Free Ebook Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity (Stonewall Inn Editions (Paperback)), by Bruce Bagemihl
But, exactly how is the means to obtain this book Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality And Natural Diversity (Stonewall Inn Editions (Paperback)), By Bruce Bagemihl Still perplexed? No matter. You can take pleasure in reading this publication Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality And Natural Diversity (Stonewall Inn Editions (Paperback)), By Bruce Bagemihl by on the internet or soft data. Just download and install guide Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality And Natural Diversity (Stonewall Inn Editions (Paperback)), By Bruce Bagemihl in the link given to go to. You will get this Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality And Natural Diversity (Stonewall Inn Editions (Paperback)), By Bruce Bagemihl by online. After downloading and install, you could conserve the soft file in your computer system or gizmo. So, it will certainly reduce you to read this book Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality And Natural Diversity (Stonewall Inn Editions (Paperback)), By Bruce Bagemihl in particular time or place. It could be not certain to enjoy reviewing this publication Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality And Natural Diversity (Stonewall Inn Editions (Paperback)), By Bruce Bagemihl, due to the fact that you have bunches of task. But, with this soft file, you can take pleasure in reading in the extra time also in the spaces of your tasks in office.
Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity (Stonewall Inn Editions (Paperback)), by Bruce Bagemihl
Free Ebook Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity (Stonewall Inn Editions (Paperback)), by Bruce Bagemihl
Reserve Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality And Natural Diversity (Stonewall Inn Editions (Paperback)), By Bruce Bagemihl is among the priceless worth that will certainly make you constantly abundant. It will certainly not indicate as rich as the cash offer you. When some individuals have absence to face the life, people with lots of e-books occasionally will be wiser in doing the life. Why ought to be e-book Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality And Natural Diversity (Stonewall Inn Editions (Paperback)), By Bruce Bagemihl It is in fact not indicated that book Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality And Natural Diversity (Stonewall Inn Editions (Paperback)), By Bruce Bagemihl will give you power to reach every little thing. Guide is to review and just what we implied is guide that is read. You can additionally view exactly how the book entitles Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality And Natural Diversity (Stonewall Inn Editions (Paperback)), By Bruce Bagemihl as well as varieties of book collections are giving below.
The factor of why you can obtain as well as get this Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality And Natural Diversity (Stonewall Inn Editions (Paperback)), By Bruce Bagemihl faster is that this is the book in soft data kind. You can read the books Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality And Natural Diversity (Stonewall Inn Editions (Paperback)), By Bruce Bagemihl any place you really want also you remain in the bus, workplace, home, as well as various other places. But, you could not have to relocate or bring guide Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality And Natural Diversity (Stonewall Inn Editions (Paperback)), By Bruce Bagemihl print wherever you go. So, you will not have bigger bag to carry. This is why your selection to make better concept of reading Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality And Natural Diversity (Stonewall Inn Editions (Paperback)), By Bruce Bagemihl is truly helpful from this situation.
Understanding the way how you can get this book Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality And Natural Diversity (Stonewall Inn Editions (Paperback)), By Bruce Bagemihl is likewise important. You have actually been in right website to start getting this information. Get the Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality And Natural Diversity (Stonewall Inn Editions (Paperback)), By Bruce Bagemihl web link that we offer right here and also see the web link. You can buy the book Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality And Natural Diversity (Stonewall Inn Editions (Paperback)), By Bruce Bagemihl or get it as soon as feasible. You could promptly download this Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality And Natural Diversity (Stonewall Inn Editions (Paperback)), By Bruce Bagemihl after getting offer. So, when you require guide quickly, you can directly get it. It's so easy and so fats, isn't it? You should choose to in this manner.
Merely attach your tool computer or device to the internet hooking up. Get the modern technology to make your downloading Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality And Natural Diversity (Stonewall Inn Editions (Paperback)), By Bruce Bagemihl completed. Also you don't wish to check out, you can straight shut the book soft data and also open Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality And Natural Diversity (Stonewall Inn Editions (Paperback)), By Bruce Bagemihl it later. You can additionally effortlessly obtain guide anywhere, because Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality And Natural Diversity (Stonewall Inn Editions (Paperback)), By Bruce Bagemihl it remains in your device. Or when being in the workplace, this Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality And Natural Diversity (Stonewall Inn Editions (Paperback)), By Bruce Bagemihl is also advised to review in your computer system tool.
