Where are the birthing women? Rethinking agency, culture, and explanation in evolutionary psychology

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper examines the systematic omission of childbirth from evolutionary psychology, arguing that this lacuna reflects deeper epistemological and ideological limitations within the field. While evolutionary psychology frequently theorizes reproductive behavior, particularly mating and parenting – it largely ignores the behavioral and psychological dimensions of the birthing process itself. Through a critical textual analysis of 10 major evolutionary psychology textbooks, the paper reveals a striking absence of attention to birthing women as active agents. Drawing on feminist epistemology and interdisciplinary perspectives from evolutionary anthropology, bioarcheology, and medical anthropology, the paper identifies two central blind spots in evolutionary psychology: the marginalization of childbirth due to gendered aesthetic norms and the constraining influence of functionalist explanatory models. The phenomenon of “birthing consciousness” is proposed as a case of evolved psychological adaptation overlooked by the discipline. By situating childbirth as a culturally embedded and psychologically complex event, this paper challenges evolutionary psychology’s narrow focus on universal adaptationist claims and calls for a broader, more integrative theoretical framework. The case of childbirth serves as an illustrative case through which to interrogate how disciplinary assumptions shape what is considered legitimate psychological knowledge – and whose experiences are rendered invisible.