Central and Eastern Europe on its way to European Union
Extraits
Non classé
Central and Eastern Europe on its way to European Union
The transition of the Eastern Central European countries from centrally planned economies to developed market economies has been one of the major structural changes in Europe. It started a new stage of enlargement of the European Union. The monograph presents the results of an international research effort aimed at the analysis of macroeconomic aspects of joining the European Union by the Central European countries. This analysis was based on country and world economy models and rests on a series of alternative scenarios of economic development up to the year 2010. It provides the reader with a broad historical background and a discussion of recent trends of Central Europe. It summarises the experience of the new members of the European Union. The scenario simulations show the likely path of future economic development for the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia, analysing the pros and contras of joining the European Union.
11/1999
Non classé
Education and the Values Crisis in Central and Eastern Europe
Fundamental educational reform is one of the central elements of the social transformation taking place in the former socialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe. In this volume selected experts and eye witnesses of the radical change taking place in the region provide detailed and graphic presentation of the problems and controversies surrounding reform. They explore how the educational systems have responded to the collapse, and they explain the source of new models, ideas, and values on the part of educational policy makers, researchers and teachers. A focus of attention is the values crisis among the youth. The authors explore the values the socialist systems attempted to convey, the manner in which the youth have responded to the collapse, and the possible sources of new values and ideals.
05/1994
Droit
The gay's and lesbians's rights in an enlarged European Union
During the last few years, gay and lesbian rights have reached the European Union human rights agenda and different instruments to combat discrimination have been adopted, which have had major implications for the gay and lesbian communities all over Europe, This volume focuses on less known and less studied aspects of these accomplishments. Its originality lies both in the multidisciplinary nature and the international approach of this project ; researchers from different universities throughout Europe (Brussels, Leiden, Stockholm, Athens, Ljubljana, Budapest, Bucharest, Paris and Krakow) and from different disciplines (law, political science, sociology and journalism) have contributed to this volume. Through case studies and theoretical reflection, the articles collected here aim at reinforcing the existing interest for the topic as well as offering an academic look at the subject, with a view to fostering scientific dialogue and contributing to the development of this field of research. The book is structured in three different parts, covering a broad spectrum of issues, among which : legal achievements on outlawing discrimination on sexual orientation within the European Union, the evolution of same-sex partnership and marriage, the accomplishments in the candidate countries. By providing a comprehensive overview of the aforementioned topics, this book can be appreciated by different categories of readers, from those interested in human rights to those working in the specific field of non-discrimination or studying the evolution of norms.
02/2006
Sciences politiques
The European Union Transformed. Community Method and Institutional Evolution from the Schuman Plan to the Constitution for Europe
This book has established itself as one of the most concise and authoritative guides to the institutional development of the European Union. Covering the evolution from the original European Communities to the Constitution for Europe, Youri Devuyst introduces the reader to the divisions and dilemmas that have resulted in today's European Union. In doing so, the book provides much-needed clarification of the principles and practice behind the Union's institutions, decision-making and external relations. This knowledge is of crucial importance in grasping not just the Union's way of doing business but also the current debate on the future of the enlarged European Union and its new Constitution. Written in a clear and comprehensible style throughout, The European Union Transformed includes 20 topic-specific guides to further reading, making it the ideal source for all those who wish to understand the functioning of the European institutions.
11/1999
Sciences politiques
Putin, game master?
Has Vladimir Putin become the master of the game ? Why and how did the Russian President decide to attack Ukraine ? Did he seek to prevent Ukraine from associating with Europe ? Does he seek to reconstitute the USSR ? Did NATO promise not to expand east after 1990 ? Is the Nord Stream 2 project the sinews of war ? Is Ukraine's neutrality the only solution ? Has Russia ever lost or won the war ? ... Based on the files of the intelligence services and official reports, Jacques Baud thus reviews the events of the recent history of Russia, which led to the war with Ukraine ; it analyzes the various disputes between the West and Russia, and sheds light on the role that Putin plays today on the international scene. Jacques Baud is a former member of Swiss strategic intelligence, a specialist in Eastern European countries and head of United Nations peace operations doctrine. He was engaged in negotiations with top Russian military and intelligence officials right after the fall of the USSR. Within NATO, he participated in programs in Ukraine and in particular after the Maidan revolution in 2014 and 2017. He is the author of several books on intelligence, war and terrorism, and in particular Governing by fake news and The Navalny affair, published by Max Milo.
