About this title: A provocative look at mankind's evolution from the ape into the complex creature we call human. By standards of other animals, our powerful civilization appears unique. So do many of our behaviors, including our sexual habits and the ways we select mates. Yet in many respects we are merely another species of ape--our genes are more than 98% identical to those of chimpanzees. 25 line drawings and halftones.
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Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Date Published: 1992
ISBN-13:9780060984038ISBN:0060984031
Description: Good. A copy that has been read, but remains in clean condition. All pages are intact, and the cover is intact (including dustcover, if applicable). The spine may show signs of wear. Pages can include limited notes and highlighting, and the copy can include "from the library of" labels. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Date Published: 1992
ISBN-13:9780060984038ISBN:0060984031
Description: Good. Used Condition-GOOD can be a well cared for Book that is in great condition to a Book that may show some signs of wear. GOOD Books sometimes are permanently marked; have some spine or page creases; exibit signs of aging or an ExLibrary copy. ** Sometimes grease pencil or permanent marking on cover. May contain limited notes and or highlighting. 100% Satisfaction guaranteed on all purchases. ** SHIPS FROM USA-Domestic Delivery takes 5-14 days ** read more
Description: Good. Slightly tattered, edge wear, writing inside cover, pages aged We here at Elistics have a 100% satisfacion guarantee. Thank you for your business. read more
Description: Acceptable. Clean interior, tight binding, cover and interior show moderate wear and dirt from use and age, old price tags on front cover, pages also yellow from use and age, some pages are also dog-eared. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Date Published: 1992
ISBN-13:9780060984038ISBN:0060984031
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. black line across bottom-otherwise very good-like new. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 416 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Edition: First Harper Perenni
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Date Published: 1/3/2006
ISBN-13:9780060845506ISBN:0060845503
Description: Fine. 0060845503 Ships next business day. NEW/UNREAD! ! ! Text is Clean and Unmarked! --Be Sure to Compare Seller Feedback and Ratings before Purchasing--Has a small black line on bottom/exterior edge of pages. May have light shelf wear to cover from storage, if any. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Date Published: 2006-01-01
ISBN-13:9780060845506ISBN:0060845503
Description: Very Good. Very Nice book with minimal wear. Nice cover, clean pages, tight binding. 100% Satisfaction before, during and after the sale. read more
Description: Very Good. 0060845503 Gently Used Softcover ~ minor shelf-wear, otherwise Neat & Tight Binding ~ all books carefully examined & well packaged. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Harper Perennial, New York
Date Published: 2005
ISBN-13:9780060845506ISBN:0060845503
Description: Very Good. Covers a little edge worn and bending at corners, former owner's stamp on first page, otherwise fine and unmarked inisde. read more
"This is a fascinating book that looks at human evolution and searches for how it is similar to and how it differs from animal evolution. So there are chapters devoted to searching for the animal precursors of speech (eg chimpanzee vocalisations) and art (eg bowerbirds bowers), the overall intention being to determine how we became so different from the chimpanzees with whom we share most of our genetic information. Its not just positive attributes that are studied either, there are chapters devoted to genocide and environmental destruction, which although they are shown to be uniquely human in the extent to which we practice them, there are also animal precendents - such as in wars between rival troups of chimpanzees and rabbits that have eaten every last plant on an island. Diamond's writing style is engaging and intelligent and he has developed an excellent line in striking comparisons that really make the reader stop and think. I'm now on the lookout for Diamond's more recent book 'Collapse' which studies human civilisations, such as the Easter islands, that have collapsed after exhausting their ecological resource bases."
"I didn't like this one nearly as much as Guns, Germs, and Steel, Diamond's more famous work. I thought the evolutionary explanations of seemingly everything in human society to be incredibly myopic. His conclusions were generally interesting, but he wasn't very convincing. He's also put himself on the list of environmentalists who have made doomsday predictions that have been completely and utterly falsified (yes, the time line he gave was fifty years, but I think it's safe to say seventeen years later that we aren't exactly on pace for a holocaust as he insisted). His forecasts of the rates of species extinction are especially damning and emphatically wrong, and I hardly believe that our public policy situation regarding them has changed substantially in the time since then.
