Zoo Station

I haven't read a Desmond Morris book in a long, long while. I used to be a fan of his books growing up, especially of Naked Ape, Bodytalk and Human Zoo. The New York Times weekend book review informs us that Morris has a new book out, called The Naked Woman. If one is to go by Helen Fisher's review, Morris has written yet another interesting book, this time about why and how the female body came to be, especially from an evolutionary perspective.

Women's everted lips are a good example of neoteny, the extension of childlike characteristics into adulthood, an evolutionary process Morris returns to frequently throughout the book. Women have more neotenous physical traits than men do. For example, pound for pound the average adult woman has about twice as much body fat, an infantile trait, as the average man. Women also have higher, more childlike voices and smoother, more finely boned baby faces, traits that Morris maintains evolved to elicit protective responses in their male mates.

In an age when many educated people resist the voluminous data on the biological variations between the sexes, Morris's unapologetic description of myriad gender differences is refreshing. Perhaps most important, Morris reiterates an anthropological tenet: for millions of years [ed: millions?] humankind lived in societies where women and men were regarded as different but largely equal. Today women in many cultures are gradually returning to their ancient human status. And in a time when some people question the concept of evolution, Morris's book gives an elegant view of nature's timeless evolutionary processes and one of its most sophisticated creations: woman.