11/2022
Sciences politiques
Politique européenne N° 71/2021 : Le Parlement européen et la politique de la mémoire. Explorer la constellation des acteurs
Au sommaire : Le Parlement européen et la politique de la mémoire / The European Parliament's youth policy, 1952-1979 : An attempt to create a collective memory of an integrated Europe / Victimizing Europeans : Narrating Shared History in the European Parliament's House of European History / Competing Regimes of Memory ? The European Day of Remembrance in Romania / Acting at the margins Italian mnemonic activism in the European Parliament / (Un)shared memory : European Parliament and EU. Remembrance Day for Victims of Terrorism
07/2021
Histoire de France
The Borders of Schengen
Currently, we are witnessing a "border game" with participants on a global scale. The massive movement of illegal immigrants and refugees who have arrived in Europe over the last few months has led political leaders, activists' movements and anonymous citizens to rethink practices and discourses. The media have multiplied news stories about mobilization initiatives that go well beyond the sphere of the state and even operate on the fringes of the law. Nationalism and identity issues have found their way onto the EU and its member-states' agenda while the international community argues about the urgency to collaborate to address one of the greatest problems seen in Europe since the Second World War. Schengen borders have been suffering reconfigurations on an almost daily basis and Schengen has even been temporarily suspended in some countries, with the ghost of the end of the Union hovering over Europe. The series of multidisciplinary texts collected in this book offer the reader a variety of perspectives on the understanding of the Schengen area. Broadly speaking, this volume includes reflections on subjects that embrace the debates on the concept and practices of the free movement of persons within Europe, the security dimension of the European Union, illegal immigration and migration management, human rights and the role of various players and interests. This is the book to read if you wish to understand the latest developments in the Schengen area on its 30th anniversary.
09/1993
Non classé
«In the Interest of Democracy»
Until recently, there has been little concrete evidence linking the American Federation of Labor (AFL) to the U.S. government's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the late 1940s and early 1950s. In this book, based upon recently opened archival collections, the author investigates this controversial and complicated early Cold War relationship. Contrary to arguments that the AFL's international activities were entirely controlled by the U.S. government to the detriment of the independent international labor movement, or that the AFL acted on its own without government involvement to foster legitimate anti-communist trade unions, the author's examination of the archival sources reveals that the AFL and the CIA made an alliance of convenience based upon common goals and ideologies, which dissolved when the balance of power shifted away from the AFL and into the hands of the CIA. In addition to tracing the complicated historical threads which resulted in an apparently unlikely relationship, three specific examples of how the AFL worked with the CIA are investigated in this book : the development of the anti-communist trade union federation Force Ouvrière in France ; the AFL campaign against the Soviet Union's use of "slave labor" at the UN ; and labor's role in the activities of the National Committee for a Free Europe, including Radio Free Europe and the Free Trade Union Center in Exile.
07/2011
Droit européen des affaires
Lobbyst. Revelations from the EU Labyrinth, 2e édition
I feel the need to enlighten the public on the way the European Union functions, or rather malfunctions. For most readers, this could come as a great shock : how can one imagine that the legislator no longer legislates and that he delegates his legislative power to obscure cenacles called "trilogues" ? Today, being a lobbyist is considered to be bad. A defender of business, of multinationals, of capitalism, ... and by extension of pesticides, intensive agriculture and junk food. That is the image ! The aim of this book is not to correct this image, but to provide elements of appreciation and to give a form of objectivity to the debate. Daniel Guéguen is the longest serving EU lobbyist. He is the former head of the European sugar lobby and then of the European farmers unions. Now a consultant, he is at the heart of the lobbying issues that make the news. Longtime professor in the United States, notably at Georgetown and Harvard. Now at the College of Europe. Multi-author, editorialist, blogger, Daniel Guéguen remains a convinced pro-European, but fiercely critical of an opaque, bureaucratic and, to put it bluntly, anti-democratic system.
