JR Daeschner

The Anti-Dawkins: Are We Hardwired to be 'Selfish' or 'Social'? (Part 3 of 3)

2012-01-23T03:17:00.000Z

But Roughgarden's not alone in her critiques.

In The Genial Gene, she cites a Japanese study that casts doubt on 'the ultimate poster child of sexual selection': the peacock.

Darwin thought that the only reason peacocks would risk attracting predators with their plumage was because they must be even more desperate to attract mates.

For their part, peahens supposedly judge the quality of males' genes by the beauty of their tail feathers.

After more than seven years of studying peafowl, however, the authors of the Japanese study came to a stunning conclusion: there was no evidence that peahens had any preference for peacocks with fancier trains.

Even more damningly, they noted that other studies also had mixed results.

As Roughgarden puts it, 'those in the UK generally support the sexual-selection narrative, while those elsewhere do not… raising suspicion of publication bias.'

Roughgarden's own work makes you wonder whether the tooth-and-claw view of sex and nature is inherently true or just a 'de-facto truth' because we've been conditioned to believe it.

'How power relates to sex is not a biological universal,' she writes. 'We may choose to live like some species and not others.'

And it could be that sexual selection has become a self-fulfilling prophecy, with men conditioned to believe that they have to show off to attract females—'pick-up artists' actually call it 'peacocking' (citing Dawkins).

Meanwhile, women have learned to respond accordingly, rewarding 'alpha males' and 'bad boys' with their affections, even though they might be better off with nice beta and epsilon blokes. Roughgarden takes evident delight in a review that hailed her work as 'a civilization-changer.'

'But I don't think it's being taken seriously enough yet for that engagement to occur,' she says.

'People suppose that it will just go away, that the triumph of the selfish-gene narrative will continue unabated. That's wishful thinking,' she shrugs, 'but it's a kind of euphoria before the crash.'

The beauty of science, though, is that those who shout the loudest aren't necessarily the most revered in the long run.

Around the same time that Darwin was publicizing his newfangled theory, a little-known Austrian was quietly working out the mechanics of evolution.

The scientific community didn't honor Gregor Mendel until after his death.

And for what it's worth, he wasn't an atheist, either.

'The father of modern genetics' was an Augustinian monk.

The Genial Gene: Deconstructing Darwinian Selfishness is published by the University of California Press

J.R. Daeschner is the author of The History of Sex (But Not As We Know It): A Journey from Pompeii’s Oldest Brothel to Cold War Sexpionage, Angry Male Lesbians and Beyond

The Anti-Dawkins: Are We Hardwired to be 'Selfish' or 'Social'? (Part 2 of 3)

2012-01-23T03:04:00.002Z

In contrast to Darwin's modern champions (most of whom are men), Roughgarden comes across as refreshingly humble and, well, genial, in person.

Over lunch at a charity-run café near her home in San Francisco, she tells me that she'd like to think of the British Darwinist, Richard Dawkins, as a friend.

Nevertheless, the title of her book is an obvious play on his work.

Roughgarden recalls teaching from The Selfish Gene after it came out in 1976. 'I noticed the appeal that a naturalized doctrine of selfishness has to certain students and to those in the general public who, for example, identify with Ayn Rand's writings that celebrate the ethic of individualism,' she writes.

However, Roughgarden argues that the days of 'the selfish-gene narrative' are 'numbered—they have to be numbered. It's not what birds and bees do. Like two birds in a nest: each is not trying to get the other to do all the work, which would be a typical proposition by which a selfish-gene proponent would try to understand the dynamics at a bird's nest.'

Instead, her theory of 'social selection' emphasizes cooperation and reproduction rather than competition and mating.

'(The) sophisticated constellation of decisions that females make about males goes far beyond the simplistic conceptualization that Darwin put forth: that all a female is searching for is a hulk with great genes,' she writes.

And just as Darwin was a man of his time, it's tempting to cast Roughgarden and Dawkins as stranger-than-fiction opposites in our own era.

She's a relatively obscure, 'transgendered female' from one of the most liberal parts of America—and a self-professed Christian to boot—while he's a celebrated male atheist who's literally a product of British imperialism, having been born the son of a civil servant in colonial Kenya.

Dawkins published The Selfish Gene the same year that the Seventies were dubbed 'The Me Decade', and in retrospect, you can't help but wonder if his book, complete with its talk of 'cheat' and 'sucker' strategies, has helped justify the Greed-is-Good capitalism that's since wrecked the world's economy.

Likewise, it's probably no coincidence that a 'transgendered' academic in California is now highlighting cooperation over competition at a time when the world is trying to recover from the damage.

