サラ・ブラファー・ハーディーは、霊長類の繁殖行動、母性、共同養育の進化を研究する進化人類学者、霊長類学者。ラドクリフ大学で人類学を学び、1975年にハーバード大学で人類学の博士号を取得した。インドのハヌマンラングールの野外調査では、オスによる乳児殺しを繁殖戦略として捉え、そのような状況にメスがどう対処するかにも目を向けた。メスを受動的な存在とみなす説明を問い直し、繁殖をめぐる競争と協力を研究してきた。カリフォルニア大学デービス校で研究・教育に携わり、同校の人類学名誉教授となった。『マザー・ネイチャー』（原題 “Mother Nature: A History of Mothers, Infants, and Natural Selection”）では、霊長類の行動、生理学、人間の歴史や社会の資料を結びつけ、母親の養育行動を一律の自己犠牲的な本能としてではなく、子の生存や利用できる支援、資源をめぐる条件と関連づけて考察した。『Mothers and Others: The Evolutionary Origins of Mutual Understanding』（未邦訳）では、母親以外の親族や仲間も育児を担う人類の共同養育に着目し、他者の意図や感情を読み取り協力する能力の進化との関係を論じた。『「父性」の進化：4億年の生存戦略』（原題 “Father Time: A Natural History of Men and Babies”）では、父親を含む男性の養育へと視野を広げ、乳児との継続的なかかわりが男性のホルモンや神経の働きに及ぼす変化と、養育を可能にする文化・社会的条件を検討した。
Sarah Blaffer Hrdy is an evolutionary anthropologist and primatologist whose research examines reproductive behavior, motherhood, and the evolution of shared child care. She studied anthropology at Radcliffe College and received her PhD in anthropology from Harvard University in 1975. Through fieldwork on Hanuman langurs in India, she investigated male infanticide as a reproductive strategy and the ways females respond to these risks. Her work challenged accounts that treated females as passive participants in reproduction, examining both competition and cooperation. She taught and conducted research at the University of California, Davis, where she became professor emerita of anthropology. In Mother Nature: A History of Mothers, Infants, and Natural Selection, translated into Japanese as Mother Nature, she brought together primate behavior, physiology, and historical and social evidence to explore maternal care in relation to infant survival, available support, and resources, rather than as a uniform instinct for self-sacrifice. In Mothers and Others: The Evolutionary Origins of Mutual Understanding, she examined human cooperative childrearing, in which relatives and other companions help mothers raise children, and argued for its importance in the evolution of the ability to understand others’ intentions and feelings. Father Time: A Natural History of Men and Babies, whose Japanese edition is titled 「父性」の進化：4億年の生存戦略, extended this inquiry to men’s care of infants, examining changes in hormonal and neural responses associated with sustained caregiving and the cultural and social conditions that make such care possible.