12/2023
Histoire internationale
Accomplices
This volume asserts that there was tacit cooperation in the Nazi extermination of the Jewish population of Europe by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and American President Franklin D. Roosevelt during the Second World War. Although the Allies publicly recognized the Nazi massacre of the Jews in the London Declaration of December 17, 1942, the policies they pursued allowed the genocide to continue. They did so, the author claims, in three ways : (1) refusal to publicly and personally speak about and against the Nazi extermination of the Jews ; (2) refusal to commit even one soldier, one plane, or one warship to any forcible opposition to the "Final Solution" throughout the Second World War ; and (3) obstruction of Jewish escape from Hitler's Europe. This book explores the motivation for the policies Churchill and Roosevelt pursued.
06/2011
Thèmes photo
Way to blue
"Way to blue" est un récit photographique, tel un carnet intime. Arnaud Chochon, photographe natif de Charente-Maritime et basé à Toulouse, a commencé ce travail en 2018 après avoir développé un film de son appareil argentique. Parmi les photos oubliées de ce film, il y trouve son propre portrait réalisé par son frère décédé quelques mois auparavant où ce dernier apparaît dans le reflet des lunettes de soleil. Commence alors un travail photographique de 4 ans dont la forme est variée, du numérique à l'argentique, du compact au reflex en passant par le téléphone, pourvu qu'elle incarne les différentes phases du deuil et de la reconstruction. De souvenirs intimes à des paysages paisibles ou mouvementés, ce récit reprend petit à petit le chemin de la vie où l'humain retrouve une place.
03/2023
Poésie
Epilepsy: the invisible pain
They say life is a long stretch of a calm river, but not for everyone ! She was for me until the day when everything rocked, the day my destiny was changed dramatically. People do not realize how life can be so sweet and so beautiful. They complain all day long for trivialities. They are not even aware that they have before their eyes the most beautiful wealth : the luck and happiness of living in good health. I was rich before. Now I am poor because my child has an incurable disease, that has currently no hope of being healed. As a parent, how can we accept that ? , How to continue living carrying the bundle of pain in my head ? , How to overcome this feeling of helplessness ? When I started speaking to my heart, I didn't know myself that this was the beginning of a new life : a rebirth as a poet. When I learnt that my 7-year-old daughter was suffering from the Dravet Syndrome, a rare genetic epileptic encephalopathy, this was like an earthquake in my life. Then, I needed to write in order to express my sorrow and my pain. Words and rhymes came naturally to my mind. This was obvious that poetry would be my survival weapon.
01/2019
Histoire internationale
One Artist on Five Continents
Elisabet Delbrück (1876-1967) was one of a number of Germans who came to New Zealand in the late 1930s. Unlike most, she had not intended to emigrate but was touring the country when World War II broke out. She was at first forbidden to leave and then chose to remain in Wellington. Her thirty years in Mahina Bay on Wellington harbour had a profound effect on all who knew her. This study aims to discover why she was so remarkable. It explores her early life, her marriage into a prominent German family and her qualification as an artist. She turned this into a profession, teaching and exhibiting on five continents in the 1920s and 1930s. She always travelled alone, observing the customs and beliefs of the people she met. In Australia and New Zealand in 1938 and 1939 she was wrongly suspected of spreading Nazi propaganda. Her story is also the story of a heroic group of Wellingtonians who helped her in the 1940s and valued her friendship till her death.
