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 | | Our Inner Ape: A Leading Primatologist Explains Why We Are Who We Are by Frans De Waal ISBN-10: 9781594481963 ISBN-10: 1-59448-196-2 ISBN-13: 9781594481963 ISBN-13: 978-1-59448-196-3 Paperback 2006-08-01 Riverhead Trade Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Product Description From "one of the world's greatest experts on primate behavior" (Desmond Morris) comes a look at the most provocative aspects of human nature-power, sex, violence, kindness, and morality-through our closest cousins. For nearly twenty years, Frans De Waal has studied both the famously aggressive chimpanzee and the egalitarian, matriarchal bonobo, two species whose DNA is nearly identical to ours. The result is an engrossing narrative that reveals what their behavior can teach us about ourselves. | ||
Amazon.com Review Power, sex, violence and kindness: these four broad-spectrum categories encompass much of human behavior, so it's only fitting that they're also the primary subject material for Frans de Waal's (The Ape and The Sushi Master) book Our Inner Ape. The few (but deeply detailed) chapters are a mesmerizing read that spans biology, child psychology, postmodern theorists and fundamental morality, using tales of stern chimps, and sexy bonobos to examine humans' place between them. In the process, he examines why we need to know our place in the world, how our body language communicates feelings, and where the roots of empathy lie in mammalian life. De Waal's respect for both his readers and his research subjects come shining through in the simple clarity he uses when describing both the endless sex of bonobo apes and the heartrending violence occasionally present in chimp hierarchal structure. By illustrating his points with a mixture of straight-from-research experiences and jokes at the expense of modern politicians, he keeps his ideas compelling for anyone with a basic understanding of evolutionary science without drifting towards the academic drone that could be expected of by a researcher of his experience. You won't find specific conclusions concerning human nature, but instead a gentle, almost rambling look at two primate species with vastly different social networks and how, perhaps, humanity can learn from each to our benefit. A few of de Waal's lovely duotone photos (My Family Album: 30 Years of Primate Photography grace the end of the book, featuring close-up shots of the folks he's been writing about--chimps like Yeroen, Nikkie and Mama, and bonobo Kuif and adopted daughter Roosje are downright thrilling to see after reading such interesting stories about their lives. Jill Lightner | ||
Reviews | ||
Benign biologism "Our Inner Ape" is a popular science book by leading primatologist Frans de Waal. It attempts to uncover human nature by taking a closer look at chimpanzees and bonobos, our closest living relatives. The book contains chapters on power, sex, violence and kindness. De Waal's book is interesting and well worth reading. Sometimes, it's even entertaining. The author often mentions his own encounters with apes...and with humans who were perhaps acting out their inner ape just a little bit too much! Many popularized books on human evolution portray us as "killer apes". They emphasize our violent, manipulative and hierarchical streaks. Naturally, they then connect this behaviour to that of apes and monkeys, usually the chimpanzee. Indeed, chimpanzees can be extremely violent. In the wild, they have been observed to attack, kill and even eat members of their own species. The conclusion: we are descended from murderous, aggressive beasts and cannot be counted on to ever mend our ways. Some literature of this type is anti-feminist and regards male dominance over females as a good thing. De Waal doesn't deny the darker sides of humans, but his book is nevertheless unusual in its emphasis on the positive traits of our nature. He points out that these, too, have parallels among the apes. Chimpanzees may be fiercely hierarchic, but their hierarchies are nevertheless unstable. Coalitions of subordinates can overthrow the alpha male if he gets to overbearing. Is this the origin of our democracy? And while chimpanzees can be aggressive, they have also evolved methods of peace-keeping and reconciliation. De Waal describes how one old female played the role of arbiter in disputes among dominant males in a flock at the Arnhem zoo in the Netherlands. As for male dominance, chimpanzees are "patriarchal" in the wild, but flocks kept in captivity have a more even balance of power between the sexes, since the females can build more effective coalitions among themselves. De Waal also believes that aggression among primates is to a large extent a learned behaviour. He reports an intriguing experiment with rhesus monkeys, which are usually aggressive. After spending months in the same cage with the larger but less aggressive stumptail macaques, the rhesus monkeys developed more reconciliation skills and became less aggressive themselves. This continued even after the two species had been separated again. De Waal also reports a curious case in Africa, where a flock of olive baboons became more peaceful and even "matriarchal" after the aggressive and dominant males had all died of poisoned food. A decade later, the