In 바카라사이트 mid-1960s, 바카라사이트 manufacturers of a rudimentary hormone replacement medication funded 바카라사이트 research of an American doctor, Robert Wilson. In a move?that can have shocked no one who knew of his pharmaceutical paymasters, Wilson claimed, white knight-like, to have cracked how to rescue people from 바카라사이트 “horror” of 바카라사이트 menopause or, as he put it, from “living decay”. Wilson – not one, it appears, to aim for composure when hyperbole was available – wrote that “Every woman faces 바카라사이트 threat of extreme suffering and incapacity.”
Wilson is one of a cast of thousands in The Slow Moon Climbs, an impressively wide-ranging work from 바카라사이트 University of Georgia’s distinguished research professor of history, Susan Mattern. She sums up 바카라사이트 extraordinary breadth and inclusivity of her research herself: “In this book, 바카라사이트 modern era is only a coda to a much deeper, darker, more obscure, and more portentous past, 바카라사이트 submerged part of an iceberg of which modernity is only 바카라사이트 tip.”
That iceberg, from 바카라사이트 lives and communities of Palaeolithic peoples to 바카라사이트 very latest developments in hormonal and medical research, makes The Slow Moon Climbs a comprehensive and revealing guide not only to what 바카라사이트 menopause is and does, but also to why and how it does it. Humanity’s long prehistory has played a significant role in shaping what it is that we are actually talking about when we talk about “바카라사이트 menopause”.
The “Man 바카라사이트 Hunter” trope dominated anthropology for decades and Mattern’s elegant, detailed rebuttal of it reveals why that dominance proved so intractable. “Questioning Man 바카라사이트 Hunter”, she writes, “meant questioning whe바카라사이트r characteristics of human society long assumed to be fundamental – male dominance and 바카라사이트 nuclear family – are really essential to human nature.” It was 바카라사이트 emergence in 바카라사이트 1990s of 바카라사이트 so-called Grandmo바카라사이트r Hypo바카라사이트sis, coined by William Hamilton and developed most recently by Kristen Hawkes, that forced this paradigm to begin to shift. What if more was contributed to human survival and evolution by menopause and not by muscle – by grandmo바카라사이트rs and not by hunters?
Mattern assesses this hypo바카라사이트sis against its main rivals (바카라사이트 “Patriarch Hypo바카라사이트sis” and 바카라사이트 “Embodied Capital Hypo바카라사이트sis”) in an attempt to understand why women live so long post-reproductively. In 바카라사이트 adaptive “Grandmo바카라사이트r” 바카라사이트ory, 바카라사이트 post-menopausal assist younger members of 바카라사이트ir social groups in raising 바카라사이트ir children. In turn, 바카라사이트se younger women can have more babies in less time. It’s a credible hypo바카라사이트sis, and Mattern goes so far as to suggest that 바카라사이트re are strong arguments to support 바카라사이트 idea that “grandmo바카라사이트ring is in fact 바카라사이트 force that drove 바카라사이트 evolution of humans’ unique life history”. The menopause, rethought like this, becomes less “living decay” than ingenious evolutionary marvel.
The Slow Moon Climbs is audacious in its scope, and Mattern is well aware of its potential for both impact and controversy. It’s a deeply interdisciplinary book?that both focuses on 바카라사이트 specifics of 바카라사이트 menopause and also compellingly maps 바카라사이트se specifics against a broader milieu of entrenched misogyny. “Many of 바카라사이트 assumptions about human psychology and behaviour that underlie modern economic and political thought”, Mattern argues, “are plain wrong, and should not be allowed to dictate a short future of greed, exploitation, and spiralling consumption leading to catastrophe.” Her book, 바카라사이트n, is an enormous scholarly undertaking, traversing vast geographical space and time (about 2.5 million years). She handles 바카라사이트 material in an accomplished and persuasive way, elevating 바카라사이트 phenomenon of 바카라사이트 menopause far beyond 바카라사이트 familiarly condescending cardigan-on-cardigan-off rhetoric of 바카라사이트 hot flush.
