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Title: Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence
ISBN: 0395877431
Author:
Dale Peterson
Richard Wrangham
Publicate Date: 1997-11-14
Publish: 1997-11-14
List Price: $15.00
Average Customer Rating: 4.0
Format: Paperback
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Amazon Lowest New Price: $2.91
Amazon Lowest Used Price: $0.28
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| Customer Review: |
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1: O heavenly bliss! Intelligence, truth, and coherence collides at once!
After spending some time postulating theories which might help explain the motives and actions of school shooters, I gathered a list of relevant keywords such as aggression, violence, hate, and male, (since all school shooters I know of have been male) I found myself drawn to a handful of books which I subsequently checked out from my local library. Among these books was a copy of Demonic Males, which I chose (thank God) to read first. I was not disappointed.
In this book Wrangham makes a careful academic study out of his theory that human males are inherently aggressive or demonic as he says, and that this trait is inextricably bound to our common ancestory with apes, and in particular, chimpanzees. He shows this by contrasting human and chimp behavior with other apes, and detailing the calculated murderous behavior exhibited by both species. The result is fascinating. Wrangham carefully shows that aggression is a behavior that evolved in chimps and humans because it enables males to attain a higher status, which in turn guarantees a high percentage of success when feeding and also passing down our genes by sexual reproduction. This search for status he says, to become the alpha male, is the driving desire behind every male, and I could not agree more. As a good example of an aggressive male myself, I confidently say that this desire for status is a primary occupation for all men, especially when they are placed in situations with other males. This, Wrangham asserts, and I also believe to be true, is always the case, regardless of whether the choice to seek a higher status is conscious or not. On an interesting note, he connects (however not assertively or forcefully) that higher animal intelligence in humans and other apes allows the animal to anticipate more effectively, and therefore it can see an obvious advantage to eliminating other males and taking their females and territory (as in the case of chimps) and in the ability of humans to effectively use weapons to kill massive amounts of other people while potientially suffering very few casualties. But Wrangham is tactful on these points, since it would be out of step with current PC thought to assert that the smartest animals kill each other simply on the basis of genes. He is careful to give culturally determined influences their shared blame in this regard, which helps to avoid exonorating those who commit violent crimes.
This is what I find most admirable about the book. Though Wrangham is a born and bred ethologist, he avoids emphasizing the nature side of the nature/nurture debate. Rather he labels that debate as an error perpetuated by Galton, the man who coined the phrase nature versus nurture in the first place. Here the author allows that both biological and cultural factors have their respective and undeniable effects on our behavior, and carefully explains the error in choosing either extreme.
Regarding my interest in school shootings, this book together with chimpanzee politics is essential reading when trying to understand what I would call the more unconscious motives of school shooters, and perhaps even the reasons as to why other males often fail to react aggressively and violently in such situations, given the lean odds for survival and the lack of pre-formed coalitions due to benign competition for alpha male status in a classroom.
If I can derive such information from this book where school shootings are scarcely even mentioned (it was published in 1996 before most memorable shootings), then most any reader interested in the possible reasons for inherently male aggression will delight in the reading of this text. Truly, I cannot reccomend it enough.
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2: Y-chromosome: bad
This one provides a quasi-sociobiological and evolutionary historical look at why people are so fond of raping and murdering each other. The authors look at the social relations among the great apes and find, who would have thunk it, very humanlike patterns of war, rape, murder, and other such cute behaviors. They also give various paleontological factoids and speculation about our immediate ancestors which support their thesis. I couldn't help but be annoyed at their blanket condemnation of the entire Y chromosome; they seemed to use the example of the relatively peaceful Bonobo chimps as an excuse for some kind of radical (and nebulous) feminist social engineering a la Aristophanes play 'Lysistrata' where women halted war by withholding nookie. I figure thusly: men are the primary rapists and murderers and warmakers, but wimmenfolk also participate in these activities. Men are also rather stronger and more capable of violence. Furthermore, they are largely responsible for lifting the race from the mud (but wimmenfolk also participate in these activities). These facts are almost certainly related. Menfolk simply have more time for mischeif. Women can be just as vengeful and brutal as men. Still, such books are worthwhile, as there are entire swathes of humanity who think if we all would just indulge them in their particular social, economic or sexual peccadillo, we'd all be peaceful in happy. Not so. Appreciation for the benefits of civilization can only grow when being reminded of the nature of humankind.
