Based on intensive study of human origin illustrations, responses from students and colleagues and research into reconstructive illustration and feminist criticism of Western art, this ground-breaking book traces the subtle ways in which paleoanthropological conventions have influenced and have shifted in the creation of these illustrations. Wiber reveals that embedded meanings in these illustrations go beyond gender to include two other ubiquitous themes—racial superiority and upward cultural progress. Underlying all these themes, she found a basic conservatism in the paleoanthropological approach to evolutionary theory.
Erect Men/Undulating Women provides a deeper understanding of popularized illustrations of human origins, but, more importantly, it encourages readers to gain a sensitivity to the ways in which Western culture constructs “scientific” findings that are compatible with its deeply held beliefs and values.

Melanie G. Wiber received her Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Alberta. Her research interests include development studies, legal anthropology and gender studies. She is the author of Politics, Property and Law in the Philippine Uplands (WLU Press) and co-editor with Joep Spiertz of The Role of Law in Natural Resource Management (VUGA Uitgeverij; distributed by WLU PRESS).

Melanie G. Wiber's profile page

Wiber has produced an interesting account of how visual imagery in reconstructive illustrations of human evolution has itself evolved over the years.... Her distinction between the naked form and the nude form—the latter meant to affect the viewer through eroticism—is an excellent one.... Wiber's book is well written and includes 16 illustrations and a more than adequte index.

Choice, June 1998

Provides a valuable update concerning schools of thought on evolutionary theory and the effects of these theories on society's comprehension of how humans came to be.... Erect Men/Undulating Women is an engaging pice of valuable and transferrable research for the professional in the sociological/anthropological field and for anyone interested in the influence of illustrative media on our perception and acceptance of large scope ideas, concepts, and themes.

Atlantic Books Today, Number 20, Spring 1998

''In critiquing the whole framework in which palaeoanthropologists and scientific illustrators operate, Wiber gives us much to think about.''

Pamela R. Willoughby