And although scientists like to tout their objectivity, Roughgarden notes that the most scathing attacks against her have come from Darwin's homeland.

'It must be like a Brit coming over here and taking potshots at George Washington!' she laughs. 'They don't want a Yank takin' potshots at Darwin.'

The Anti-Dawkins: Are We Hardwired to be 'Selfish' or 'Social'? (Part 1 of 3)

2012-01-23T02:48:00.001Z

Everybody knows that men compete for sex, while women hanker after 'alpha males,' right?

Well, at least one biologist argues that ain't necessarily so.

In fact, in The Genial Gene: Deconstructing Darwinian Selfishness, Dr. Joan Roughgarden argues that Darwin and his disciples have got it wrong: that cooperation is as important as competition in nature, and sex is as much about relationships as reproduction—if not more so.

And if all that sounds like wishful thinking, then prepare to open your mind just a little bit further: the person behind this potentially revolutionary theory is a 'transgendered woman.'

Professor Roughgarden was known as Jonathan until the age of 52, when he took a sabbatical in 1998 and came back as a she.

Since then, as an evolutionary biologist at Stanford (with a doctorate from Harvard), Roughgarden has risked her academic cred by challenging one of the founding principles of evolution: Darwin's theory of sexual selection, a key corollary to natural selection.

In his follow-up to The Origin of Species, Darwin hypothesized that showboating traits like peacocks' tails and stags' antlers were physical manifestations of the life-or-death struggle to mate with females.

According to this very Victorian view—which still dominates evolutionary biology (not to mention popular thought)—external appearances indicate the quality of one's breeding.

'Males of almost all animals have stronger passions than females,' Darwin declared in The Descent of Man. 'The male is the more active member in the courtship of the sexes. The female, on the other hand, with the rarest of exceptions is less eager than the male… she is coy.'

However, Roughgarden argues that the theory of sexual selection is not just flawed but false: a relic of its time.

In doing so, she makes Darwin & Sons look like screaming male chauvinists.

'Darwin conceived his theory in a society that glamorized a colonial military and assigned dutiful, sexually passive roles to proper wives,' she wrote in her previous book, Evolution's Rainbow.

'In modern times, a desire to advertise sexual prowess, justify a roving eye and disregard the female perspective has propelled some scientists to continue championing sexual selection theory despite criticism of its accuracy.'

Check out my latest sites!

2011-12-31T23:50:00.000Z

If you'd like to see what I'm up to, check out these sites:

The History of Sex

2010-03-23T12:59:00.011Z

My new book has now been published:

The History of Sex (But Not As We Know It) is the thinking person's guide to sex and how we got here: 'A Journey from Pompeii's Oldest Brothel to Cold War Sexpionage, Angry Male Lesbians and Beyond.'

You can check out the website here:

www.ButNotAsWeKnowIt.com.

You have two ways to read the book:

Quickly: by downloading the entire book, all 400+ pages, for just $5 at

Amazon's Kindle store
Scribd.com

or

Slowly: via free excerpts that I'll release every Tuesday and Thursday.

Next up: Arse Blowing!

2009-03-05T20:08:00.019Z

Okay, so I'm a bit behind on this, so to speak, but here's this year's calendar of events, starting with Arse Blowing.

(All dates are subject to change, so check before booking!)

Arse Blowing: 19 April
La Mascarade des Soufflaculs
Nontron, France

St. George's Day: 23 April
La Diada de Sant Jordi
Barcelona, Spain

May Day: 1 May
Padstow, Cornwall, UK

Hot Penny Throwing / Beating the Bounds: 21 May (tbc)
Oxford, England

Fire Dancing: 21 May
Anastenariá
Ayia Eleni and Langadas, Greece

Cheese Rolling: 25 May
Cooper's Hill, Gloucestershire, England

Shin Kicking: 29 May
The Cotswold Olimpicks
Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire, England

Phallus Festival: 5–7 June (tbc)
Festa de Sao Goncalo
Amarante, Portugal

St. George vs. the Dragon: 7 June (Trinity Sunday)
Le Combat dit Lumecon
Mons, Belgium

Baby Jumping: 11-14 June (Corpus Christi weekend)
La Fiesta del Colacho
Castrillo de Murcia, Spain

Oil Wrestling: usually the last weekend in June
Edirne, Turkey

Rigor Mortis Procession: 29 July
Fiesta de Santa Marta de Ribarteme
San Xose de Ribarteme, Spain