A Publishers Weekly Best Book
One of the New York Public Library's "25 Books to Remember" for 1999
Homosexuality in its myriad forms has been scientifically documented in more than 450 species of mammals, birds, reptiles, insects, and other animals worldwide. Biological Exuberance is the first comprehensive account of the subject, bringing together accurate, accessible, and nonsensationalized information. Drawing upon a rich body of zoological research spanning more than two centuries, Bruce Bagemihl shows that animals engage in all types of nonreproductive sexual behavior. Sexual and gender expression in the animal world displays exuberant variety, including same-sex courtship, pair-bonding, sex, and co-parenting--even instances of lifelong homosexual bonding in species that do not have lifelong heterosexual bonding.
Part 1, "A Polysexual, Polygendered World," begins with a survey of homosexuality, transgender, and nonreproductive heterosexuality in animals and then delves into the broader implications of these findings, including a valuable perspective on human diversity. Bagemihl also examines the hidden assumptions behind the way biologists look at natural systems and suggests a fresh perspective based on the synthesis of contemporary scientific insights with traditional knowledge from indigenous cultures.
Part 2, "A Wondrous Bestiary," profiles more than 190 species in which scientific observers have noted homosexual or transgender behavior. Each profile is a verbal and visual "snapshot" of one or more closely related bird or mammal species, containing all the documentation required to support the author's often controversial conclusions.
Lavishly illustrated and meticulously researched, filled with fascinating facts and astonishing descriptions of animal behavior, Biological Exuberance is a landmark book that will change forever how we look at nature.
- Sales Rank: #834769 in Books
- Published on: 2000-04-10
- Released on: 2000-04-10
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.00" h x 1.70" w x 6.00" l, 1.90 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 768 pages
Amazon.com Review
Bruce Bagemihl writes that Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity was a "labor of love." And indeed it must have been, since most scientists have thus far studiously avoided the topic of widespread homosexual behavior in the animal kingdom--sometimes in the face of undeniable evidence. Bagemihl begins with an overview of same-sex activity in animals, carefully defining courtship patterns, affectionate behaviors, sexual techniques, mating and pair-bonding, and same-sex parenting. He firmly dispels the prevailing notion that homosexuality is uniquely human and only occurs in "unnatural" circumstances. As far as the nature-versus-nurture argument--it's obviously both, he concludes. An overview of biologists' discomfort with their own observations of animal homosexuality over 200 years would be truly hilarious if it didn't reflect a tendency of humans (and only humans) to respond with aggression and hostility to same-sex behavior in our own species. In fact, Bagemihl reports, scientists have sometimes been afraid to report their observations for fear of recrimination from a hidebound (and homophobic) academia. Scientists' use of anthropomorphizing vocabulary such as insulting, unfortunate, and inappropriate to describe same-sex matings shows a decided lack of objectivity on the part of naturalists.
Astounding as it sounds, a number of scientists have actually argued that when a female Bonobo wraps her legs around another female ... while emitting screams of enjoyment, this is actually "greeting" behavior, or "appeasement" behavior ... almost anything, it seems, besides pleasurable sexual behavior.