If I were to have a textbook libertarian response to his concerns, and I do, it's that he doesn't even consider the option of seeing what would happen if we privatized everything. After all, most of his alarmist concerns boil completely down to tragedy of the commons problems. Eliminate the commons and you eliminate the tragedy. He speaks as if all we need to do is "choose" as a "society" between shortsighted economic concerns or sustainable, scientific progress. I don't see how we can choose anything "as a society"; when that supposedly happens, our elected officials only tell us what to do. Historically, the worst environmental disasters have been caused by government and government alone, and (setting aside global warming or air quality, for the sake of argument) everything else would be a nonissue if private property exists and properly protected.
I just don't understand the rhetoric of society's choices when each individual issue has been the work of the government or the failure of the government to do its job."
"2/25/2009 The Third Chimpanzee - Jarod Diamond cc1992
A highly evolutionist book, after skipping the first section (60pages) the book got more interesting with Diamond's take on why humans are attracted to each other, why we engage in acts such as adultery and drug abuse (and even genocide). We are attracted to the opposite sex that share are characteristics usually, from space between the eyes all the way down to length of forefingers. If we choose mates purely for sexual reasons the correlation is even greater, but when personality traits and stability are taken into account for monogamous, child rearing relationships the correlations weakens a bit. A study on extramarital relationships and married couples supported this theory.
Our addiction and abuse of drugs was described as a way to show superior genes that has gone wrong from our animal ancestors. Certain male animals like peacocks have a huge hindering plume that show a female, "look at this handicap I bear and yet I still manage to stay alive and thrive, surely I must have some bomb genes" this has gone wrong in the human psyche and deep down on a subconscious level men that abuse drugs are trying to say, look I can take this drugs and still survivor, but yet they are harmful and usually people can't thrive while on them. Also shown, in the kung fu masters of New Guinea (where author did much research and takes many of his stories from) that will drink a cup of kerosene to show that they still are strong and in control of their discipline.
Male monkey have the largest testicles because of their frequent copulation and gorilla have the smallest of the primates because they seldom do, men, although much smaller in size have much larger penis and larger testicles then gorillas, as function of their sexual habits but also because of their machismo (like a male peacock).
The Golden Age as people talk about in human society when man was at peace with nature and his environment is a myth. People say that until the industrial revolution of the 1800s people were doing no noticeable harm to the environment. Such posits are absurd if you look at fossils from continents where the first human remains can be found. Indians that came through the Americas left a blitzkrieg of animal destruction in their path, mainly of big mammals with no aversion to humans due to lack of contact. Wooly mammoths and saber tooth tigers are just a few. Australia had big mammals as well and so did Tasmania. New Zealand has some huge bird species like giant ostrichs that went extinct when the first people came there too. Also islands serve as great examples like Christmas island that supported a much greater civilization then has been recorded at one time as evidenced by the great stone faces, archaeology suggests that the forests had been cut by people until it was so bad that eventually every last tree of felled and the forest didn't have a chance at replenishing, so the population died out. (to make canoes and rollers to move the stones)
We are in a trouble unless people can learn from the mistakes of the past and make a change now to aver t certain doom of over population, natural resource scarcity, nuclear weapons, and pollution. Nothing learned and everything forgotten? Hopefully not."
"In this book, the author of "Guns, Germs and Steel" and "Collapse" (two of my favorites) takes the third chimpanzee (humans) from our ape heritage through to the present. Besides being a terrific read and an excellent source for insights into human nature, the book wins my admiration for Diamond's masterful application of Game Theory to man's decision to commit adultery. For anybody who enjoyed either of Diamond's more recent works, this is an excellent prelude not too be missed."
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