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The Slow Moon Climbs: The Science, History, and Meaning of Menopause Paperback – March 2, 2021

by Susan Mattern (Author)
4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 49 ratings
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A surprising look at the role of menopause in human history―and why we should change the ways we think about it

Are the ways we look at menopause all wrong? Susan Mattern says yes and, in The Slow Moon Climbs, reveals just how wrong we have been. From the rainforests of Paraguay to the streets of Tokyo, Mattern draws on historical, scientific, and cultural research to show how perceptions of menopause developed from prehistory to today. Introducing new ways of understanding life beyond fertility, Mattern examines the fascinating “Grandmother Hypothesis,” looks at agricultural communities where households relied on postreproductive women for the family’s survival, and explores the emergence of menopause as a medical condition in the Western world. The Slow Moon Climbs casts menopause in the positive light it deserves―as an essential juncture and a key factor in human flourishing.

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  1. Print length
    480 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    Princeton University Press
  4. Publication date
    March 2, 2021
  5. Dimensions
    5.25 x 1.5 x 8 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    069121672X
  7. ISBN-13
    978-0691216720
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Winner of the PROSE Award in History of Science, Medicine, and Technology, Association of American Publishers"

Review

"A deeply satisfying book."―T. M. Luhrmann, Times Literary Supplement

"This is a book to be savoured, slowly and with care."―Joanna Bourke, BBC History Magazine

"A refreshing and scholarly change from the mostly folksy, self-help offerings in this genre."―Anjana Ahuja, Financial Times

"A brilliantly wide-ranging study of the menopause across the centuries. . . . Mattern’s remarkable book fits perfectly into this cultural moment."―Times Higher Education

"A strong argument for embracing the menopause and treating its symptoms singly rather than bundling it into this female syndrome."―Kate Spicer, The Telegraph

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Princeton University Press (March 2, 2021)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 480 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 069121672X
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0691216720
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 2.31 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 1.5 x 8 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 49 ratings

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Susan P. Mattern

Susan P. Mattern

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Customer reviews

4.4 out of 5 stars
4.4 out of 5
49 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Nancy Mattern
5.0 out of 5 stars Both informative and exhiliarating!
Reviewed in the United States on November 26, 2019
Verified Purchase
Loved this book! Thoughtful and original, wide-ranging and inclusive, accessible and thought-provoking, I found myself pondering oner and over the many new ideas presented by the author.
4 people found this helpful
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P. Stern
4.0 out of 5 stars A most provocative book
Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2021
I came to this work having read several of Mattern's other books, drawn to the topic by dint of life circumstances. "Slow Moon" is well worth reading: it is comprehensively researched, powerfully argued, and deeply stimulating, and if you want to know about evolutionary theories of menopause and its status as a cultural institution, you could scarcely ask for more.

Mattern's two-part thesis can be simply stated: (1) menopause is nature's gift to the species, a solution that maximizes human births, brings us additional food, child-care, and shared experience, and generally has enabled us to prevail over many obstacles; and (2) menopause today is primarily a culturally constructed experience, perceived and felt in very different ways among societies throughout the world, with the West suffering an unfortunate tendency to dramatize and medicalize this most beneficial life passage. The two halves of the thesis absolutely go together (see below).

Though Mattern musters considerable learning and common sense to expound her thesis, I think she overstates the case in several regards. This points me to important weaknesses in the book:

(1) It bears noting that though a prodigious scholar, Mattern is not in fact an evolutionary biologist, a medical anthropologist, or a doctor. She has conducted no original research of any kind for this study, and in many portions it reads like a very, very long book report.

(2) At a certain point, it becomes clear that Mattern is not so much arguing a thesis as creating a legal brief -- on behalf of menopause. She tends to employ the rhetorical tool of highlighting potential counter-arguments and qualifications, only to cast them aside as she barrels forward with her presentation. (E.g., "The most important point I wish to make is not that menopause *is* a cultural syndrome -- which is, after all, just a made-up name for a certain type of phenomenon -- but that, for some purposes, it is useful to see it as one." Whatever this means.) She is so convinced of the evolutionary value and triumph of menopause that she is led to dismiss any countervailing consideration. It's not until the final part of the book that she fully lays her cards on the table: "[H]ow we think about menopause is important, and as my research on this book has progressed I have become increasingly impatient with how it is talked about in my society and how this talk unnecessarily demeans a transition and stage of life that are, by any measure, useful and honorable."

