Critical Analysis of Elaine Morgan's "The Descent of a
Critical Analysis of Elaine Morgan's "The Descent of a Woman"
Elaine Morgan’s 1972 book The Descent of Woman contains eleven chapters that tell about the role of women in the evolution of humans. She begins the book by telling how humans were referred to as ‘man’ and the pronoun ‘he.’ She states how this can create images in you head of men, thus making women the afterthought and in conclusion n seem inferior. Morgan’s book doesn’t make the woman seem more intelligent or more powerful just equal to him if not a little higher. She gives the impression that woman was the one to get the wheel of human evolution in motion.
In chapter one, Morgan asks 5 questions concerning evolution. She answers these questions throughout the book. She firsts asks, “What happened during the Pliocene?” (11) Before the Pliocene there was a time called the Miocene. During this time there were great areas of forests and a lot of rainfall to keep the grounds of Africa moist. There were a great number of apes living during this period because of the ideal living conditions provided by the forests. Then came the Pliocene that lasted for twelve million years and was full of dry weather and decreasing amounts of forests. The ape population suffered greatly because of this, some survived in the small forest areas left. When the Pliocene ended a different type of ape surfaced called the Australopithecines. (12) Morgan’s next question was “Why did they stand upright?” (13) Many theories have been created by this question. Many believed it was for speed, but research and some common sense shows that animal with four legs are able to move a lot faster then animal with only two. Another theory was that this gave the ape the capability to run and hold a weapon at the same time. Morgan shoots this theory down and says there must be a better reason, she continues later in the book with this answer. The rest of the questions that she answers throughout the book are; “How did the ape come to be using these weapons, anyway”(14)“why did the naked ape become naked”(16) and finally “Why has our sex life become so involved and confusing?”(17)
Morgan begins her explanation of the evolution process in the Miocene. During this time there was a “vegetarian pre-hominid hairy ape” (21) that lived on the African continent. When the Pliocene...