Chapter 2

Question 1

Androgen insensitivity syndrome

Answer 1

a defect on the A chromosome that impairs androgen reception, preventing the XY fetus from responding to testosterone. Chromosomally male, AIS children are born resembling girls, and are generally raised as girls. In many cases, they are “diagnosed” as intersexed only when they fail to menstruate

Question 2

Biological determinism

Answer 2

the view that behaviour and character of an organism, group or system are determined by biological factors.

Question 3

Biological essentialism

Answer 3

closely related to the idea of biological determinism; an argument that rests on the naturalness of social relations and their rootedness in biology.

Question 4

Congenital adrenal hyperplasia

Answer 4

one of the numbers of conditions producing intersexed children. In CAH, chromosomally female fetuses undergo abnormal hormonal development in utero and are born with masculinized genitalia, though they have the potential to bear children.

Question 5

Estrus

Answer 5

in most female mammals, the reproductive cycle that produces periods of sexual receptivity (“in heat”)

Question 6

Eugenics:

Answer 6

the theory that natural selection can be assisted through conscious efforts to improve human populations, either by preventing the production of the UNFIT or by increasing the health and fitness of reproductive populations

Question 7

Evolutionary psychology

Answer 7

the field of study that studies and explains human psychology and mind as the result of evolutionary adaptation.

Question 8

Social Darwinism

Answer 8

only thinly associated with the theories and work of Charles Darwin, this philosophy applies the theory of natural selection to differences, competition and inequalities among “races”, nations, and families, and between men and women.

Question 9

Sociobiology

Answer 9

the study of the biological basis of behaviour in all organisms, including human beings.