(3) The overall effect of this approach is to dismiss the lived experience of modern women in Western societies, and to cast them, somewhat shockingly, as a bunch of whiners. Mattern acknowledges that the symptoms of menopause are real, but sees the Western view of menopause as a sort of false consciousness, entirely constructed by historical contingencies and the greed of big pharma, pushing women to link menopause with depression, pump themselves full of estrogen, etc. It's notable that she nowhere draws on diaries, letters, or other evidence of how Western women actually process menopause; for Mattern, it's only the non-Western women (who don't recognize menopause as "a thing") whose experience counts. Ultimately this comes across as unsympathetic, verging on cruel, and I don't think it adequately credits the role of science in relieving human suffering. Here as elsewhere Mattern has a point (she cites Lock's work on Japan, which I've read, though at the end of the day I don't think she really advances the ball much beyond Lock's "biocultural" understanding of menopause), but the hard-line stance of the book left me unconvinced and vaguely uncomfortable.

So ... I recommend this book -- to ponder, discuss and argue with -- as much as I found important parts of it wanting.
11 people found this helpful
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DFJ
5.0 out of 5 stars Love
Reviewed in the United States on February 5, 2020
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k8simply
4.0 out of 5 stars Not a quick read but important and empowering
Reviewed in the United States on November 12, 2020
I picked this book up from my local library recently because I wanted to read about menopause in a non-self-help and non-gimmicky way. I enjoy learning about cultural differences and how culture shapes our experience, and that's exactly what this book delivers.

Based on the description, I'd thought this book would be for general audiences, more like a popular nonfiction book, but this is meant for a more academic audience (the notes & citations at the end make up more than 100 pages). At times, it got pretty boring, and I felt like so much of it could have been summed up more concisely for easier consumption. I ended up skipping a big chunk in the middle because I wanted to get through the book before it was due. That's why I'm giving it 4 stars instead of 5, but I still appreciate the intensive research that went in to creating this book. As the author says, this is not something that can be boiled down to a TED Talk if you hope to understand what menopause is and has been across the planet. The whole point is that menopause is a complex subject, so if you want something that's easy to digest, you're not going to get those complex details.

And as I enter this stage in my own life, this book is not only fascinating but empowering. It helps me to situate my own experiences culturally and to recognize that, perhaps, my symptoms say as much about what's going in my life than they do about my particular physiological l experience. And I also find it uplifting and useful to think about this midlife stage as one of purpose, strength, and wisdom, rather than a decline or a deficiency. As I straddle both having a young child and possibly being peri-menopausal, this book has helped me understand both the roles I'd like to play in midlife as well as why, with a young child at home, I can't ever seem to get anything done!

This book, I think, also highlights a need for better studies of aging (it seems like there's a lot of confirmation bias around the topic of menopause). Overall, this book is thorough and I hope a lot of people read it so we all can have better conversations with and about middle-aged women in our society.
8 people found this helpful
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Amazon Customer
2.0 out of 5 stars Off Topic
Reviewed in the United States on December 24, 2023
The further I read the more confused I was about this book’s topic and core message. I purchased it to understand the evolutionary biology of menopause. In Chapter 8, the Modern World, I quit on the paragraph (page 227) which explained the current theory of US rules based global order which in the same paragraph wandered into an explanation of neoliberal capitalism.
One person found this helpful
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jessica
1.0 out of 5 stars Not a menopause read
Reviewed in the United States on October 6, 2023
I enjoyed the very interesting information in this book mostly about fertility and mortality but if your purpose of is to read about menopause DO NOT READ this book .
One person found this helpful
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R. Castry
1.0 out of 5 stars Author throughout mentions not having menopause symptoms herself...
Reviewed in the United States on July 13, 2023
Author throughout mentions not having menopause symptoms herself, especially in the chapters exploring whether menopause is a real, actual thing or just a "cultural syndrome". As a reader, you get the feeling that she approached this entire subject from the standpoint of, "menopause was no big deal for me, are all these women just making it up?"

SPOILER: She admits at the very end of the book that she was on a hormonal IUD that suppressed menstruation during her transition. Being on a steady dose of synthetic hormones? Yes, of course one would have no symptoms of menopause which are, you know, caused by hormone fluctuations. Good grief. An embarrassing end to the book, which makes the entire bias of the book absolutely ridiculous.
5 people found this helpful
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