12/2011
Anglais apprentissage
Acacia thorn in my heart
I started writing "Acacia thorn in my heart" after reading the book of a white South African woman about her childhood in the same region as mine but relating a completely different experience. She had maids, her father drove her to school and she played with real toys. I lived in the heart of the country, away from everything and had to walk five miles to go to school. I was born in Natal. My father rented a plot of land from a white owner to do market gardening. Although Indian families tended not to educate daughters, our parents decided that education was a priority for us. Despite financial difficulties, they were able to send us to school. We had to get up at five o'clock in order to catch the school train. In winter, as we were scantily clad, we shivered all the way to the station.
09/2001
Sociologie
National and European Law on the Threshold to the Single Market
The volume contains the reports and discussion papers presented at an English-German Colloquium in May 1992. Scholars and practicing lawyers from the United Kingdom and Germany deal with seven important fields of law : History of Environmental Law - Current Issues of Local Government - Immigration and Asylum - Towards European Private Law Principles - Product Safety and Product Liability - Social Security - The Single Market and the Legal Profession.
03/1993
Sciences politiques
European Union Foreign Policy and the Global Climate Regime
Ever since the first international negotiations on climate change in the early 1990s, the European Union has aspired to play a leading role in global climate politics. This book engages in a longitudinal analysis of the EU's participation in and impact on the United Nations climate regime. It provides not only comprehensive insights into the evolution of EU foreign climate policy, but also a thought-provoking audit of the potential and limits of the EU's influence in a major domain of global affairs.
03/1993
Histoire de France
Italy and Tito’s Yugoslavia in the Age of International Détente
World War II and East-West confrontation redefined borders between Italy and Yugoslavia, reshaped national frontiers and adversely affected political relations. As a result, major quarrels and disputes arose over territorial claims, demarcation of State boundaries, expulsion of national minorities, and diverging visions on international and domestic politics. It was only in the 1960s and 1970s, during the years of Détente, that rapprochement between Rome and Belgrade became possible and normalization of bilateral relations was attained. Long-lasting territorial disputes, such as the Trieste question, were solved and bilateral relationship greatly improved, so much so that Belgrade became an important asset in Italy's Balkan and Adriatic strategy, while Rome was a sort of bridge between Socialist Yugoslavia and Western Europe. This book is intended to shed light on the process of Italian-Yugoslav normalization and rapprochement, which ultimately brought to the Adriatic Détente. Based on a wide collection of primary sources and documentary materials, it aims to contribute to a better understanding of the history of the Adriatic region, a conflicted European space that had been affected by territorial disputes and ethnic strife for decades during the 20th century.
11/1993
Littérature française
Eastern
Martin, danseur et chorégraphe à Paris, revient dans son village slovaque pour revoir son grand-père mourant. Gabriela, une amie de jeunesse, l'accompagne, qu'il présente comme sa fiancée. Elle l'aidera à affronter, en même temps que son passé, son père et ses oncles, ces héros d'un "eastern" déboussolé depuis la chute du communisme. Eux pensent qu'ils ont tout raté et sont sans courage, humiliés, honteux, tandis qu'alentour la richesse s'exhibe, et l'argent facile. Martin voudrait les réconcilier avec eux-mêmes. Il dansera pour eux avec une grâce qui rendra à chacun son honneur et sa dignité. Eastern est le premier livre d'Andrea Salajova, auteur et cinéaste d'origine slovaque. Ecrit directement en français, il mêle la force du témoignage et de la vision à la riche palette d'émotions du roman.