Throw this book into the middle of a crowd of wildlife biologists and watch them scatter. But Bagemihl doesn't let the scientific community's discomfort deny him the opportunity to show "the love that dare not bark its name" in all its feathery, furry, toothy diversity. The second half of this hefty tome is filled with an exhaustive array of species that exhibit homosexuality, complete with photos and detailed scientific illustrations of the behaviors described. Biological Exuberance is a well-researched, thoroughly scientific, and erudite look at a purposefully neglected frontier of zoology. --Therese Littleton
From Publishers Weekly
A brilliant and important exercise in exposing the limitations of received opinion, this book presents to the lay reader and specialist alike an exhaustively argued case that animals have multiple shades of sexual orientation. The book is broken into two sections, the second containing species "portraits" detailing recorded homosexual/transgendered behaviors. The main portion of the book sets out to reveal and, indeed, revel in the documented evidence to date that some 450 species engage in both sustained and occasional "gay," "lesbian" and transgendered pairing, parenting and play. Animals (both heterosexual and homosexual) also rape and divorce, commit "child" abuse and infidelity and can be lifelong celibates. Human claims to uniqueness in this arena are shown to be increasingly difficult to maintain. The overall effect is to detonate the myth that animals are solely driven by heterosexual reproductive urges, as Bagemihl, a biologist, amasses evidence with case study after case study of species ranging from whiptail lizards to bottlenose dolphins, flamingoes, vampire bats and giraffes. But his book offers more than a zoological laundry list. Biologists who have long classified these behaviors as taking place only in "abnormal" conditions or as "pseudo-copulation," "mistakes," "practicing" and domineering sexual bullying are frequently shown to be willfully ignoring behavior that does not reflect their own worldview or accepted scientific thought. What might so easily have turned into a tub-thumping activist tract hitched to the need for acceptance of homosexuality among humans is instead elevated to a hugely inclusive, celebratory biological interpretation of the world. Bagemihl convincingly overturns previous inviolable "truths" that scarcity and functionality are the prime agents of biological change, and advances instead the idea that abundance and extravagance?"biological exuberance"?are just as crucial to the mosaic of life. Numerous illustrations by John Megahan.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
A scholarly, exhaustive, and utterly convincing refutation of the notion that human homosexuality is an aberration in nature. Biologist Bagemihl, who formerly taught cognitive science at the University of British Columbia, argues persuasively that our current understanding of biology and evolution is tainted by a heterosexually biased interpretation of animal behavior. He intends as his audience both a scientific and a general readership; he reaches both with his clear and straightforward presentation. Focusing primarily on mammals and birds, and citing only strictly documented case studies, he firmly establishes in part one of this work that homosexual and transgendered behaviors occur widely in the animal world. Bagemihl's definition of homosexuality includes a diverse range of activities organized under five headings: courtship, affection, sex, pair-bonding, and parenting. He views the challenge before us now as the need to abandon a traditional point of view, whereby ``same-sex activity is routinely described as being `forced' on other animals'' or is viewed as a substitute for heterosexual coupling that occurs only when no other (i.e., no heterosexual) mate can be found as the first choice of those concerned. A new understanding of animal relationships should therefore also recognize that not all animal sexual activity is aimed at reproductionwe must reconsider traditional explanations of the links between reproduction, evolution, and natural selection. Part two is organized as a thorough reference guide to homosexual behaviors in individual animals and birds, complete with extensive examples and rigorous footnotes. Bagemihl does realize that some among us will never be convinced that homosexuality occurs freely and frequently in nature. But his meticulously gathered, cogently delivered evidence will quash any arguments to the contrary. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Most helpful customer reviews
127 of 138 people found the following review helpful.
Fascinating account of animal homosexuality
By Duane Williams
The first part of the book is an independent 262 page exposition of homosexual, bisexual and transgendered animal sexuality. If you want to know what the birds and the bees are doing when Jerry Falwell isn't looking, this is the place to find out. Don't expect to find traditional family values in these pages. What you will discover instead is that animals aren't doing it for Darwin, they are doing it for fun. There are amazingly detailed descriptions, pictures and illustrations here of animals having all kinds of sex (that will amaze you), and most of it isn't for procreation.
More interesting to me, though, is the speculation on the sexual origins of language and culture in chapter 2 and the devastating examination in chapter 3 of bigotry in the biological sciences in over two hundred years of observations of animal homosexuality. Bagemihl shows, for example, that in science as in society, there's a presumption of heterosexuality. Field researchers have commonly assumed, with no independent verification, that whenever they see a pair of animals engaging in what appears to be sexual behavior they are observing a male-female pair. Conversely, whenever they observe a known same-sex pair engaging in behavior that would be classified as sexual between a male and female, they classify it in some other way. This protocol largely precludes the gathering of data about animal homosexuality even when it's being observed. In some cases, though, it resulted in published studies being repudiated as much as 20 years later when it was discovered that what was presumed to be heterosexual behavior in a population was really entirely homosexual. (It's an interesting fact that in some species heterosexuality has never been observed by scientists even when they go to great lengths to observe it over periods of many years.) Also, a lot of animal homosexuality that has been recognized as such has simply been excluded from the published reports. As a result, there is still widespread belief among scientists and the public that animal homosexuality is rare or nonexistent. People will believe otherwise after reading this book.
