The Hare and the Tortoise: 2culture, Biology, and Human Nature

We have one foot in the cultural present and the other in our biological past, writes Barash, author of The Whispering Within. He examines the conflict between galloping culture and slow-moving biology as affects sex, feminism and family structure. He addresses the subjects of the nuclear arms race (in a world of Neanderthal mentality), the population explosion, aggression and alienation. Barash looks to the future: the major factor controlling human reproductive success will be the rational intent of prospective parents; about our long practice of artificial selection with domestic animals and plants, he describes this as culture tampering with the fundamentals of biology. His quarrel is not with culture, only with our uses of it. Barash enlivens this study of ourselves with anecdotes from animal life, anthropology and literature; it gives fresh insight into the human condition. (June 17)