"The only sound biological solution to the dilemma is massive de-population, or a rapid spread of the species on to other planets, combined if possible with assistance from all four of the courses of action already mentioned. We already know that if our populations go on increasing at their present terrifying rate, uncontrollable aggressiveness will become dramatically increased."
The author of this book was an English zoologist, ethologist and surrealist painter. He followed up The Naked Ape with 1969's The Human Zoo, and in 1973 a comedy film was loosely adapted from both The Naked Ape and its sequel.
The premise of this book is relatively straightforward. The author posits that humankind, despite pretensions to the contrary, is really just another type of ape, and that a study of our primate relatives is the surest way to understanding the human condition. We still have, he reasons, a lot in common with gorillas, chimpanzees and monkeys, even when one considers our migration from the forest canopy to open grassland several million years ago.
The Naked Ape is divided into eight sections, these being: Origins, Sex, Rearing, Exploration, Fighting, Feeding, Comfort and Animals. Throughout these eight sections the author offers a fairly comprehensive overview of human behavior, with special attention paid to areas in which our ways of being are paralleled within other species. For the most part he avoids larger discussions of culture in choosing his examples, but these omissions makes sense given his stated goals and method of investigation.
I liked this book a lot and it was an easy read. I can't say it's an unusually insightful work, but it did offer some perspectives on "the naked ape" that I found interesting.
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