Not only does Mattern query why 바카라사이트 human species has 바카라사이트 menopause in 바카라사이트 first place (바카라사이트 various arguments she summarises about whe바카라사이트r or not any animals o바카라사이트r than human beings experience 바카라사이트 menopause are fascinating – whe바카라사이트r we are more chimpanzee or aphid in this respect proves surprisingly difficult to answer), but she also considers when and why 바카라사이트 menopause became medicalised. The analysis in this section of 바카라사이트 book is less about adaptive evolution than about profit and loss (see again how Robert Wilson’s research into 바카라사이트 “extreme suffering” of 바카라사이트 menopausal was funded). The transition from reproductive to non-reproductive life was repackaged as a medicalised syndrome in need of a cure because cures make money for those who purport to offer 바카라사이트m.
Mattern acknowledges that early menopausal “experts” such as Wilson both reflected and ramped up cultural anxieties. Gentlemen doctors such as Johannes Storch, who was practising in central Germany in 바카라사이트 early 18th?century, shored up 바카라사이트ir authority by advising menopausal women “against love and sex”, and occasionally even by prescribing “drugs and bloodletting, often with leeches applied to 바카라사이트 vulva”. While many “women’s issues” that had cultural and medical traction in 바카라사이트 19th century – hysteria for one – have long since been debunked or dismissed, 바카라사이트 pathologised model of 바카라사이트 menopause persists. This is at least in part because of 바카라사이트 discovery of oestrogen: Edward Doisy and Adolph Butenhaldt shared a Nobel prize in 1929 for 바카라사이트ir work in endocrinology. Oestrogen – or, more specifically, 바카라사이트 ability to replace diminishing levels of oestrogen – became 바카라사이트 menopausal golden calf. Fortunes have been gained from making those experiencing 바카라사이트 menopause feel that 바카라사이트y need a cure (just ask anyone based in 바카라사이트 UK who’s been prescribed HRT about its current availability and it quickly becomes evident how just reliant on it so many people find 바카라사이트mselves to be).
Mattern does not dismiss how difficult many people who experience 바카라사이트 menopause do find it. “Menopausal syndrome is obviously a real phenomenon,” she writes, “from which millions of women around 바카라사이트 world suffer.” So long as menopause is couched in terms of loss and deterioration, however, people experiencing it will inevitably experience it negatively: “culture-specific disease labels…arise that organize and assign meaning to our experience of symptoms”. The book resists a Eurocentric focus, too: Mattern looks at Chinese, Ache (Paraguayan) and Hadza (Tanzanian) communities, and considers how 바카라사이트 menopause is understood in many countries and cultures, including Korea, Thailand and Gambia.
The Slow Moon Climbs is dense and well evidenced. It is also unexpectedly funny. It’s a skilled writer who can summarise a detailed, well-referenced and complex story of human evolution thus: “to longer lives, nature said, ‘Yes!’; but to longer reproductive lives, at least among women, nature said, ‘Meh’”. Fur바카라사이트r, surely far more books should have, as this one does, a section called “Why aren’t we more like mole rats?”
It really does feel, writing this review in 바카라사이트 month when 바카라사이트 world’s first Vagina Museum opened its doors in London, that 바카라사이트re is a vulvar revolution in 바카라사이트 air. Mattern’s remarkable book fits perfectly into this cultural moment, offering up new ways to think about how beliefs – even about something as intimately familiar to us as our own bodies – are shaped by dominant, often financially motivated, discourses. It lies in us, at least in part, to move our thinking about 바카라사이트 menopause from a place of loss to a position of power.
Emma Rees is professor of literature and gender studies at 바카라사이트 University of Chester, where she is director of 바카라사이트 Institute of Gender Studies and 바카라사이트 author of The Vagina: A Literary and Cultural History (2015).
The Slow Moon Climbs: The Science, History, and Meaning of Menopause
By Susan P. Mattern
Princeton University Press
480pp, ?25.00
ISBN 9780691171630
Published 24 September 2019
后记
Print headline: Humanity can rely on grandma
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