Sarah Blaffer Hrdy on human evolution and parenthood

The Life Scientific

BBC

Technology, Personal Journals, Society & Culture, Science

4.6 • 1.4K Ratings

🗓️ 7 November 2023

⏱️ 30 minutes

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Summary

Our primate cousins fascinate us, with their uncanny similarities to us. And studying other apes and monkeys also helps us figure out the evolutionary puzzle of what makes us uniquely human. Sarah Blaffer Hrdy’s work brings a female perspective to this puzzle, correcting sexist stereotypes like the aggressive, philandering male and the coy, passive female. Sarah is Professor Emerita of Anthropology at the University of California, Davis, and studies female primate behaviour to create a richer picture of our evolutionary history, as well as what it means to be a woman or a parent today. Her overarching aim is to understand the human condition, a goal she initially planned to pursue by writing novels. Instead, she found her way into science: her groundbreaking study of infanticide among langur monkeys in northern India overturned assumptions about these monkeys’ murderous motivations. Later in her career, she looked into reproductive and parenting strategies across species. We humans are primed by evolution, she believes, to need a lot of support raising our children. And that’s a concern she found reflected in her own life, juggling family commitments with her career ambitions as a field researcher, teacher, and science writer. Produced by Cathy Edwards.

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, music, radio podcasts.
0:05.0	Hello and welcome to the podcast edition of The Life Scientific.
0:09.0	I'm Jim Alkulele, and this is the show where I get to talk with some of the world's leading
0:13.8	scientists and you get to find out what drives them. So sit back, get comfortable and
0:19.0	enjoy the episode. We humans have always been fascinated by our primate cousins.
0:25.0	Of course, studying these animals also helps us figure out the evolutionary puzzle of what makes us uniquely human.
0:31.0	But there's a tendency to focus on male behavior in this puzzle,
0:35.1	bolstering stereotypes of the male aggressor and the passive female. My
0:40.1	guest today has worked to counter this bias, studying female primate behavior to create
0:45.2	a richer picture of our evolutionary biology, as well as what it means to be a woman.
0:51.0	Sarah Blaffer Herdy is an American anthropologist and primatologist and professor
0:56.2	emeritor at UC Davis in California. Her overarching aim, she says, is to understand
1:02.2	the human condition.
1:03.4	It's a goal she initially planned to pursue by becoming a novelist.
1:06.8	But instead, she found her way into science, making her name as a primatologist
1:11.1	studying infanticide among Lur monkeys in North India.
1:15.0	Throughout her career she sought to understand reproductive and parenting strategies.
1:20.0	We humans are cooperative breeders, she believes, primed by our evolutionary history to need a lot of support raising children.
1:28.0	It's a concern she found reflected in her own life as she juggled family with career ambitions.
1:34.0	Sarah Herdy welcomes the life scientific.
1:36.0	I'm delighted to be here.
1:38.0	Now I mentioned that your research has helped counter sex bias in the study of evolution. Are sex stereotypes the aggressive male
	...

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