The Naked Ape: A Zoologist's Study of the Human Animal

This book is phenomenally informative. It is organized into eight long chapters, so the good stuff keeps coming fast and furious, making the book hard to put down. The Naked Ape will teach you everything you've ever wanted to know about yourself, your fellow man, and society at large.Morris deals briefly with the concept of religion, describing it as a manifestation of our need to fulfill our inbred biological primate urges. But his main intent is to describe humans in zoological terms as just another species, albeit a tremendously successful one. He jokingly compares our journey to the top of the food chain as a rags-to-riches story, and like all nouveaux riche, we are very sensitive about our background.I wholeheartedly declare this book a must read, although it might be a bit unsettling to those who prefer not to think of humans as mere animals. Even still, it is definitely worth reading. It seems Morris, writing just a few years after the Cuban Missile Crisis, was not optimistic about humanity's long-term prospects, and wished to write a book for the time capsule. Reading it on the other side of the millennium which he doubted we'd see, I'd say he succeeded.

I have fond memories of this book. It was first published in 1967 and I read it pretty young; I'd have to reckon it among the more powerful influences of my youth. Controversial or not, there's something profoundly liberating about stepping back and looking at humankind as one species among others.And actually, it's still a darned good book. As Stephen Gaskin remarks somewhere in _This Season's People_, human beings are so intelligent and conscious that it's a matter of controversy whether we're the lowest of the angels or the highest of the primates. Well, the controversy hasn't dissipated since this book was written, but it's still every bit as important for us to recognize and accept the reality of our animal nature.For we _do_ have such a nature, no matter what view of evolution and/or creation we buy into. Evolutionary anthropologist Desmond Morris tends to treat us as though we have _only_ such a nature, as though our being an advanced ape is automatically at odds with our also being a fallen angel. That may or may not be true; I have my opinions on the subject, and you probably have yours.But we don't need to settle that issue in order to find this book immensely valuable. The most solid evidence we have continues to confirm that we have a close genetic kinship with the other primates and that, biologically, we are best treated as primates ourselves. Whatever else may be true of us, this much is about as close as anything in science ever comes to fully established fact.We can disagree about the precise mechanisms of evolution as much as we like; we can disagree about how much of our nature is really accounted for by this or that theory of evolution; but the one fact we can't get around on _any_ account is that as a matter of biology, we _are_ naked apes. We may be more than animals, but we are not less.That's what makes Morris's account so valuable. There just isn't a lot of question that our evolutionary history has shaped us to a very great degree, and Morris is awfully good at explaining how and why this is so. There may be details in need of modification -- after all, evolutionary theory hasn't stood still for the past thirty-five years and some of Morris's own theories were far from universal even then -- but the overall structure is sound.It's no surprise, of course, that this book was so controversial when it was first published; I'm not sure it would be all that much less controversial if it were published for the first time today. But boy, if you want to get a clear sense of what it _means_ for human beings to be primates, this is a great place to acquire it.And contrary to what your initial intuition may be, it _especially_ belongs on the reading list of folks who think human beings have a spiritual side too. Nobody ever made much spiritual advance by denying the hard facts of his or her biological nature and pretending to be a disembodied spirit.

