with an excellent in-depth account Many of the problems with Kettlewell’s for example), mar the book for biologists. of the evolutionary reasons for individual experiments and the ‘classic’ Biston story The biggest shortcoming, however, is variation. In between, Campbell shows us were first aired by the US biologist Ted Hooper’s failure to emphasize that, despite how and why women compete. Sargent. Curiously, when turning from arguments about the precise mechanism of Women are clearly less physically aggres- Kettlewell to Sargent, Hooper’s criticality selection, industrial melanism still repre- sive and less risk-prone than men, but why? evaporates. She claims that Sargent’s criti- sents a splendid example of evolution in Campbell rejects the belief that it is a “default cisms of the moth work ruined his career by action. The dramatic rise and fall of the option that results from lower incentives making him a pariah, rejected by a scientific frequency of melanism in Biston betularia, for competition” and attributes it instead to establishment enamoured with Biston. But occurring in parallel on two continents, is women’s greater parental investment: they this is hyperbole. Sargent’s career may have a compelling case of evolution by natural have more to lose from violent and risky languished because he often published in selection. No force other than selection behaviour. This behavioural difference, little-known journals or (as Hooper notes) could have caused such striking and direc- she argues, is mediated by a sex difference refused to apply for grants — the kiss of tional change. Hooper’s grudging admis- relating to fear of injury and a neuro- death for a US scientist. sion of this fact occupies but one sentence: chemistry that makes women better able to Hooper also champions Sargent’s view “It is reasonable to assume that natural inhibit aggressive impulses. that industrial melanism was a case not of selection operates in the evolution of the These arguments are extended in evolution but of “phenotypic induction” — peppered moth.” Campbell’s discussion of sex differences in a developmental change in the colour of This issue matters, at least in the United dominance and status-seeking. The rewards moths, presumably caused by the larval States, because creationists have promoted of high status “are just as great for females ingestion of pollutants. But she conveniently the problems with Biston as a refutation of as for males — arguably greater because glosses over the simple and unassailable evolution itself. Even my own brief critique resources fuel the survival of offspring in fact that the light and dark alleles of of the story (Nature 396, 35–36; 1998) which they have already invested while for Biston segregate as mendelian variants has become grist for the creationists’ mill. males it merely buys a ticket in the copulatory when tested under uniform experimental By peddling innuendo and failing to lottery of possible fatherhood”, she argues. conditions. Perhaps Hooper embraces the distinguish clearly the undeniable fact What differs, she continues, is not the induction theory because it makes for a bet- of selection from the contested agent of rewards, but the costs (the risk of injury). ter story, but surely good science journalism selection, Hooper has done the scientific This argument explains why women are less demands that drama takes a back seat to data. community a disservice. I prone to seek high status through aggressive Numerous scientific errors (the American Jerry A. Coyne is in the Department of Ecology competition. It is also used to good effect in a peppered moth is not B. cognataria but and Evolution, University of Chicago, 1101 East later chapter on women and crime, in which B. betularia, the same species as in Britain, 57th Street, Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA. Campbell explains why women commit

fewer and less-violent crimes than men do. Many books discuss human sex differ- the evolutionary psychology of human sex But this fear of injury does not explain ences from an evolutionary perspective, but differences, and the treatment is thorough, why women should actively seek egali- this one differs from most as it is more a thoughtful and up-to-date. The writing is tarianism, nor why they should form com- monograph than a text. Campbell has a also clear and engaging. munal bonds with unrelated individuals point to make, and she integrates a vast My pleasure in reading the book was that are more enduring and less exchange- array of material in doing so. That said, the repeatedly marred, however, by the publish- orientated than the alliances formed by book would nonetheless make a fine text er’s treatment of the references. They are men. While most of the book is devoted to for a graduate course on the evolutionary grouped by chapter at the end of the book explaining how and why women compete, psychology of women. Among the book’s (rather than being listed alphabetically), Campbell devotes a chapter to this more strengths are its emphasis on conditional and it is a guessing game to find the chapter conciliatory side of female nature. She strategies, its integration of ‘ultimate’ you need. If references must be grouped this suggests that their communal tendencies (adaptive) and ‘proximate’ (neurological way, please give readers a hint about where are an evolved response to male philopatry, and biochemical) levels of explanation, and to look by indicating the chapter title at the women’s consequent lack of kin support, and its authoritative treatment of female aggres- top of each page of references. I the need for protection from men. Perhaps. sion — a field in which Campbell has done Elizabeth Cashdan, Department of Anthropology, It is a topic that deserves more attention considerable ground-breaking research. University of Utah, from evolutionary psychology than it has Notwithstanding its specialized focus, it Salt Lake City, Utah received. does cover the bases in 84112-0060, USA. Science in culture

Natural style

E. MATSUI Ideas taken from science are proving to be fashionable. David Cyranoski Like the criss-cross pattern of a sunflower head a common sight on the streets of Tokyo or and the spiral of a nautilus shell, Eri Matsui’s in wedding halls. “But these designs help best-selling wedding dress (above, far right) can open up the imagination, and provide a be described using the Fibonacci mathematical basis for designing more practical clothing sequence. The Japanese fashion designer used for everyday wear,” she says. Practical increasingly short layers of fabric in the skirt clothing based on universal forms does not to form sections in a 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 35, … have to be conventional, she insists. pattern, culminating in 56 narrow tufts around For her last collection, entitled “A Changing the waist. “People recognize the beauty in the Erotic Lifeless Object”, shown on 18 April, Matsui order, whether they are looking at the dress or tailored several sets of clothes around cell division within ourselves. wearing it,” says Matsui, who has devoted and differentiation. In one series, the first model “When people think about herself to finding universal forms to make emerged onto the catwalk totally enshrouded in the brain or neurons, they think of them as women look beautiful. an egg-shaped netting. The next, with netting something external, something that scientists tell Having experimented with images from billowing out above and below a tight waistline, us about, something to be looked at objectively knot theory, fractal models and Klein bottles, was undergoing the first stage of cell division. — not as part of us,” she says. “On the other Matsui has more recently been scouring the The series continued with representations of hand, clothes really are lifeless and external — world of biology for universal forms to use. Her multiple cell stages. Another series (above, left but when we put them on we think of them as November 2000 collection, for example, with the five images) began with straight horizontal lines part of us.” Clothes that depict or represent these theme “Brain, Mind, Computer, and Fashion”, representing a single cell that gradually curved, biological processes can allow us to experience showcased dresses with colourful images of model by model, becoming increasingly directly what we are, she adds. neurons and others whose thick folds individual and specialized. The series ended David Cyranoski is Nature’s Asian-Pacific approximate the brain’s contours (above in lilac). with a death stage, in which slits represented correspondent. Best known in Japan for her somewhat cell walls breaking apart. unconventional wedding dresses, Matsui knows Matsui hopes that her work will help us to Eri Matsui’s next show will be held in Tokyo that these kinds of design are unlikely to become realize what we are, and recognize the beauty in autumn.