Conflict between males and females over reproduction is ubiquitous in nature due to fundamental differences between the sexes in reproductive rates and investment in offspring. In only a few species, however, do males strategically employ violence to control female sexuality. Why are so many of these primates? Why are females routinely abused in some species, but never in others? And can the study of such unpleasant behavior by our closest relatives help us to understand the evolution of men’s violence against women?
In the first systematic attempt to assess and understand primate male aggression as an expression of sexual conflict, the contributors to this volume consider coercion in direct and indirect forms: direct, in overcoming female resistance to mating; indirect, in decreasing the chance the female will mate with other males. The book presents extensive field research and analysis to evaluate the form of sexual coercion in a range of species—including all of the great apes and humans—and to clarify its role in shaping social relationships among males, among females, and between the sexes.
Martin N. Muller is Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of New Mexico.
Richard W. Wrangham is Ruth B. Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology in the Department of Human Evolutionary Biology at Harvard University.
Table of Contents
Introduction and Theory
Male Aggression and Sexual Coercion of Females in Primates Martin N. Muller, Sonya M. Kahlenberg and Richard W. Wrangham
Evolution of Sexual Coercion with Respect to Sexual Selection and Sexual Conflict Theory Jana J. Watson-Capps
Inter-Sexual Conflict in Primates: Infanticide, Paternity Allocation, and the Role of Coercion Parry Clarke, Gauri Pradhan and Carel van Schaik
Sexual Coercion and Mate Guarding in Non-Human Primates
Orangutans: Sexual Coercion Without Sexual Violence Cheryl Knott
Male Aggression Against Females in Mountain Gorillas: Courtship or Coercion? Martha Robbins
The Causes and Consequences of Male Aggression Directed at Female Chacma Baboons Dawn M. Kitchen, Jacinta C. Beehner, Thore J. Bergman, Dorothy L. Cheney, Catherine Crockford, Anne L. Engh, Julia Fischer, Robert M. Seyfarth and Roman M. Wittig
Female-Directed Aggression and Social Control in Spider Monkeys Andres Link, Anthony Di Fiore and Stephanie N. Spehar
Male Aggression Against Females and Sexual Coercion in Chimpanzees Martin N. Muller, Sonya M. Kahlenberg and Richard W. Wrangham
Sexual Coercion in Dolphin Consortships: a Comparison with Chimpanzees Richard C. Connor and Nicole L. Vollmer
Male Aggression toward Females in Hamadryas Baboons: Conditioning, Coercion, and Control Larissa Swedell and Amy Schreier
Sexual Coercion and Mate Guarding in Humans
Coercive Violence by Human Males Against Their Female Partners Margo Wilson and Martin Daly
The Political Significance of Gender Violence Lars Rodseth and Shannon Novak
Intimate Wounds: Cranio-Facial Trauma in Women and Female Chimpanzees Shannon Novak and Mallorie Hatch
Human Rape: Revising Evolutionary Perspectives Melissa Emery Thompson
Female Counterstrategies
“Friendship” with Males: A Female Counterstrategy to Infanticide in Chacma Baboons of the Okavango Delta Ryne Palombit
The Absence of Sexual Coercion in Bonobos Tommaso Paoli
Sexual Coercion, Patriarchal Violence and Law Diane L. Rosenfeld
Summary and Conclusions
Sexual Coercion in Humans and Other Primates: The Road Ahead Richard W. Wrangham and Martin N. Muller
This is an extraordinary book that looks at sexual coercion in the Primates, properly including humans with their close relatives. The book introduces the complexity and variability of sexual coercion in 18 chapters, each based on a different species or topic. There are no less than 22 women scientists as authors in the volume, two-thirds of the total number of authors, with nine being either sole or primary authors of articles. The book is a must read for both biologists and social scientists. This is particularly true for social scientists who are generally not familiar with how evolutionary biologists can approach the topic through the windows of multiple primate species, each with its own ecological and social context that produces a kaleidoscope of possibilities, causes, outcomes, and combinations. There is no reductionism here, only very thoughtful and rich analyses of the empirical world on a very important topic that concerns us all.
Joan Silk
Throughout nature, relations between the sexes often resemble a battle. In mammalian species, the dynamics of these battles are shaped by profound differences in the strategic interests of males and females. This volume probes the evolutionary roots of such conflicts and examines the consequences of intersexual conflict for primate females. Although not all conclusions derived from this book are comforting, all are illuminating for understanding the relations between the sexes. Joan Silk, Department of Anthropology, UCLA
Jane B. Lancaster
This is an extraordinary book that looks at sexual coercion in the Primates, properly including humans with their close relatives. The book introduces the complexity and variability of sexual coercion in 18 chapters, each based on a different species or topic. There are no less than 22 women scientists as authors in the volume, two-thirds of the total number of authors, with nine being either sole or primary authors of articles. The book is a must read for both biologists and social scientists. This is particularly true for social scientists who are generally not familiar with how evolutionary biologists can approach the topic through the windows of multiple primate species, each with its own ecological and social context that produces a kaleidoscope of possibilities, causes, outcomes, and combinations. There is no reductionism here, only very thoughtful and rich analyses of the empirical world on a very important topic that concerns us all. Jane B. Lancaster, Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico Albuquerque
Barbara Smuts
Evolutionary analysis of sexual coercion is a sensitive and controversial topic, vulnerable to simplistic biological determinism at one extreme and complete denial, at the other, of the relevance of the comparative method for understanding human behavior. This excellent volume is an open-minded interdisciplinary effort to explore the large and complex territory that lies between. Although contributors draw on a wide spectrum of data, they share a well-articulated understanding of theory and evidence from evolutionary biology. This, combined with excellent introductory and concluding chapters, facilitates an unusual degree of coherence across chapters without pressure to reach similar conclusions. The book illuminates both similarities and differences between human and nonhuman sexual coercion and encourages further research to determine which comparisons and contrasts matter most to efforts to understand and reduce human inter-sexual violence. It should be read by anyone interested in this important topic. Barbara Smuts, Department of Psychology, University of Michigan