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  3. The Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex
  • Cited by 5
Publisher:
Cambridge University Press
Online publication date:
October 2010
Print publication year:
2009
First published in:
1871
Online ISBN:
9780511703836
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511703836
Subjects:
History of Science, Life Sciences, Evolutionary Biology, General Science
Series:
Cambridge Library Collection - Darwin, Evolution and Genetics
Information

Book description

In his introduction, Darwin reveals that for many years he had no intention of publishing his notes on this topic, 'as I thought that I should thus only add to the prejudices against my views'. By 1871, he felt that his fellow scientists would show a greater openness of mind to his arguments, even when taken to their logical conclusion and applied to the descent of man from the apes – the aspect of his theory which had been so widely mocked since the notorious question asked by Bishop Wilberforce at the Oxford debate of 1860: was it through his grandmother or his grandfather that Thomas Huxley, Darwin's champion, considered himself descended from a monkey? However, the book's focus on the area of sexual selection and the evolutionary importance of secondary sexual characteristics across the animal kingdom meant that the book was received without the public outrage that Darwin had feared.

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