SOCIOL 110 Chapter Notes - Chapter 2: Sociobiology

• School: UMASS-Amherst
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOCIOL 110
• Professor: Noa Milman

Document Summary

Biological theorizing has been used to naturalize social inequality (saying. Africans were well-suited for slavery because of their race character) Iq tests were administered to immigrants, which caused them to believe that some races were not as smart as others. The feminist challenge threatened social order, which intensified biological theorizing about genders. Conservation of energy principle was used to believe that higher education wasn"t for women. Darwin constructed an evolution theory that naturalized the sexual inequalities in society (males are subject to more selection, so they are more evolved) Tiger argues that excluding women from politics, economy, and the military is because genetically, males create bonds with one another. Sexual inequality is based on the fact that male reproduction is limited by the number of fertile females they can inseminate. Females have to be selective of their partners, because they have limited eggs, and pregnancy is a demanding process.