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The Human Animal: A Personal View of the Human Species PDF

220 Pages·1994·44.01 MB·English
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This book is published to accompany the television series entitled The Human Animal which was first broadcast in June 1994 This edition published 1994 by BCA by arrangement with BBC Books a division of BBC Enterprises Limited, Woodlands, 80 Wood Lane London W12 OTT First published 1994 © Desmond Morris 1994 CN 2306 Designed by Harry Green Set in Garamond Simoncini by Selwood Systems, Midsomer Norton Printed and bound in Great Britain by Butler & Tanner Ltd, Frome Colour separation by Radstock Reproductions, Midsomer Norton Jacket printed by Lawrence Allen Ltd, Weston -super- Mare Contents ntroduction page 6 1 The Language of the Body page 8 2 The Hunting Ape page 48 3 The Human Zoo page 82 4 The Biology of Love page 116 5 The Immortal Genes page 156 6 Beyond Survival page 184 Acknowledgements page 216 Further Books by Desmond Morris page 218 Index page219 Picture Credits page 224 Introduction uman beings are animals. We are sometimes monsters, sometimes magnificent, but always animals. We may prefer to think of ourselves as fallen angels but in reality we are risen apes. Everything we do has an inborn, genetic basis and all our activities have something in common with other species. Uniquely, however, we have built on these animal patterns, exaggerating and elaborating them to an amazing degree and sometimes suppressing them with damaging consequences. The cultural variations on our biological themes have often been so dramatic and so impressive that they have obscured the underlying similarity of all mankind. This has often led to disastrous and unnecessary conflict and destruction. We have behaved as though each of our societies belonged to a different species, in deadly competition one with another. In the past many studies of human behaviour have focussed on our local customs and traditions and their countless, varying details. They have stressed our superficial differences and, in the process, have ignored our more fundamental similarities. What is needed now is a biological portrait of our species, to redress the balance. Despite the many fascinating variations that exist from region to region and society to society, everyone of the thousands of millions of human beings alive today shares an almost identical genetic inheritance. We may wear different hats but we all show the same smile; we may speak different languages but they are all rooted in the same basic grammar; we may have different marriage customs but we all fall in love. Despite our different skin colours, religious beliefs and social rituals, we are biologically astonishingly close to one another. If you doubt the truth of such a statement, consider this: it is now known that we share 98.4 per cent of our genetic make-up with the chimpanzee. If our genes only differ by 1.6 per cent from those of the speechless, shuffling, hairy ape that we have looked down upon for so many years, then how much can we humans differ, one from another? Intr'oduction I To take this a little further, recent studies in molecular biology have proved that the gorilla and the orang-utan are more distantly related to the chimpanzee than we are. Not so long ago a major distinction was made between us, the humans, on the one hand and them, the great apes, on the other. The divide was thought to be enormous, so much so that when, back in 1967, I had the audacity to write a book in which I referred to our species as 'The Naked Ape', I was widely accused not only of assaulting human dignity but also of distorting evolution. Anthropologists attacked me, saying it was ludicrous to refer to man as an ape; that even to suggest such a close relationship was a gross misrepresentation of our family tree. They favoured the idea of a much more remote separation of our ancestors from the rest of the primates, with the human line splitting off at a very early stage. A quarter of a century later they are strangely quiet about these criticisms. Even anthropologists, it now appears, were suffering from the age-old indoctrination that drums into us the false idea that man is somehow separate from the other animals, rather than an integral part of nature. We owe far more to our animal inheritance than we are usually prepared to admit. But instead of being ashamed of our animal nature, we can view it with respect. If we understand it and accept it, we can actually make it work for us. If we try to deny it, sup- press it or distort it, we are in danger of building a tension, both in ourselves and in our societies, that will eventually explode. This could even destroy us as a species if we ignore it too long. As a zoologist I try to bring an objective approach to the study of mankind. I attempt to see our species as just another life-form and to avoid the usual prides and prejudices about the way we conduct our lives. My method, like that of any other field-naturalist, is that of the observer. I am a watcher rather than an experimenter. I use my trained eye to see, as clearly as possible, the patterns of human activity. Hence the title of this book: The Human Animal. If I succeed, I will lead you into the very centre of the human arena as an invisible witness, able to watch the events unfold there as if seeing them for the first time. The most ordinary and commonplace will, I hope, be revealed as subtle and fascinating; the most bizarre and obscure as suddenly understandable. 