Reply #46: "The Descent of Woman" Elizabeth Morgan (or get that monkey off my back) [View All]

I believe that is who wrote it. Basically it is Darwins theory of evolution but instead of it being from the persepctive of the male anatomy, Morgan follows the anatomical evolution from the perspective of the female ape's anatomy... Prior to the shift in the pelvis, male apes could penetrate female apes, at there discretion, at random and would penetrate her vagina which was exposed, from behind.

Morgan has one chapter dedicated to that point in time when the alignment of the spine changed when the apes moved from walking on all fours to standing erect and becoming bipedal. She argues that at one point this caused great confusion within the male ape. The shift in the female pelvic placement.

Before it shifted he could penetrate at random and from behind because the sway of the ape spine in essence exposed the female genitals from behind. Once it shifted, penetration from behind became more difficult, because the shift of the pelvis also shifted the female genitals to the front. In doing so this shift in anatomy also gave the female neanderthal more say in the matter. Morgan suggests that at this interval in female anatomic evolution, once the pelvis shifted, was when the struggle between the male and the female really began.

According to Morgan there was a transitional period wherein the male apes would try to penetrate as they had always from behind (and without consent in essence), but since the pelvis had shifted; female apes were finding it easy to just shake the monkey off her back.

Overtime a struggle ensued wherein the male ape had to struggle with the female ape in an effort to turn her around. In having to penetrate from the front of the women, that meant he actually had to deal with her as well, penetration for him no longer just based on his random choice. The rest is history.

Morgan's theories of course were all backed up from both an archeological and antropological perspective. I found her book interesting, the chapter I described most fascinating and thought provoking.