The Limits of Biological Determinism

Citations Over TimeTop 10% of 2001 papers

Abstract

Udry (2000, henceforward Udry), claims to have established that sex dimorphic behavior is produced by prenatal exposure to varying levels of testosterone. He concludes that if societies depart too far from the underlying sex-dimorphism of biological predispositions, they will generate social malaise and social pressures to drift back toward closer alignment with biology (p. 454). Udry's work is part of a long scientific tradition-that of biological determinism, which seeks to anchor patterns of gendered behavior to immutable biological roots. These roots have changed over time, but the conclusion-that shared behavioral norms, and the social and economic differences between [women and men] arise from inherited, inborn distinctions (Gould 1981: 20)-remains unchanged. A brief overview of the determinist tradition in Western science is instructive. In the

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