Joan Roughgarden

Challenges traditional views of gender identity and sexual orientation in animals and humans, explaining how diversity is developed from genes and hormones and why it should be celebrated and affirmed.

Diversity, Gender, and Sexuality in Nature and People

Evolution’s Rainbow

In this innovative celebration of diversity and affirmation of individuality in animals and humans, Joan Roughgarden challenges accepted wisdom about gender identity and sexual orientation. A distinguished evolutionary biologist, Roughgarden takes on the medical establishment, the Bible, social science—and even Darwin himself. She leads the reader through a fascinating discussion of diversity in gender and sexuality among fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds, and mammals, including primates. Evolution's Rainbow explains how this diversity develops from the action of genes and hormones and how people come to differ from each other in all aspects of body and behavior. Roughgarden reconstructs primary science in light of feminist, gay, and transgender criticism and redefines our understanding of sex, gender, and sexuality. Witty, playful, and daring, this book will revolutionize our understanding of sexuality. Roughgarden argues that principal elements of Darwinian sexual selection theory are false and suggests a new theory that emphasizes social inclusion and control of access to resources and mating opportunity. She disputes a range of scientific and medical concepts, including Wilson's genetic determinism of behavior, evolutionary psychology, the existence of a gay gene, the role of parenting in determining gender identity, and Dawkins's "selfish gene" as the driver of natural selection. She dares social science to respect the agency and rationality of diverse people; shows that many cultures across the world and throughout history accommodate people we label today as lesbian, gay, and transgendered; and calls on the Christian religion to acknowledge the Bible's many passages endorsing diversity in gender and sexuality. Evolution's Rainbow concludes with bold recommendations for improving education in biology, psychology, and medicine; for democratizing genetic engineering and medical practice; and for building a public monument to affirm diversity as one of our nation's defining principles.

Evolution's Rainbow

deconstructing Darwinian selfishness

The genial gene

From rain forests of Hawaii to hidden coves of the Caribbean, this story brings futuristic technology to an age-old battle between good and evil. In this innovative retelling of the classic Ramayana epic, CEOs replace kings, sects of professional geeks replace sects of priests, and the hero has superhuman abilities from genetic engineering rather than divine intervention. This action-packed, yet philosophical tale explores the boundary separating humans from animals. It envisions a world where humans and animals work to promote the common good. "Evolutionary biologist Roughgarden [Evolution's Rainbow] reaches back two millennia to turn the Ramayana into science fiction, changing its poetry to hard science... staying faithful to the essence of the original stories... [Ram-2050] should satisfy fans of technical and naturalistic SF." - Publishers Weekly "gripping" - Marc Bekoff, University of Colorado "relevance" - Mandakranta Bose, University of British Columbia "humorous" - Freddy Christiansen, Aarhus University "delightful" - Simon Levin, Princeton University "imaginative" - Chase Mendenhall, Stanford University "fast-paced" - Anil Menon, Science Fiction Writer "radical" - Barbara Smuts, University of Michigan "positive" - Jeremy Van Cleve, University of Kentucky "wisdom" - Michael Weisberg, University of Pennsylvania For full text of blurbs and other reviews, please visit Ram-2050.com. Joan Roughgarden is an evolutionary biologist and ecologist from the University of Hawaii and Stanford University. She has published fieldwork from eastern Caribbean islands and the rocky intertidal zone of California. She has authored or edited eight nonfiction texts and monographs, including Evolution's Rainbow, winner of the 2005 Stonewall Prize for nonfiction from American Library Association. Ram-2050 is her first novel.

A Ramayana Epic for the Future

Ram- 2050

Explores evidence that suggests whether selfishness and individuality are subjective biological traits, examining social behaviors that relate to sex, gender, and family, and discussing an alternative evolutionary theory called "social selection" that focuses on cooperation.

Deconstructing Darwinian Selfishness

The Genial Gene

Click here to visit evolutionandchristianfaith.org "I'm an evolutionary biologist and a Christian," states Stanford professor Joan Roughgarden at the outset of her groundbreaking new book, Evolution and Christian Faith: Reflections of an Evolutionary Biologist. From that perspective, she offers an elegant, deeply satisfying reconciliation of the theory of evolution and the wisdom of the Bible. Perhaps only someone with Roughgarden's unique academic standing could examine so well controversial issues such as the teaching of intelligent design in public schools, or the potential flaws in Darwin's theory of evolution. Certainly Roughgarden is uniquely suited to reference both the minutiae of scientific processes and the implication of Biblical verses. Whether the topic is mutation rates and lizards or the hidden meanings behind St. Paul's letters, Evolution and Christian Faith distils complex arguments into everyday understanding. Roughgarden has scoured the Bible and scanned the natural world, finding examples time and again, not of conflict, but of harmony. The result is an accessible and intelligent context for a Christian vision of the world that embraces science. In the ongoing debates over creationism and evolution, Evolution and Christian Faith will be seen as a work of major significance, written for contemporary readers who wonder how-or if-they can embrace scientific advances while maintaining their traditional values.

Reflections of an Evolutionary Biologist

Evolution and Christian Faith

Jonathan Roughgarden

The author of this treatise uses the Anolis lizard to demonstrate the concept of ecology models - how ecological context supplies the natural selection that drives evolution and how evolutionary change among species in turn affects their ecological station.

Ecology, Evolution, and Plate Tectonics

Anolis Lizards of the Caribbean

Are selfishness and individuality—rather than kindness and cooperation—basic to biological nature? Does a "selfish gene" create universal sexual conflict? In The Genial Gene, Joan Roughgarden forcefully rejects these and other ideas that have come to dominate the study of animal evolution. Building on her brilliant and innovative book Evolution's Rainbow, in which she challenged accepted wisdom about gender identity and sexual orientation, Roughgarden upends the notion of the selfish gene and the theory of sexual selection and develops a compelling and controversial alternative theory called social selection. This scientifically rigorous, model-based challenge to an important tenet of neo-Darwinian theory emphasizes cooperation, elucidates the factors that contribute to evolutionary success in a gene pool or animal social system, and vigorously demonstrates that to identify Darwinism with selfishness and individuality misrepresents the facts of life as we now know them.

Joan Roughgarden

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