Burry Man Day: 14 August (tbc)
South Queensferry, Scotland

The Virgin's Snakes: on and around 15 August
Markopoulo, Kefalonia, Greece

Bog Snorkelling: 31 August
Llanwrtyd Wells, Powys, Wales

Matchmaking Festival: 28 August to 4 October
Lisdoonvarna, Ireland

Abbots Bromley Horn Dance: 7 September
Abbots Bromley, Staffordshire, England

Miracle of the Blood: 19 September
San Gennaro Festival
Naples, Italy

World Gurning Championships: 19 September
Egremont, Cumbria, England

Cowfighting: usually early October
Le Combat des Reines
Martigny, Switzerland

Faggot Cutting / Quit Rents Ceremony: October (exact date tbc)
London, England

Bonfire Night / Pope Burning: 5 November
Lewes, East Sussex, England

Sinterklaas and 'Black Pete': mid-November to 5 December
Amsterdam / rest of the Netherlands

Darkie Day (aka Mummers' Day): 26 December 2009 and 1 January 2010
Padstow, Cornwall, UK

The Haxey Hood: 5 January 2010
Haxey, Lincolnshire, England

Goat Tossing: 22 January 2010
Fiesta de San Vicente Martir
Manganeses de la Polvorosa, Spain

Rooster Run: 27 January 2010 (tbc)
Correr el Gallo
Guarrate, Spain

Wenches' Feast Day (Weiberfastnacht): 11 February 2010
Karneval in Beuel/Bonn, Germany

My bit for Obama-mania

2009-02-07T08:48:00.014Z

Here's the article wot I wrote for Obama's inauguration.

Forget Dreams From My Father: Frederick Douglass' autobiography should be required reading in US history classes. I was ashamed to realize I'd never read it before.

You can check it out here.

Dark--uh, Mummer's Day in Cornwall

2008-12-24T16:22:00.002Z

The event formerly known as Darkie Day will be celebrated in Padstow, Cornwall, on Boxing Day (26 December) and New Year's Day.

For my take on the event, check out the video below -- or even better read True Brits!

Happy Holidays to all!

JR

Hip Hip Hooray, it's the Burry Man's Day!

2008-08-05T21:01:00.002+01:00

Just in time for Burry Man Day this Friday, I've finally produced a clip I've wanted to do for a long time: a time-lapse progression showing the transformation of a mild-mannered graphic designer into Scotland's very own Green Man.

As it happens, this year is John Nicol's 10th anniversary as the Burry Man, 'a role that becomes more of an honour each year,' he says.

This YouTube clip shows John being dressed as the local scapegoat before being led through the streets of South Queensferry outside Edinburgh to soak up the town's bad spirits, along with plenty of whisky:

You can read more about the Burry Man in this excerpt from my book, True Brits.

Or if you're in the area, you can go along to wish John well on the day.

Or, at the very least, be sure to raise a glass on Friday in his honour.

Kirkpinar: No Greek Love Allowed

2008-07-03T21:24:00.004+01:00

In honour of the annual Turkish Oil Wrestling Championships this month, here's an excerpt from my book, Tossers and Arseblowers.

You can't blame the gay fans, really.

What with all the swarthy young men in black leather breeches lubricating their half-naked opponents with olive oil and then wrestling them to their knees and ramming their hands down their pants, well, it was only a matter of time before Turkey's national sport found a camp following on the international scene.

Yet devotees of Oil Wrestling were horrified when photos of glistening, hard-bodied Turks wound up on homoerotic websites around the world.

A gay group calling itself the Bears of Turkey even started advertising a bus tour for foreigners to drool over the Kirkpinar Oil Wrestling Championships, a semi-sacred event that dates back to the very foundations of Turkey.

As if Oil Wrestling didn't have enough problems already.

In recent years, Islamic hardliners have objected to the flesh-baring spectacle-particularly the 'hands-down-pants' hold-while doping scandals have undermined the sport's ultramacho image-surely Turkish wrestlers don't need to boost their sky-high testosterone levels!

Not to mention the occasional brawls-dozens of oiled-up Turks punching it out on the field-or, even worse, the lingering rumours (perpetuated by know-nothing outsiders) that the most Turkish of sports may have actually been invented by the Greeks as part of their ancient Olympic Games.

Throw in the fact that all this takes place on the cusp of the European Union, in a border town that used to be the Ottoman capital, against the current backdrop of Turkey's attempts to join the EU, and, well, there's only one reaction I could have: I've gotta go.

To read more, pick up a copy of Tossers & Arseblowers!