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3: A depressing but very important work
I read this book several years ago but I find myself constantly referring to it in conversations about politics and global events. The chilling examination of rape, genocide and infanticide practiced by male orangutans, chimpanzees, and gorillas (respectively) is depressingly resonant of our human penchant for violence, and suggests that we come by these behaviors "honestly" by way of a shared genetic heritage. Unfortunately, we don't seem to share as much behavior with our other close relatives, the bonobos, who make love, not war. More poignantly than anything else I have read, this book poses the question of whether humans can ever overcome their genetic predisposition for violence and create a more peaceful society. If the past decade of world events is any indication, the very depressing conclusion would seem to be in the negative. But there are always pockets of progress and glimmers of hope -- of all the great apes we are the most adaptable and unpredictable. By illuminating the biological imperatives underlying our most unattractive behaviors, the book adds to our self-knowledge and, we can dimly hope, may even help our flawed species alter its violent trajectory.
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4: Our roots in reality
What drives humanity to engage in its incessant wars? Why do men fight over apparent inconsequentials? Is rape a "natural" and "sex-driven" event, or merely the consequence of human cultural demands? These questions and a host of others are addressed in this superb survey of primate behaviour studies. Ever since Jane Goodall discovered chimpanzees sought colobus monkeys for dinner treats, new studies of primates have revealed arresting behaviour patterns. Like humans, other primates murder, rape and even make war. The authors have scoured a wealth of primate studies to derive a picture of our heritage. They suggest we learn what our cousins do in order to better understand what we do. Otherwise, we will continue to make bad decisions based on flawed assumptions.Our fellow primates are avid territorialists, argue the authors. Borders unseen by us are clearly delineated by chimpanzees, orangutans and monkeys. These defined areas are hotly defended. The other side of the coin produces invasions. Opportunism, failing resources, or just spite, drives chimpanzee groups to stealthily scout and enter another band's range. Rarely, an individual will stage a foray, but only if he thinks success likely. Too often, the raids appear to have no particular purpose. A sally may lead to injuries or even death, but the attacking troop is just as likely to withdraw to its original range with neither captives nor booty. What prompts these seemingly mindless assaults? Are they inevitable among primates? The latter question was answered, according to the authors, with the discovery of the "pygmy chimpanzee" or bonobo. This species contrasts sharply with its common chimpanzee cousins, who live in bands beset by tension. Common chimpanzees may raid other groups, but "back home" the hierarchical structure leads to internal conflict. Raids on other groups may vent some aggravation, but it's the struggle for dominance that rules common chimp behaviour. Bonobos, by contrast, use sex to resolve their social conflicts. Bisexual and same sex couplings are common and frequent. With no hierarchy to climb, males need not struggle for dominance. Although a senior female may wield some authority, even her "rules" are imparted by selected groomings or couplings with aggressors. Bonobos are late arrivals on the evolutionary stage, having split off from the chimpanzee line after chimps and humans diverged from their common ancestor. Humans tended in some ways toward chimpanzee behaviour, toward bonobos in other aspects. Male dominance and most aspects of male violence stem from similarities to our nearest cousins, the chimps, say the authors. They stress that most human violence is rooted in our volutionary past. Although they're prompt to deny that this foundation cannot be overcome, they stress that we must understand these roots in order to make better decisions. Most significantly, they argue, we must shed the mythology of violence as a cultural artefact. This will be a difficult step for many, but it must be taken. This book will ease the path.
[stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
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5: Has now been refuted
I would refer you all to a recent documentary in the BBC "Horizon" series investigating the whole "demonic male chimp" controversy, based on comparing the chimp colony at Gombe with others. Suffice to say, it told a disturbing story of inductive research, extensive intervention by the researchers themselves, affecting the apes' behaviour and ditching of evidence which refuted the "demonic" hypothesis. The alternative hypothesis presented was that the Gombe chimps are unusual, and their aggression owes more to overcrowding within a shrinking area of forest than to any natural "demonic" streak; other chimp colonies apparently show far lower levels of mutual aggression, if any at all. The scariest moment came not from learning that the legendary Frodo had killed and partially eaten a human baby, but from Dr Goodall's apparent coldness towards this incident. Had a tiger or crocodile done this, it would have been shot within days, but tigers and crocs don't have glamourous young women anthropomorphising them in bestselling books or on primetime TV.
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