Desmond Morris is that rarity, a scientist who can speak plainly to the layman, without jargon, and impart an understanding of science clearly. Being human, he of course also makes assumptions that later discoveries cast into doubt. So it is with this book.Morris, in his career, has studied many species, including rabbits, birds, turtles, fish--and primates (he was curator of mammals at the London Zoo); particularly human beings, whom he sees as the greatest of the primates. Of course virtually all humans would agree with that.Much of this book would seem to reflect undeniable fact, for those of us who accept the apparent gradual changes of organisms over thousands of generations in their attempt to survive in a changing environment--a case usually termed "evolution."For those who deny evolutionary "theory" in favor of creationism, this will be a boring book, and a waste of time.One particular facet of Morris's view of human evolution both disturbed me and led me to further investigation: his mention of the theory that pre-hominids had passed through a re-entry phase which brought about dramatic physical changes in our species that made us unique among other primates, our cousins, who shared our last common apelike ancestor.Specifically, the theory, the Aquatic Ape Theory (AAT) as it is known, he only briefly mentioned and seemed content with the view that our earliest ancestor, faced with a receding arboreal African environment which became insufficient to support all of the primates and thus forced them out, dropped from the trees and hit the African savannah running bipedally, and changed their diet to include meat, shedding their fur as they ran to cool off.Problem: The fastest animals on earth are quadrupeds, and are covered with fur. Also humans have a subcutaneous fat layer that provides warmth (and flotation.)Eventually, I found Elaine Morgan's books (The Aquatic Ape Hypothesis, and Scars of Evolution,) which I found much more persuasive than the Savannah Theory which he espoused.Nevertheless, Desmond Morris and Robert Ardrey (The Social Contract, and African Genesis,) have made huge contributions and should be read by anyone with an interest in this subject.Joseph H. Pierre

Possibly one of the greatest things to come from reading any book, is that your entire perception of something, a paradigm you may have, is completely and entirely set on end. Unfortunately, even for the most avid of readers, this is a very rare, however the day I completed Morris' unprecedented work I never viewed my world in the same way again. This is by no means an exaggeration. Morris breaks human beings down so effectively, so methodically that it is nearly impossible not to agree with him that indeed, stripped of our veneer of civilization, the inner workings of a naked ape are all one is left with. Not to say Morris doesn't get a few things wrong along the way. I am in full accord with modern day evolutionary psychologists (or sociobiologists, or whatever the hell they decide to call themselves) who fault Morris for his pair bond theory, amongst other things, which indeed does stand on very weak ground. I can't see how one gender would ever develop a trait that in the end would only be beneficial to the other gender, as would have had to have happen for this theory to work. Fortunately, though, I tend to see this as a mere chink in the elaborate chains of thought Morris constructs, unlike his detractors who claim it undermines his entire book. This is stupid. Morris was writing back in time when evolutionary psychology was in the zygote stage, completely unknown to anyone beside a handful of scientists. Morris sets forth in his book powerful and logical evidence and explanations that support the clearest model out there with which to view our species. His critics point out that his book failed to create a renaissance in academia, but so what? When has the academic world ever been quick to change its precious models, especially ones that focus on ourselves? Even today, years after not only Morris, but the even more persuasive work of Trivers, Williams, Wilson, Symons et al has been given, academia still has yet to truly embrace the sociobiology paradigm, despite the mountain of evidence and obvious intelligence of the theory. This is indeed a true sin, because it is a beautiful theory, one that not only helps us truly understand ourselves and our relations to each other, but to the world around us, placing us firmly within the grip of Nature, yet able to take our own course just the same.

Desmond Morris wrote "The Naked Ape" in the late 1960's, and it is a classic which established the field of evolutionary anthropology. His ideas were revolutionary at the time, and he clearly says so. If there is a fault in the book, it is that he covers too much ground too quickly. I think his purpose at the time, however, was simply to condition the reader to thinking of people as an animal that has been subject to the forces of biological evolution on the Savannah for 98 percent of our evolution. Our species only formed farming communities 10,000 years ago. Much of Morris's conjecture has been turned into solid research in more recent years. For example, studies have found that males are sexually attracted to females having a waist/hips ratio of 0.7. This is universal among contemporary societies including primitive societies. When shown diagrams of women having different waist/hips ratios, male members of the primitive societies chose the 0.7 ratio and specifically indicated child bearing ability being linked to it. Females universally are attracted to males having a waist/hip ratio of 0.85.The argument between nurturing versus evolution is likely to continue. This book started the argument. It is certainly a serious argument. Some readers may prefer not to think as humans as being animals. Some readers, particulary those interested in newer cultural trends such as feminism, may find certain of Morris's arguments objectionable. The material is oriented towards understanding how biological evolution of Homo Sapiens has affected their social behavior. It is not directly related to how to get along with your lover or spouse. However, the book was as thought provoking today as when it was written. It is an excellent introduction to the field of evolutionary anthropology.