Gay Bears and the Cheek of It

2008-06-08T11:06:00.006+01:00

Ryanair Magazine's run a feature on Tossers and Arseblowers this month, taking the latter part of the title literally.

And here's my latest YouTube video ahead of the Kirkpinar Oil Wrestling Championships in July in Edirne:

Cheese Rolling and Baby Jumping: The Results

2008-05-26T20:49:00.004+01:00

Great news from the annual Cheese Rolling in England: no one was killed.

As silly as it sounds, every year when it comes Cheese-Rolling time I actually find myself worrying that someone will get seriously injured in the race: all it would take is one fatality to end the centuries-old event.

Fortunately, there were no serious injuries this year -- though the winner of the first race was carried off on a spinal board.

The BBC also reports that no one was hurt during Baby Jumping in Spain over the weekend.

Here are some photos from Sky.

The Mirror's also put up a link to my Baby Jumping Video.

Second Time Round

2008-05-13T23:22:00.002+01:00

I’m going to be making my second appearance on Second Life on Thursday, May 22nd, hosting a Dirty Limericks contest on Elysian Isle.

The event starts at 9 pm UK time, and the prizes for the best efforts will be copies of my new book, Tossers and Arseblowers: An Alternative Romp Through Europe.

Here’s a screenshot of the chat I gave for the launch a couple of weeks ago.

Sadly, my SL alter ego – Daeschner Renard -- is far buffer than I am in the flesh.

The next two weeks also sees a slew of events around Europe, ranging from Fire Dancing in Greece to Baby Jumping in Spain and the Cheese Rolling and Shin Kicking competitions in England.

Here’s the line-up to the end of the month:

FIRE DANCING: 21 May
Anastenariá
Ayia Eleni and Langadas, Greece

BABY JUMPING: 22–25 May (Corpus Christi weekend)
La Fiesta del Colacho
Castrillo de Murcia, Spain

CHEESE ROLLING: 26 May
Cooper's Hill, Gloucestershire, England

SHIN KICKING: 30 May
The Cotswold Olimpicks
Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire, England

Devil Baby-Jumping Fiesta on YouTube!

2008-04-27T21:37:00.001+01:00

My new book, 'Tossers and Arseblowers', hits the shops this week.

So to mark the event, here's a clip of the Baby-Jumping Festival in Spain on YouTube (with apologies to Van Halen).

Enjoy!

Happy St. George’s Day (or not, as the case may be)

2008-04-21T21:20:00.002+01:00

Happy St. George’s Day!

• If you’re Catalonian, you’ll be honouring St. George on Wednesday the 23rd by swapping books and roses with your loved ones.

• If you’re Valencian, you’ll be tooling up to re-enact the battle of the Moors vs. Christians in which St. George supposedly saved the day.

• If you’re Greek, you’ll have no shortage of events to choose from, including an uphill race for the elderly (which may explain why Arachova’s St. George festival lasts three days).

• But if you’re English, chances are you’ll be doing bugger all.

Why? For Tossers and Arseblowers, I set off to find out how other countries celebrate England’s patron saint.

And I was surprised to find that even the French-speaking Walloons in the heart of the EU make more of a fuss over St. George than the English do.

Take a look:

Secret Book Discount Code!

2008-04-02T23:39:00.003+01:00

As promised, here's the skinny on the steal of a deal that my publisher is offering on my new book, Tossers & Arseblowers: An Alternative Romp Through Europe.

If you pre-order T&A from www.rbooks.co.uk before the 1st May publication date, you'll receive a 30% discount plus free postage and packing.

All you have to do is enter the discount code -- TOSSERS -- at the checkout basket.

Please note: This is not a belated April Fool's joke. (Would I do that to you?)

However, the 'Welcome to Europe' video clip below is.

JR

PS: The special discount also applies to any other Random House books you order through the UK site at the same time.

Last I checked, Random House is the biggest English-language publisher in the world, so now's the time to stock up on beach reads for the summer!

Welcome to Europe! Tossers and Arseblowers

2008-03-31T18:46:00.001+01:00

Just in time for April Fool's Day!

A Saucy Limericks Clip and a Tossers Book Tip

2008-03-13T23:19:00.004Z

Here's a new video of one of the best experiences I had while writing True Brits.

This pub singalong after May Day in Minehead in the UK was like stumbling into some sort of spontaneous, obscene musical:

If you miss some of the lyrics, you can read them here.

All together now: 'There was a young man from Nantucket. . .'

A SPECIAL BOOK OFFER

Ahead of the launch of Tossers and Arseblowers on 1 May, my publisher is going to offer a nifty discount on advance copies.

