Delaware-Otsego Audubon Society will host a Zoom program featuring Linda Melchionne discussing Richard O. Prum’s Pulitzer Prize finalist book, “The Evolution of Beauty: How Darwin’s Forgotten Theory of Mate Choice Shapes the Animal World – and Us” Jan. 19.
An evolutionary biologist and ornithologist, Prum dusts off Darwin’s long-neglected theory of mate selection in which the act of choosing a mate for purely aesthetic reasons - for the mere pleasure of it - is an independent engine of evolutionary change.
Mate choice can set the stakes for sexual conflict, in which the sexual autonomy of the female evolves in response to male sexual control. Most crucially, this framework provides important insights into the evolution of human sexuality, particularly the ways in which female preferences have changed male bodies, and even maleness itself, through evolutionary time.
The Evolution of Beauty presents a unique scientific vision for how nature’s splendor contributes to a more complete understanding of evolution and of ourselves.
Register for the Zoom program at https://tinyurl.com/h4ys2tv4
For more information contact Publicity Chairperson Susan O’Handley, Delaware-Otsego Audubon Society, Oneonta; 607-643-5680; info@doas.us