flock was still relatively peaceful. Somehow, the females had managed to "indoctrinate" new males who had joined the flock into accepting the new norms. The author further believes that human morality also comes from our primate ancestors. Apes have developed empathic skills, even towards members of other species. De Waal's favourite example is a bonobo in a zoo, which tried to help a wounded bird, and even defended it against other bonobos in the flock. Monkeys don't have empathy, but they can show tolerance towards handicapped members of their flocks. Human morality is a kind of highly evolved ape empathy or monkey tolerance. Or at least that's De Waal's take on it. Another obvious difference between "Our Inner Ape" and most other books on this subject, is the author's emphasis on the bonobo. The bonobo is as closely related to humans as the chimpanzee, yet it's often left out of discussions about human evolution. Why? Obviously because it doesn't fit the picture of patriarchal, aggressive "killer apes". Bonobos are much less aggressive than common chimpanzees, they live in flocks dominated by females, and they frequently resolve disputes by having sex! When two flocks of chimpanzees meet in the jungle, violent confrontation is the rule. When two flock of bonobos meet, they socialize with each other at the boundaries of their respective territories, and then depart in peace. But what really bugs most people is the "matriarchy" of the bonobos. For instance, bonobo males must beg for food from the females, and they lack effective coalitions among themselves. De Waal tells a funny anecdote about a man at a lecture who essentially snapped when De Waal told him about bonobos, shouting: "What on earth is wrong with these males?!". Since bonobos are promiscuous and have casual sex all day long, one cannot help wondering whether the males of this "hippie ape" aren't actually better off than most... Despite all these positives, I nevertheless found myself in frequent disagreement with De Waal. There is still too much emphasis on violence, power and hierarchy among humans. Perhaps subliminally, the author still sees this as the "natural" state. Both anthropology and archaeology suggests otherwise. Egalitarian, peaceful and non-patriarchal societies have existed. At least one advanced high culture, the Indus Valley Civilization, had curious egalitarian traits. Another, the Minoan culture, was probably hierarchic but seems to have been peaceful and had a religion centred on goddesses. De Waal further believes that the nuclear family and monogamy are somehow "natural" to our species, at least as an "ideal". This is unconvincing, especially since De Waal himself references studies of polyandrous cultures which lack our concept of "fathers". Of course, he mentions polygyny as well. The cross-cultural (and individual) variation among humans makes all comparisons between humans and apes problematic, especially since chimpanzees and bonobos are so vastly different from each other. Which human is being compared to which ape? In an unguarded moment, De Waal admits that our ancestors may have been very different from the great apes (surely a trivial observation outside the ivory tower of biology), but his entire book is based on the idea that you can get real insights by comparing us with chimps, although we have evolved along different lines for at least six million years. It seems you cannot take the ape out of the biologist! If there is any insight to be gained by comparing humans to other primates, it's that the flexibility and intelligence typical of humans exist in some form already among apes and monkeys. This is why I found De Waal's experiments with rhesus monkeys so fascinating, not to mention his observations on "girl power" among usually "patriarchal" chimpanzees and olive baboons. The real lesson from our primate relatives is that a certain evolutionary lineage developed more and more intelligence, flexibility and empathy. A larger part of their behaviour became acquired through learning than through instinct. Finally, this lead to the emergence of Homo sapiens, the only species that can socially construct its reality, leading to the immense cultural variation within our species. Perhaps De Waal would agree with this, as far as it goes. However, I still think he's too "biologist", although it's a more good natured biologism than orthodox sociobiology, since it takes into account the "flower power" bonobos alongside common chimpanzees. That being said, I nevertheless recommend this and other books by Frans de Waal. They are interesting, relatively well written, and give much food for thought. | ||