7 The Language of the Body he Earth is a small, friendly planet that was formed about four and a half thousand million years ago. For the past six hundred million years its surface has been cool enough to support a huge variety of life-forms. It has seen the evolution of over a million species of animals and nearly half a million species of plants, each competing for a small slice of the action. Recently, however, one species of animal has come to dominate all other life-forms and to alter dramatically the face of the Earth. A puny primate, with no natural weapons - no venom, no sharp spines, no fangs or claws - its success story is remarkable. Presumptuously self-named Homo sapiens - the Wise Man - this strange little ape gave up its old way of life, stood up on its hind legs and started to talk. Then, equipped with little more than an enlarged brain, this compulsively curious, constantly chattering creature began to stride out across the surface of the globe, taking all before it. The rest of the story is, quite literally, history. Today there are more than five thousand million human beings teeming all over the land mass, taming it and moulding it. Every twenty-four hours another quarter of a million people are added to the world population. This is a species we need to understand if we are to survive. What makes this amazing animal tick? What is the secret of its lavish, unprecedented success? In my zoological career, before I turned to the subject of human beings, I had studied the behaviour of many different kinds of fish, birds and mammals. With those, I could not carryon a conversation. I was forced to learn simply by watching their actions. It occurred to me to use the same method when investigating human behaviour. Instead of listening to what people said, I would observe what they did. I would observe them in their natural habitats, like a bird-watcher. I would become a manwatcher. This approach was very different from the lengthy verbal sessions of psychoanalysts, the precise questionnaires of sociologists, the laboratory tests of psychologists or the tribal interrogations of anthropologists. It involved travel to over sixty countries. It meant attending every conceivable kind of human event, from riots to royal garden parties, from sumo to opera, from carnivals to cremations, from political rallies to camel markets, from pop concerts to cup finals. Above all, it meant watching people in their most ordinary, everyday environments, in the streets and shops, the parks and offices, the gardens and the countryside. The quest was to find out how people really behaved, without intruding on their lives, in order to obtain an undistorted view of their conduct. The moment an anthropologist starts interviewing a tribesman he automatically alters that person's behaviour; he has become a part of it himself. All too often this has meant that the tribesmen in question have told him what they think he wants to hear, rather than the truth about their society. In a similar way, when human 'subjects' enter a psychologist's laboratory, they are immedi- ately on their guard. Their behaviour tightens up and becomes more considered and forced. Only if they are left alone in their normal world do people behave in a spontaneous and natural manner. And if the occasion does become more formal, then the formality in their actions is directed, not at the scientist, but at the event itself. My first task was to make what is called an 'ethogram' of human actions. An ethogram is a list of every characteristic movement or posture made by the members of a particular species. With a fish or a bird the list is long. With humans it is immense. I spent several years assembling hundreds of files of photographs of every possible kind of gesture, gesticulation, facial expression, body posture, limb action and form of locomotion. I started to classify them and to work out the many local variations that exist as one moves from region to region around the globe. I soon began to notice that there were different types and categories of actions, and found, to my surprise, that people were far more predictable than I had imagined. This upset me slightly because, like most adults, I cherish the fantasy of being unpredictable since unpredictability implies personal freedom - something which most people today value highly. If, when closely observed, we turn out to be all too predictable, this suggests an almost robotic existence, an idea we find distasteful. The truth, however, is that with our human body language we are all creatures of habit. Unless we are drunk, drugged or temporarily insane, we stick to a remarkably fixed set of 9

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