Chapter 4 looks at the attempts to explain away animal homosexuality and chapter 5 considers arguments on the other side that try to attach evolutionary value to homosexuality. Bagemihl rejects all the proposals on both sides, demonstrating the weakness of all the explanations and typically showing that they are plainly inconsistent with the evidence of animal behavior. Finally, he arrives at the question that the reader has been waiting for for almost 200 pages: "Why does same-sex activity persist--reappearing in species after species, generation after generation, individual after individual--when it is not 'useful'?" His answer is not to show that it is useful, but rather to treat the plain existence of homosexuality as a reductio ad absurdum argument against the biologists' assumption that only traits that contribute to reproduction will survive (i.e. are useful). In pursuing this line of thought Begemihl offers interesting descriptions of animals that are nonbreeders, animals that suppress reproduction, animals that segregate the sexes so that reproduction can't happen, animals that engage in birth control, and animals that engage in other nonreproductive behaviors. He also shows that a lot of the sex that actually occurs is not for reproduction, but apparently for pleasure. All of this he believes calls for a new conception of the natural biological world.
The last chapter describes some ideas for a new paradigm, which he calls Biological Exuberance and I must say that it is much less convincing than the rest of the book. It is interesting nonetheless. Much of the last chapter is a description of the myths about animals of native North Americans, the tribes of New Guinea, and indigenous Siberian people. When I started reading this chapter I began to wonder if I had accidentally picked up a different book, but in the end he makes a connection between the myths and biological reality. In fact, he shows that some of these myths contain more facts about animals than you can find in any scientific text. Some of the most bizarre of the myths turn out to be true.
So where does it end? In mystery. "Our final resting spot--the concept of Biological Exuberance--lies somewhere along the trajectory defined by these three points (chaos, biodiversity, evolution), although its exact location remains strangely imprecise." "Nothing, in the end, has really been 'explained'--and rightly so, for it was 'sensible explanations' that ran aground in the first place."
That's not a very satisfactory answer to my mind, but the book is nonetheless a source of many interesting phenomena and ideas. I enjoyed it greatly. I expect most people who read this long book will do as I have done--read part one completely and then selectively read about some particular animals in part two. The second part is an encyclopedia of the queer sexuality of approximately 300 species of mammals and birds. An appendix contains a long list of reptiles, amphibians, fishes, insects, spiders and domesticated animals in which homosexuality has been observed.
11 of 15 people found the following review helpful.
Facinating
By Cambel
Next time people say something like "Homosexuality does not occure in nature, it is merely a lifestyle choice" you can point them to this book.
Backed by years of reasearch it points to numerous examples including ones as dramatic as Male Swans pairing for life AND adopting chicks to raise. Other interesting subjects are homsexual pair-bonds among species that do NOT usually form pair bonds. However one of the most facinating aspects are how other researcers or scientists will explain away the behavior, misreport it or even leave it out altogether. A Must for anybodys collection.
22 of 28 people found the following review helpful.
A highly important, foundational study.
By RENS
Dr. Bagemihl presents us with information neglected or even suppressed for decades. The book is somewhat repetitious and longer than it might have been, but the author is determined to break through barriers of denial and resistance and to establish the scientific basis for his presentation. He does so convincingly and challenges the scientific establishment to a new examination of the facts and a letting go of cultural prejudices regarding human and animal sexuality. An extremely important book.
Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity (Stonewall Inn Editions (Paperback)), by Bruce Bagemihl PDF
Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity (Stonewall Inn Editions (Paperback)), by Bruce Bagemihl EPub
Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity (Stonewall Inn Editions (Paperback)), by Bruce Bagemihl Doc
Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity (Stonewall Inn Editions (Paperback)), by Bruce Bagemihl iBooks
Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity (Stonewall Inn Editions (Paperback)), by Bruce Bagemihl rtf
Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity (Stonewall Inn Editions (Paperback)), by Bruce Bagemihl Mobipocket
Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity (Stonewall Inn Editions (Paperback)), by Bruce Bagemihl Kindle
No comments:
Post a Comment