Did Darwin Misread the Female Mind?

Did Darwin Misread the Female Mind?
A New Look at Mate Selection

For a printable version of this release, please click here.

January 1999 - In Mr. Darwin Misread Miss Peacock's Mind, author Merle Jacobs disputes the anthropomorphic idea of Charles Darwin and many present day authors that male adornment in fancy-male species arises by a process of female selection of such males on the basis of beauty for the sake of beauty. In fact, Jacobs questions whether the non-human mind is capable of such feats as appreciation of fine art.

Jacobs suggests that female attraction to fancy males of a species may be motivated by an attraction to a food stimulus. Courtship-feeding, as frequently observed among birds and insects, is seen as a method of bringing together males and females of similar tastes and physiologies. The food may be merely present in the territory of the male, actually placed there by the male (as among bowerbirds),or displayed on his plumage (as among peacocks). The female mind is centered on plain, old-fashioned home economics! This relates mating systems directly to environmental niche specialization.

What is the most important drive in nature? It is simply the food drive. Wild animals appear to know this, but humans invariably think the answer is the sex drive. Yet sex is merely subservient to the aim of the food drive. Sexual reproduction merely provides the exploratory variability from which nature can select the most efficient genotypes.

The sexual (liberal, consuming) generation of the life cycle stands in marked contrast to the vegetative (conservative, producing) generation. Any species not assuming an optimal balance between these two generations will be ousted from its niche by a more energy-efficient species, in line with the law of natural selection. Over development of display traits is curtailed in the natural world by natural selection for energy efficiency.

The human appears to be a violator of the natural law of energy conservation. A greatly expanded mind enables humans to eliminate natural controls and proceed to expand the sexual generation of the life cycle. This imbalance can lead to bankruptcy.

This may have contributed to the fall of a succession of human empires.
The glitter and glamour of declining civilizations is evidence of this.
As human groups compete for social advantages, the entire earth is becoming studded with displays of glitter and glamour.
Outside the limitations of nature, what can stop this progress toward economic doom.
Will the human intellect recognize the problem and make the necessary corrections?

Also presented are some new ideas about the role of colorful body pigments -- particularly melanoid pigments -- of animals in direct adaptation to the earth's environmental niches.

Dr. Jacobs is Research Professor Emeritus of Zoology at Goshen College in northern Indiana, where he taught and did research in genetics for more than 20 years. He has had a long career in studies of insects (especially dragonflies and fruit flies), fish, and birds.

For more information, contact:

Merle Jacobs
NatureBooks
1-219-533-2726
merleej@goshen.edu
http://www.goshen.edu/~merleej/book/index.shtml

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