02/2015
Histoire de l'art
Titian, the Della Rovere Dynasty, and His Portrait of Guidobaldo II and his Son. Edition
Le portrait Klesch, par Titien, de Guidobaldo II avec son fils Francesco Maria représente le duc d'Urbino dans ses pleins pouvoirs de commandant suprême des troupes papales avec son héritier à ses côtés. Ce rare double portrait en pied vient seulement d'être attribué à Titien après avoir entrepris des analyses et une restauration minutieuses qui révèlent une belle peinture au style "non finito" avec de superbes touches d'empâtement totalement typiques au maître. Tout ceci est illustré et développé dans ce nouveau livre. Titian provided portraits for the greatest men and women of Europe, Charles V and Philip II of Spain primary among them. For years the Klesch portrait was dismissed as a workshop product - partly because poor condition hid its true quality, but also because it was not believed that Titian could have deigned to create one for Guidobaldo, whose father Guidobaldo della Rovere (1514-1574) and family had a long history of patronizing the artist. Recent research, however, has thrown Guidobaldo's geopolitical significance into relief. He was supreme commander of Venice, the Papal States and then Spain. He sent thousands of soldiers to the major conflicts of his day, particularly the defense of Malta (1565) and the Battle of Lepanto (1571) and his engineers were sought throughout Europe for their ingenuity. In this volume full of new research, Ian Verstegen reveals that Guidobaldo was not peripheral but central to Italian politics and was regarded at several points in history as a key figure who could bring peace or who could influence major conflicts on the Italian peninsula, particularly the War of Siena, and then Pope Paul IV's offensive war against Spain. Anne-Marie Eze gives the first comprehensive examination of the painting's provenance, outlining the portrait's vicissitudes and reception at different moments in its near 500-year history, reexamining received wisdom about its past ownership, and presenting new documentary evidence to expand on and fill gaps in our knowledge of its whereabouts. Finally, Matthew Hayes and Ian Kennedy reflect on the technique, date, recent conservation, and authorship of the painting, proving it to be a masterpiece that only the great Titian could have created.
11/2021
Policiers
Blue Jay Way
Julien, jeune Franco-Américain féru de littérature
contemporaine, a perdu son père dans l'avion qui s'est écrasé
sur le Pentagone le 11 septembre 2001. La célèbre romancière
Carolyn Gerritsen, qui l'a pris en amitié, lui propose d'aller
vivre un temps à Los Angeles chez son ex-mari, le producteur
Larry Gordon. A Blue Jay Way, villa somptueuse qui domine
la cité des anges, Julien est confronté aux frasques du maître
des lieux et à une jeunesse dorée hollywoodienne qui a fait de
son désoeuvrement un art de vivre : un monde où tous les
désirs sont assouvis, où l'alcool, les drogues et les parties
déjantées constituent de solides remparts contre l'ennui. Peu à
peu, Julien se laisse séduire par ce mode de vie délétère et finit
par nouer une relation amoureuse avec Ashley, la jeune
épouse de Larry. Lorsque celle-ci disparaît mystérieusement, il
doit tout faire pour dissimuler leur liaison sous peine de
devenir le principal suspect. Ce n'est que le début d'un terrible
cauchemar : très vite, les morts violentes se succèdent,
mensonges, trahisons et manipulations deviennent monnaie
courante et la paranoïa apparaît bientôt comme la plus sage
des solutions. Styliste hors pair, Fabrice Colin donne ici de
nouveaux territoires au thriller et nous offre un roman
profondément contemporain, qui dresse le portrait d'une
époque où réalité et fiction ont irrémédiablement partie liée,
parfois pour le meilleur, souvent pour le pire. Los Angeles, la
ville où tout est filmé, et où pourtant tout est faux, est le cadre
idéal de cette palpitante descente aux enfers, doublée d'une
intrigue machiavélique.
02/2012
Antiquité - Généralités
The Italians on Delos
During the second century and into the early first century BC, the island of Delos was home to the largest port of transit in the eastern Mediterranean. As such, it welcomed many Italian traders who prospered among its cosmopolitan population for some fifty or so years. The many buildings, statues, paintings and inscriptions unearthed since 1873 by the French School at Athens have made it possible to trace out the life of this disparate yet influential community.
