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A Natural History of Parenting

From Emperor Penguins to Reluctant Ewes, a Naturalist Looks at Parenting in the Animal World and Ours

by Susan Allport

Summary

When one of the sheep in the author's herd turns out to be an unenthusiastic mother, the natural failure of something so basic as the maternal instinct sets Allport to wondering about parenting, "this most ordinary, most extraordinary of things." The result is this wide-ranging exploration of the nature and evolution of the relationship between parents and children. Fully conversant with the latest research in biology and animal behavior, the author turns a naturalist's observant eye upon the natural world of her backyard, and of human society as well. While such an exercise is second nature to someone with Allport's professional training, the lucidity of her prose and the clarity of her thought are such that any reader with the slightest interest in "parenting in the animal world and ours" will be eager to join her.

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Media Reviews

"The many faces of parenting, from doting to feckless, are given a mulling in this fine exegetic study from Allport...What are the tethers that bind child to parent? Why are some born with parenting skills, while others must learn and still others never make the connection? Allport tackles these quandaries by turning to theoretical literature; to the research of such figures as psychologist John Bowlby and biologist Robert Trivers; to mother's milk and attraction theory; to work that has been done on bats, beluga whales, and birds. She also deploys good old common sense, intuition and the knowledge she gains from watching her backyard bestiary to connect the parenting dots, culling what she feels are erroneous Freudian and behaviorist influences., She scours some pretty scientific terrain in prose that is not just splendid, but inviting and clarifying....It is a wondrous dance, this parent-child two-step, and Allport perfectly catches the magic nature of the bond."

   -- Kirkus

"Anyone expecting this book to show how the natural world gives us a blueprint for human conduct will be disappointed. In fact, Ms. Allport may be at her best when she confounds expectations....When she shows ways in which people thought to find lessons for life in basic biology, but failed miserably, her book is most illuminating."    -- James Gorman

   -- New York Times Book Review

Bibliographic Details

Publisher: Random House Inc
Published date: 1997
Edition: 1th edition
Size: 6.5 x 9.5 inches
Weight: 1 pounds
Pages: 238

Publisher's Notes

"We humans parent our young longer than any other animal on earth. For us, parenting is such an essential part of reproduction that we tend to think of parenting as an essential part of all reproduction. . . . Most creatures living on the earth today do not bother with such things at all. Beyond producing good-sized eggs and finding, perhaps, a suitable spot to lay them, most animal parents never give their young any kind of care. They never even see their young. And were they to see them, they would be much more inclined to eat them than to offer them food, protection, or guidance." In A Natural History of Parenting,Susan Allport, a naturalist and science writer, explores the exciting and often startling dynamics of maternal and paternal behavior among the species. When one of the ewes Allport was raising refused to mother her new lamb, she was forced to reconsider many of her preconceptions about the world of parenting. She began to explore the roots of parental instincts across the broad spectrum of the animal kingdoms. In A Natural History of Parenting, she examines the awesome diversity of nature to reveal what we share with insects, birds, and other animals, and, just as important, how we differ from them.Allports study takes the reader from caves in Texas filled with twenty million bats to huge tanks of beluga whales at the New York Aquarium, from the icy reaches of East Greenland where Arctic wolves raise their young to ant nests where huge labor pools have led to primitive infant care. Along the way, she gathers research on myriad creatures--beavers and wasps, birds and elephants, frogs and humans--to show us a magnificent variety of parental behavior among species, from a male emperor penguin forgoing nourishment to spend weeks protecting an egg balanced on the top of his feet to the manifestations of the human females "nesting instinct.Susan Allport is the best kind of science writer--knowledgeable, inquisitive, and entertaining. This invaluable book will ensure that you never again think in the same way of how and why we nurture our young."Susan Allport tackles a complex subject head on with penetrating analysis. Her acute observations, introspection, and logical conclusions capture the essence of the whole spectrum of understanding parenting, and make major contributions to the delicate art of rearing children. Allport has given parenting a fresh and exciting direction. The next century will need just such courageous and responsive attention to the underpinnings of the human society. "        --Kenneth A. Chambers, zoologist at the American Museum of Natural History and author of A Country Lover's Guide to Wildlife

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