The most astounding feature while observing primates is that we see ourselves mirrored in them Quoting the author, "the fundamental difference between our two closest relatives (chimps and bonobos) is that one resolves sexual issues with power, while the other resolves power issues with sex". Can these insights into primate politics, their struggles for power and sex, violence, kindness, empathy and fairness, reconciliation techniques, etc. shed some light onto our own behavior? Written by a leading primatologist who has worked for several zoos, Mr. de Waal's conclusions arise from years of careful observation of both chimps and bonobos. It seems impossible to say which species is closer to our own, since according to the author we seem to be "the bipolar ape". You will read about primate and monkey societies and their hierarchical and political organizations and how hierarchies allow them to organize themselves in ways useful for their communities. This book will also give you beautiful explanations of their kindness and willingness to help, conflict avoidance (more in primate females) and conflict resolution or reconciliation (more in primate males) arising from their need to cooperate. Lonely primates are practically at the mercy of other primate communities since their societies exhibit great social cohesion and at the same time profound hate towards others (some sort of primate "xenophobia") - especially in chimps. Can we recognize some of our own behavioral patterns in the way primates act? Can we improve the understanding of ourselves by studying them, and more important can we learn something from these insights to become better humans? Because one of the main differences between other primates and ourselves is that we can "reflect" on our actions in order to improve our way of living. If you do not like science books entering social and political arena and reading about the author's personal opinion and political standpoint, this book is not for you. If on the other hand you enjoy questioning our behavior, love animals, are astounded by their behavior and "intelligence", appreciate a lifetime's dedication to our primate friends and the care with which primatologists make their observations as well as the passion scientists put into their writings: this book is excellent. | ||
Smooth, fascinating read This is the first book I have read on this subject and it was not difficult to read, it was fascinating and it gave me a lot to think about. I highly recommend it for both enjoyable reading and new understanding. | ||
Our Inner Ape: a Lesson in Life Incredible. Every page had my undivided attention. Never have I ever thought that I'd be interested in reading a book about apes written by a Primatologist. But this book isn't so much about our furry friends as it is about us. Frans De Waal explains "why we are who we are" by investigating and reporting on our closest ancestors, chimpanzees and bonobos. In doing so, he manages to transform such simple and common behaviors that we've come to take for granted into fascinating concepts - like why humans wave hello to one another, tongue kiss or obsess over finding that special someone. This is more than a book about apes -- it's a lesson in life. | ||
The Inner Human of Apes This is a wonderful synopsis of Frans de Waal's decades of research on chimpanzee and bonobo societies and what it tells us about human evolution. Like Jared Diamond's The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal (P.S.), Our Inner Ape: A Leading Primatologist Explains Why We Are Who We Are attempts to answer some of the big questions about humanity and human evolution. Like Diamond's books, this one will change your conception of human evolution and what it means to be human. In some ways, this book should really be called "The Inner Human of Apes," since the book focuses on the apes more than on humans. Since most readers know about human emotions, this focus makes sense. What makes the book so interesting is that de Waal knows chimps and bonobos so well that he can go beyond the stereotypical images of both species and provide some intimate anecdotes to illustrate his points. In particular, de Waal goes to great lengths to illustrate the entire spectrum of ape emotions and society, including regret, political alliances, jealousy, foresight, reconciliation, and empathy. These emotions, which many once believed to distinguish humans from animals, can clearly be seen in our next of kin. Some of the anecdotes are so amazing as to make the book worth the purchase price alone. De Waal frequently invokes the political alliance of two male chimpanzees, Nikkie and Yoern. This pair resembled the relationship between a political master and upstart (think John Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson). At one point, Nikkie and Yoern got into a fight (as political allies occasionally do), and Nikkie bit Yoern on his leg. In order to make his younger colleague jealous, Yoern would subsequently pretend to limp whenever Nikkie was watching. Talk about seeking a sympathy vote! By the end of the book, you'll realize that the real issue isn't whether apes feel emotions or engage in society, but whether we can understand their lives. De Waal describes the methodology of some of his experiments, but acknowledges that too often human experiments are designed by a human mind as if for human subjects. For example, one researcher who sought to assess whether chimps could tell faces apart, showed chimps pictures of different humans. When the chimps did not appear to recognize the differences, the researcher assumed they lacked that aspect of intelligence. However, when later researchers showed the chimps the faces of different chimps, the chimps could recognize the differences. Just as we have difficulty telling chimps apart from each other, they find it easier to recognize differences in chimp features than human faces. Thus, as de Waal notes, there are no stupid apes, just stupid experiments. | ||