11/2021
Non classé
Waste Management in Poland and Germany
Poland attracts foreign investment. This holds also true for foreign enterprises involved in waste management. In order to do efficiently and successfully waste management-related business in Poland, it is of great importance to get acquainted with the following issues : general waste management situation, market conditions and business openings for waste management firms, and the legal framework governing waste management in Poland. Given that Poland hopes to be admitted to the European Union by the turn of the coming century, co-ordination and harmonization of the different national waste management programs are imperative. Therefore, for comparative reasons, the German waste management system and the waste management policies in the European Union are discussed as well.
09/1997
Non classé
Rethinking East-Central Europe: family systems and co-residence in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
This book reconstructs fundamental aspects of family organization across historical Poland-Lithuania, one of the largest political entities in early modern Europe. Using a plethora of quantitative measurements and demographic microsimulation, the author captures and elucidates the complex patterns of leaving home and life-cycle service, marriage and household formation, along with domestic group structures and living arrangements among different subpopulations of Poland-Lithuania, highlighting a variety of ways in which these patterns were nested in their respective local and regional contexts. By showing that at the end of the 18th century at least three distinct family systems existed in the Polish-Lithuanian territories, Szo ? tysek challenges a number of orthodoxies in the ‘master narratives' on the European geography of family forms of F. Le Play, J. Hajnal, P. Laslett, and their followers. Volume two of the book contains an extensive bibliography along with a thorough archival documentation of the census-like microdata used in the book, and provides detailed information on their quality and further technicalities pertaining to data analysis.
01/2016
Non classé
Church, State, and Religious Dissent
Seventh-day Adventism, a young American-based denomination, encountered strenuous opposition when it first reached Europe in the second half of the 19th century. This was especially true in Austria, where traditional allegiance to Roman Catholicism, linked with a strong emphasis on cultural continuity, constituted the tenor of social life. The book not only describes the history of Adventism in Austria but also examines its relationship to the Austrian political and religious milieu. The study may furnish valuable insights to stimulate further discussion of church-state relationships and provides a basis for continuing investigation of the dynamics involved in encounters of minority religions with hostile socio-cultural settings.
04/1993
Sciences politiques
L'espoir européen. Des unions précédentes à l'Union européenne
L'espoir doit se retrouver à tous les niveaux d'une civilisation tournée vers l'avenir. L'Union européenne suscite de nombreux débats : pour ou contre, possible ou impossible, etc. Malgré tout, l'Union incarne l'espoir de ne plus sombrer dans la guerre. Les regards croisés sur d'autres modèles d'unions, ayant ou non perduré, sont sans doute le meilleur moyen de relativiser la complexité de la construction européenne. Les unions fédérales comme les unions nationales d'antan plaident toutes en faveur de l'union, de par les ensembles pacifiques et prospères précédemment engendrés. Plus encore, lorsque ces unions en viennent à se disloquer faute de compromis, les résultats en découlant plaident aussi pour l'union : la chute de l'URSS a potentiellement occasionné plus de morts que la Révolution de 1917, l'implosion de la Yougoslavie de Tito a précipité ce territoire dans des guerres et des génocides incessants, etc. De l'utopie à la dystopie d'une Europe, faisant front à la réalité d'un monde polycentrique dans lequel l'Europe doit rester un centre, il n'y a qu'un pas. Pour cela, l'unification progressive paraît nécessaire pour faire face à tous les enjeux du vingt et unième siècle.
05/2019
Livres 0-3 ans
YAOUNDÉ BABA SCARED?....ME?....NO WAY!
YAOUNDE BABA SCARED ? ... ME ? ... NO WAY ! YAOUNDE goes off in search of his little goat, BEEE, who, in spite of the young boy's watchful eye, has gone missing. On the way he meets ZOULÏA, a friendly mouse, and ARWANE, a little ant, who help him to find the little goat. Their search will lead them to an isolated hill where a very strange creature lives - a creature capable of transforming itself into unimaginably frightening shapes and forms to scare away anybody who dares to set foot on its steep hill. In order to find BEEE, YAOUNDE and his two friends will have little choice. They will have to cross its territory and confront this incredible and terrifying creature. 6 to 10 Years.
