Frans de Waal - Our Inner Ape
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- Book:Our Inner Ape
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Its no secret that humans and apes share a host of traits, from the tribal communities we form to our irrepressible curiosity. We have a common ancestor, scientists tell us, so its natural that we act alike. But not all of these parallels are so appealing: the chimpanzee, for example, can be as vicious and manipulative as any human.
Yet theres more to our shared primate heritage than just our violent streak. In Our Inner Ape, Frans de Waal, one of the worlds great primatologists and a renowned expert on social behavior in apes, presents the provocative idea that our noblest qualitiesgenerosity, kindness, altruismare as much a part of our nature as are our baser instincts. After all, we share them with another primate: the lesser-known bonobo. As genetically similar to man as the chimpanzee, the bonobo has a temperament and a lifestyle vastly different from those of its genetic cousin. Where chimps are aggressive, territorial, and hierarchical, bonobos are gentle, loving, and erotic (sex for bonobos is as much about pleasure and social bonding as it is about reproduction).
While the parallels between chimp brutality and human brutality are easy to see, de Waal suggests that the conciliatory bonobo is just as legitimate a model to study when we explore our primate heritage. He even connects humanitys desire for fairness and its morality with primate behavior, offering a view of society that contrasts markedly with the caricature people have of Darwinian evolution. Its plain that our finest qualities run deeper in our DNA than experts have previously thought.
Frans de Waal has spent the last two decades studying our closest primate relations, and his observations of each species in Our Inner Ape encompass the spectrum of human behavior. This is an audacious book, an engrossing discourse that proposes thought-provoking and sometimes shocking connections among chimps, bonobos, and those most paradoxical of apes, human beings.
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OUR INNER APE
A New York Times Notable Book
A remarkable journey of discovery to the heart of a profound question: What can we learn about the evolution of our own cultures by studying the behavior of our primate cousins? A deftly written, deeply reflective work.
The New York Times Book Review
Absorbing and entertainingexplaining to the interested layperson more clearly than any other book the sound science that lies in the middle of the sometimes shrill debate about the origins of human nature.
The Washington Post
De Waal is an original thinker and writes with such a light hand that the reader can take a stimulating ride through this imaginative philosophical discourse.
The Boston Globe
For those ready for some self-scrutiny, and a less biased view of culture and learning in our fellow creatures, this book will be a revelation.
Scientific American
Simply brilliant. A must-read for anyone interested in the questions of what it means to be human and what it means to be an ape. Not only is the language accessible to everyone, it is a wonderful, thought-provoking read.
The Glasgow Herald
If you care about the great apes, this book, with its superb photographs and vivid text, is a must.
Jane Goodall
An entertaining and provocative read.
New Scientist
Frans de Waal is uniquely placed to write a book on the duality of human nature and on its biological origins in other primate species. No other book has attempted to cover this ground. Few topics are as timely to the understanding of the human mind and behavior.
Antonio R. Damasio, author of Descartes Error
One of the most important disciplines that is generating new knowledge about human nature is primatology. Frans de Waal is the best-qualified scientist not just to describe the results of this research, but to draw out a balanced understanding of what it implies about contemporary politics and social policy.
Francis Fukuyama, author of The End of History and the Last Man
Even more enlightening than Machiavellis The Prince , this book describes power takeovers and social organizations in a chimpanzee colony. Ill never look at academic or corporate politics the same way.
Jim Collins, Inc.
The best book ever written on the social life of apes in captivityThe author has that special empathetic insight into the mind of the chimpanzee which is shared by few but can somehow be recognized by many.
William McGrew, Human Ethology Newsletter
Chimpanzee Politics (1982)
Peacemaking Among Primates (1989)
Good Natured (1996)
Bonobo (1997)
The Ape and the Sushi Master (2001)
My Family Album (2003)
A LEADING PRIMATOLOGIST EXPLAINS
WHY WE ARE WHO WE ARE
Photographs by the author
RIVERHEAD BOOKS
New York
THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)
Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
Penguin Group Ireland, 25 St. Stephens Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.)
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Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi110 017, India Penguin Group (NZ), Cnr. Airborne and Rosedale Roads, Albany, Auckland 1310, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.)
Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa
Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers and Internet addresses at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors, or for changes that occur after publication. Further, publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
Copyright 2005 by Frans de Waal
Photographs courtesy of Frans de Waal
Cover design by Nellys Li
Cover photographs 2005 Joshua Sheldon
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the authors rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
RIVERHEAD is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
The RIVERHEAD logo is a trademark belonging to Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
ISBN: 978-1-1012-1738-2
The Library of Congress has catalogued the Riverhead hardcover edition as follows:
Waal, F. B. M. de (Frans B. M.), date.
Our inner ape : a leading primatologist explains why we are who we are / Frans de Waal; with photographs by the author.
p. cm.
1. ChimpanzeesBehavior. 2. BonoboBehavior. 3. Human behavior. 4. Psychology, Comparative. I. Title
QL737.P96W3214 2005 2005042768
156dc22
For Cattie, my love
T his book owes so much to so many primates, human and nonhuman, that its impossible to thank them all. The central idea was born from a discussion with Doug Abrams. At the time, I was thinking of applying my lifelong primate expertise to human behavior, and Doug felt that bonobos deserved far more attention than they had received thus far. The two ideas combined led to a book that directly compares human, chimpanzee, and bonobo behavior. Much more than my previous books, Our Inner Ape addresses our species place in nature.
I appreciate feedback on my writing from Riverhead editor Jake Morrissey as well as Doug Abrams, Wendy Carlton, and my wife, Catherine Marin. I thank my agent, Michelle Tessler, for getting the book into such good hands.
Early in my career, in the Netherlands, I enjoyed the support of my adviser, Jan van Hooff, and the director of the Arnhem Zoo, Anton van Hooff, Jans brother. I am grateful to Robert Goy for pulling me to this side of the Atlantic. In the United States, so many collaborators, technicians, and students worked with me that I wont mention names, but I owe all of them for their help with my studies and for opening fresh lines of inquiry. Finally, I thank Alexandre Arribas, Marietta Dindo, Michael Hammond, Milton Harris, Ernst Mayr, Toshisada Nishida, and Amy Parish for various forms of assistance, and Catherine for her love and support.
O ne can take the ape out of the jungle, but not the jungle out of the ape.
This also applies to us, bipedal apes. Ever since our ancestors swung from tree to tree, life in small groups has been an obsession of ours. We cant get enough of politicians thumping their chests on television, soap opera stars who swing from tryst to tryst, and reality shows about whos in and whos out. It would be easy to make fun of all this primate behavior if not for the fact that our fellow simians take the pursuit of power and sex just as seriously as we do.
We share more with them than power and sex, though. Fellow-feeling and empathy are equally important, but theyre rarely mentioned as part of our biological heritage. We would much rather blame nature for what we dont like in ourselves than credit it for what we do like. As Katharine Hepburn famously put it in The African Queen , Nature, Mr. Allnut, is what we are put in this world to rise above.
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