The Human Animal: A Personal View of the Human Species

220 Pages·1994·44.01 MB·English

by  Desmond Morris

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
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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.
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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
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