10/2017
Religion
Corporatism and the Stability of Capitalist Democracies
This dissertation treats a problem which originally stems from Marxist political economic thinking : why do representatives of the working-class compromise with representatives of the capitalist class on major socio-economic topics on a national level, and what do such compromises look like ? The author establishes the claim that macro-economic compromises between organized classes are both likely to result and unstable in their nature. It is shown how the state may act as an actor supporting the establishment of an institutionalized class compromise and how it may try to prevent the breakdown of it. After elaborating these claims in a dynamic macro-economic model, the author describes developments of class compromises in post World War II Sweden, Austria and the Netherlands to illustrate the theory.
02/1991
Littérature française
Destiny
Jeremy Kay was left heartbroken when his sweetheart from college betrayed him the day he was going to propose to her. However he turned a new page and little did he know what destiny had planned for him... Iris, a carefree wild soul who only believed in her freedom is left mystified when she falls for her best friend. Roy, the 'Casanova' grows fed up of his lavish lifestyle ; suddenly everything becomes so meaningless and he craves for something greater...
04/2014
Mondes fantastiques
The night and its moon T2. The sun and its shade
"Je t'aime. ". . Les mots remplis de larmes de Nox résonnent encore sur le sable alors qu'elle est à nouveau séparée d'Amaris. Après avoir lutté sans merci pour se retrouver, elles étaient à peine réunies qu'Amaris a été emmenée par le dragon de la reine. Désespérée, Nox est contrainte de naviguer dans les eaux troubles des complots politiques. La jeune femme noue une alliance avec la ligue des bretteurs pour retrouver Amaris et ramener la paix entre les royaumes. Les deux jeunes femmes doivent pousser leur magie jusqu'à ses limites pour espérer, un jour, créer un monde meilleur. Mais peu à peu, un doute s'immisce : leur amour est-il aussi puissant qu'elles le pensent ? Ou bien est-ce une force supérieure, différente et mystérieuse, qui les lie ?
Histoire et Philosophiesophie
WHY SEX MATTERS. A Darwinian Look at Human Behavior
Why are men, like other primate usually the aggressors and risk takers? Why do women typically have fewer sexual partners? Why is killing infants routine in some cultures, but forbidden in others? Why is incest everywhere taboo? Bobbi Low ranges from ancient Rome to modern America, from the Amazon to the Arctic, and from single-celled organisms to international politics to show that these and many other questions about human behavior largely come down to evolution and sex. More precisely, as she shows in this uniquely comprehensive and accessible survey of behavioral and evolutionary ecology, they come down to the basic principle that all organisms evolved to maximize their reproductive success and seek resources to do so.
Low begins by reviewing the fundamental arguments and assumptions of behavioral ecology: selfish genes, conflicts of interest, and the tendency for sexes to reproduce through different behaviors. She explains why in primate species-from chimpanzees and apes to humans-males seek to spread their genes by devoting extraordinary efforts to finding mates, while females find it profitable to expend more effort on parenting. Low illustrates these sexual differences among humans by showing that in places as diverse as the parishes of nineteenth-century Sweden, the villages of seventeenth-century China, and the forests of twentieth-century Brasil, men have tended to seek power and resources, from cattle to money, to attract mates, while women have sought a secure environment for raising children. She makes it clear, however, they have not done so simply through individual efforts or in a vacuum, but that men and women act in complex ways that involve cooperation and coalition building and that are shaped by culture, technology, tradition, and the availability of resources. Low also considers how file evolutionary drive to
acquire resources leads to environmental degradation and warfare and asks whether our behavior could be channeled in more constructive ways.
Why Sex Matters is a compelling work of biology, sociology, and anthropology and a penetrating study of the deep motivations that underlie individual and social behavior.
01/2000