Details (including a secret code) will be in my next post.

Mob Football, Prince Charles and Shrove Tuesday

2008-02-02T23:12:00.000Z

Just in time for Shrove Tuesday: here's a clip of Prince Charles opening the Shrovetide Football Match at Ashbourne and the Duke of Northumberland starting play near Alnwick Castle (which doubles as Hogwarts in the Harry Potter films):

From Tossers to Arseblowers in 2008: A Diary of Offbeat Events

2008-01-02T21:00:00.000Z

Happy New Year!

It's been ages since my last post, so I thought it was high time to pull together a calendar of Europe's most surreal events ranging from Baby Jumping in Spain and Cow Fighting in Switzerland to Matchmaking in Ireland and the Phallus Festival of Portugal.

May 2008 also sees the launch of the mass-paperback version of 'Eurotripping', which has been rechristened 'Tossers and Arseblowers' and given a racy new jacket, as you can see.

Meanwhile, I've started posting clips of all the events featured in 'True Brits' and 'Tossers and Arseblowers' on YouTube.

My introduction to Darkie Day in Cornwall has already garnered my first 'hate email' from a bona fide racist.

Like I say in the video, there's no accounting for idiots:

Future clips will feature Prince Charles at a mob football match, the ins and outs of Turkish oil wrestling, hot penny tossing at Cambridge University and a dirty limericks sing-off in the West Country.

Until then, if you're tired of the same-old holiday hotspots, take a look at my alternative calendar for 2008 here.

TOSSERS & ARSEBLOWERS 2008
All dates are subject to change, so check before booking!

The Haxey Hood: 5 January
Haxey, Lincolnshire, England

Goat Tossing: 22 January
Fiesta de San Vicente Martir
Manganeses de la Polvorosa, Spain

Rooster Run: 27 January
Correr el Gallo
Guarrate, Spain

Wenches' Feast Day (Weiberfastnacht): 31 January
Karneval in Beuel/Bonn, Germany

Arse Blowing: usually the first Sunday in April
La Mascarade des Soufflaculs
Nontron, France

St. George's Day: 23 April
La Diada de Sant Jordi
Barcelona, Spain

Hot Penny Throwing / Beating the Bounds: 1 May (tbc)
Oxford, England

St. George vs. the Dragon: 18 May (Trinity Sunday)
Le Combat dit Lumecon
Mons, Belgium

Fire Dancing: 21 May
Anastenariá
Ayia Eleni and Langadas, Greece

Baby Jumping: 22–25 May (Corpus Christi weekend)
La Fiesta del Colacho
Castrillo de Murcia, Spain

Cheese Rolling: 26 May
Cooper's Hill, Gloucestershire, England

Shin Kicking: 30 May
The Cotswold Olimpicks
Chipping Campden, Gloucestershire, England

Phallus Festival: 6–8 June (tbc)
Festa de Sao Goncalo
Amarante, Portugal

Oil Wrestling: usually the last weekend in June
Edirne, Turkey

Rigor Mortis Procession: 29 July
Fiesta de Santa Marta de Ribarteme
San Xose de Ribarteme, Spain

Burry Man Day: 8 August
South Queensferry, Scotland

The Virgin's Snakes: on and around 15 August
Markopoulo, Kefalonia, Greece

Bog Snorkelling: 25 August
Llanwrtyd Wells, Powys, Wales

Matchmaking Festival: 29 August to 5 October
Lisdoonvarna, Ireland

Abbots Bromley Horn Dance: 8 September
Abbots Bromley, Staffordshire, England

Miracle of the Blood: 19 September
San Gennaro Festival
Naples, Italy

World Gurning Championships: 20 September
Egremont, Cumbria, England

Cowfighting: usually early October
Le Combat des Reines
Martigny, Switzerland

Faggot Cutting / Quit Rents Ceremony: 8 October (tbc)
London, England

Bonfire Night / Pope Burning: 5 November
Lewes, East Sussex, England

Sinterklaas and 'Black Pete': mid-November to 5 December
Amsterdam / rest of the Netherlands

Darkie Day: 26 December and 1 January
Padstow, Cornwall, UK

2007-12-04T12:57:00.000Z

This blog's a work in progress ahead of the updated version of my latest book, Tossers and Arseblowers: An Alternative Romp Through Europe.

In the run-up to the launch of T&A in June 2008, I'm going to be posting videos of the likes of Oil Wrestling, Penis Cakes, Shin Kicking and Hot Penny Throwing.

In the meantime, here's a video of Pope Burning from my last book, True Brits.