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3.99 AVERAGE
3.99 AVERAGE
Książka jest niezwykle fascynująca od pierwszej strony. Ilość ciekawostek i historii z życia badanych naczelnych nie pozwala się oderwać. Dla kogoś kto nie zna zachowań człekokształtnych może być zdumiewające jak wiele łączy ludzi z innymi gatunkami.
What does it mean to be human? What is our nature? Read on about other apes and their behaviors which leads us to question if our violent side isn't paired with a conciliatory peacemaker side. The pan sexuality of Bonobos also brings straight and gay terms into doubt as a societal artifice instead of a natural condition. Very interesting book.
It was hard for me to focus on De Waal’s main thesis here because I was blinded by the ignorant, inaccurate, and shockingly irresponsible portrayal of chimpanzees as mean, selfish, calculating, bloodthirsty hellbeasts. Just a single aside to point out that chimps have plenty of admirable qualities as well would have sufficed, but De Waal seemed too busy stroking his own giant ego to think all the way through his argument.
De Waal doesn't have the frenetic and funny writing style that Sapolsky does (another primatologist whose books I've raved about here), but he is nevertheless good and not without a bit of dry humor. He waxes much more philosophical than Sapolsky - this book is organized into sections on Power, Sex, Violence, and Kindness, and he looks at our how these things are displayed by our nearest animal relatives: chimpanzees, bonobos (formerly called 'pygmy' chimps, now recognized as a separate species), gorillas, and to a lesser extent, baboons & other social primates.
There are some pretty eye-popping stories here, both of exceptional understanding and intelligence amongst these primates, and of exceptional cruelty. Even though I'd read a bit about bonobos, I never realized just how very different they are. And how female bonobos join together to suppress male violence. And how much sex of all kinds bonobos engage in (it's a social "lubricant" ).
Chimpanzees, on the other hand, engage in male coalition-building and politicking a lot more, and two of them will sometimes gang up on an alpha male and murder him. There is a very graphic story about a male who died of his injuries in a zoo when this happened - for some reason, the fact that this individual's testicles were squeezed and he was basically castrated by the two other males really shocked me. Chimpanzees, like humans, focus on sexual identity.
There are some pretty eye-popping stories here, both of exceptional understanding and intelligence amongst these primates, and of exceptional cruelty. Even though I'd read a bit about bonobos, I never realized just how very different they are. And how female bonobos join together to suppress male violence. And how much sex of all kinds bonobos engage in (it's a social "lubricant" ).
Chimpanzees, on the other hand, engage in male coalition-building and politicking a lot more, and two of them will sometimes gang up on an alpha male and murder him. There is a very graphic story about a male who died of his injuries in a zoo when this happened - for some reason, the fact that this individual's testicles were squeezed and he was basically castrated by the two other males really shocked me. Chimpanzees, like humans, focus on sexual identity.
Very interesting information about research on ape behavior, mostly chimpanzees and bonobos. Their social behaviors are strikingly similar to human behaviors and the author points these out, though not in a simple-minded "We are just apes" manner.
The book doesn't come to a conclusion about any meaning of human/ape similarities, but focuses more on the wonderment of all the shared behaviors and social structures. Very enjoyable and thought-provoking.
The book doesn't come to a conclusion about any meaning of human/ape similarities, but focuses more on the wonderment of all the shared behaviors and social structures. Very enjoyable and thought-provoking.
Not only did I learn a lot about our ape cousins -- especially chimps and bonobos, with both of whom we share 99% of DNA --, I also got a fresh perspective on human behavior. By observing apes, we can find plenty of evidence of how different types of behavior are rooted in our evolution as social animals. We share both "good" and "bad" behaviors with our ape cousin, and de Waal does a good job of showing how both sides are sometimes needed to strike a balance. For instance, reconciliation is only possible when there's conflict, hierarchies help us create stability etc.
I enjoyed reading stories from different ape groups and their cultures -- their lives are as interesting and nuanced as ours! --, both in the wild and in zoos. By providing a wider evolutionary perspective, we can see how environmental differences in food supply and competition shaped our closest ape cousins in a very different way: the contrast between the "violent" chimps and the sex-loving bonobos seems stark, but it makes sense when you take into account the differences in environment (something that Robert Sapolsky also discusses in detail in [b:Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst|31170723|Behave The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst|Robert M. Sapolsky|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1517732866s/31170723.jpg|51808259] as applied to differences in human societies and cultures). It goes to show how the environment shapes our behavior and can bring out both the best or worst behaviors.
My key takeaway from the book is that we should embrace our ape polarity and be mindful of our tendencies in everything we do as humans; from the way we design cities to the way we design societies and foster international collaboration. There is a lot we can still learn from our ape cousins, and we shouldn't forget that we, as a species, have also evolved as social animals.
I enjoyed reading stories from different ape groups and their cultures -- their lives are as interesting and nuanced as ours! --, both in the wild and in zoos. By providing a wider evolutionary perspective, we can see how environmental differences in food supply and competition shaped our closest ape cousins in a very different way: the contrast between the "violent" chimps and the sex-loving bonobos seems stark, but it makes sense when you take into account the differences in environment (something that Robert Sapolsky also discusses in detail in [b:Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst|31170723|Behave The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst|Robert M. Sapolsky|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1517732866s/31170723.jpg|51808259] as applied to differences in human societies and cultures). It goes to show how the environment shapes our behavior and can bring out both the best or worst behaviors.
My key takeaway from the book is that we should embrace our ape polarity and be mindful of our tendencies in everything we do as humans; from the way we design cities to the way we design societies and foster international collaboration. There is a lot we can still learn from our ape cousins, and we shouldn't forget that we, as a species, have also evolved as social animals.