Descent of Women

A detailed Summary of Descent of Women

The Descent of Woman, by Elaine Morgan, tells the idea of the Aquatic Theory of Evolution. According to this theory of evolution, the ape, which man is believed to evolve from, comes down from the trees due to a drought and into the water. While adapting to a new environment, the ape evolved to become more like man. When the drought was over, this ape moved back onto the land and completely evolved into man. Morgan goes into great depth and detail throughout the chapters. She covers each process in the evolving of this species that she feels was wrongly described by past evolutionists.

In chapter one, she tells how in the Book of Genesis, it is said that God created man first and woman was created later and was not created as well as man. Because of this, whenever a book is written about man evolving the pronoun 'he' is used since man means male and species. This pronoun puts the image of a male in the reader's head. This is why Morgan chose to use the pronoun 'she' and tell the theory of evolution through a female evolving. She also tells in this chapter the theory of the Tarzanlike figure a prehominid male came down from the trees and almost immediately became a Mighty Hunter and that everyth

I found this novel to make sense of the Aquatic Theory to a pretty large degree. I enjoy the way Elaine Morgan writes. She is very blunt. This book was very interesting although hard to comprehend some of the concepts the first time reading them. I especially found chapters nine through eleven difficult. I must say however, Morgan got me to buy this theory almost completely.

In chapter three Morgan tells how because of being in the water the apes evolved to cry to rid the body of excessive amounts of salt in the body. She also says how because the ape was no longer covered by trees she had to deal with the sun in her eyes thus bringing about a frown. She also developed a muscular mass called the buttocks as protection for her rear end while sitting on the rough beaches. As result from becoming bipedal her vaginal passage swung forward. It also drew farther into the body and became covered with a protective layer known as the hymen for protection against sitting on the beach. The new angle of the vagina made it difficult for the male to mate with the female with such a small penis. The male evolved a larger penis as to reach the vagina better. They also began the frontal approach of mating because due to the angle her vagina moved forward he could no longer get access from the rear end approach. What I don't understand about this is that if it takes millions of years for something to evolve and the male had to evolve a larger penis in order to mate then what did they do in the mean time to reproduce to keep the species alive?

hrimp. Some of the things in the water had hard shells and she didn't have daggers to crack them like her mate did. So as attempt to feed herself and her child she used pebbles to break them open thus beginning to use tools. Her mate then began to use pebbles for skull bashing of slightly larger but harmless creatures in the sea such as baby seals. As she spent more time in the water she would go as far in the water as up to her neck. This would cause her to have to stand on her hind legs. She also began to loose her fur because of the heat. It also slowed her down in the water swimming. They spent most of the Pliocene in the water and evolved into bipedal, hairless apes with subcutaneous fat. This subcutaneous fat also filled the mothers breast in order to bring the breast and nipple lower so that the child could reach in and grasp it better to feed.

Morgan, in chapter two, dates back to the mild Miocene. During this time there was the hairy prehominid ape still living in the trees and still a vegetarian. She didn't yet evolve into what distinguishes her from other species. After a few million years, a drought occurred in the Pliocene and drove the ape out of the trees and onto the plain. She could simply not adapt to living on the plains. Since she lived in the central part of Africa, there was no water for her to move to so she became extinct. However, her cousin of the same species lived on the coast of Africa. She had the same problems as her cousin who became extinct. She couldn't digest grass and there were fierce carnivores on the ground that frightened her and no trees to run up. She did however, have water to run into when she was frightened and the carnivores didn't like to get wet. So due to this and the heat, she found herself spending a lot of her time in the water. She began eating small crabs and s!

In chapter four Morgan discusses the orgasm. The female orgasm is an unclear part of evolution. Some e

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Approximate Word count = 2362
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Novels