Bohannon, Cat. Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution. Knopf, 2023. 928 pp.
看到中譯本《夏娃：女性身體如何推動兩億年的人類演化》（2025）都出了，*才想到我2023年度閱讀十佳裡頭的Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution（2023）閱後感從24年初寫到現在還沒完成！於是拖延症患者就來補交功課了。
自1960以降，從事科技與社會研究（science, technology and society studies，下簡稱STS）的學者已就科技與性別議題提出許多有力的批判。他們提醒所謂科學事實本身並非中立的，而是受社會因素影響，去建構、維持甚至忽略某些事實。專精科學史的倫達・席賓格（Londa Schiebinger）於1993年發表的〈「獸」何以稱為「哺乳」動物：〉（Why Mammals are Called Mammals: Gender Politics in Eighteenth-Century Natural History）一文即告訴我們，演化學家林奈（Carl von Linné）選擇以「哺乳類」而非「洞狀耳類」或「有毛類」來指稱人類所屬的這類動物，反映的即是十八世紀的性別政治。林奈看似打破亞里斯多德以來將女性視為發育不全的男人的觀念，實際上仍是透過命名，將女性依生殖與育兒劃入「獸的」，而「智人」的理智，依舊則被劃分予男性。**
哥倫比亞大學人類認知演化學博士Cat Bohannon於2023年出版的 Eve: How the Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution一書，要挑戰的即是這種男性優位的演化敘事。Eve一書共有九章，從乳汁(milk)、子宮（womb）、大腦（brain）一路介紹到更年期（menopause）到最後章的愛（love），作者Cat Bohannon揉雜流行文化（比如《2001太空漫遊》）來說故事。她以流暢幽默的行文（她絮絮叨叨的註解非常可愛，可以挖到黃金）配上插畫家Hazel Lee Santino的精緻圖示，一路拆解我們對女體，或者，更廣泛的說，人類身體與演化的種種蒙昧。比如頁76對子宮配置的解釋：
從插圖的比較我們可以看到女體腹內是非常擁擠的——與平時我們照著子宮剖面圖「想像」的樣態有非常大的不同。但需要注意的的是，Bohannon的許多推論並不能視為真實發生過、「一定就是這樣」的斷言——畢竟目前沒有演化學者能做到這件事情。或許更精確的說法是，Bohannon 透過Eve，向讀者揭示了那些標舉中性、實則忽略女體的敘事盲點。當科學界慣於將男體視為人的標準時，便忽略了女體特有的生理機制是如何型塑了我們這個物種的智力、社交與存續。
Bohannon寫作此書最令人驚艷的或許就是她的這個認知，且帶著這個認知拆解男性至上的人體演化敘事，直球對決許多當代議題。她擊破兩性大腦與智商差異的迷思；從性器官的構造推論，在人類祖先社群非自願性行為可能不是常態；也關懷跨性別女性可能遭遇到的困境。
書的尾聲，Bohannon將自身的生命經驗（老鴇問她是否有意願賣身）與女性身體上的人類演化長河交織，寫道：
But could I make her see that what she did when she tried to buy my body has a 200-million-year evolutionary history? That the moment she met me is part of that same melody— a weird little trill that goes all the way back to the dinosaurs— but also that it’s not the only story of womanhood? That women used to be matriarchs. That our ancient grandmothers were a huge part of how we invented human culture. That women’s mouths are the root of human language. How could I tell her that the very shriveled breasts she’d tucked into her old, stretched-out midwestern bra are part of how mammals took over the earth, the reason we have immune systems that can survive pandemics, the reason most of the world she’s ever managed to see looks the way it does?
I wish I could tell her that it wasn’t always like this. That a woman’s world is bigger than the equation she’d figured out running her brothel. And older, and weirder, and more beautiful. I don’t think I’d try to stop her. I wouldn’t try to tell her she’s not supposed to do what she does. But I think I would tell her to donate part of her money to women’s health clinics. To children’s hospitals. To research. To whatever will make the world easier for women and girls. And I wish I could tell her, as I will tell my own children someday, that every power men have ever had over women is something we gave them. We just forgot.
We forgot we can stop.
希望社會討論代孕議題時，能想想看Bohannon的這段文字。
* Bohannon有將Eve改寫一個適合青年（young adults）閱讀的版本（2025），我還沒有機會讀。無論是看原版還是YA版，真希望每個青春期的孩子都有機會接觸這本書。
** 詳見余曉嵐翻譯、陳恒安校訂、收錄於《STS讀本II：科技渴望性別》（2004）的版本。