Author: M. Gregory Oakes
Last saved by: Oakes mg

Study Guide – Ridley I
HMXP102
Prof. Oakes
Winthrop University

Central Question, this section:  What is the relationship between the human self and the natural order?

Matt Ridley, Genome:  The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters (HE 29)

1.	What does it mean to say that evolution has “no pinnacle” and makes “no progress”?  In what sense, if any, is the black-smoker bacterium more “highly evolved” than are we?  (What does “highly evolved” mean, exactly?)
2.	What is a “survival machine”, and what is its purpose, evolutionarily speaking?
3.	What is the relationship between neoteny, having a big brain, a long period of development into maturity, and eating meat?
4.	How, exactly, did humans come to find youth sexually attractive?
5.	What was the role in human evolution of sexual division of labor?
6.	What is the relation between genes and behavior, according to Ridley?  How does this compare with the relation between genes and anatomy?