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Title: The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal (P.S.)
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Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
List Price: $14.95
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| The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal (P.S.) by Harper Perennial from a student of anthropology | | I'm about 1/2 way through the book, and I'm very much enjoying it. The book isn't the easiest read, but the author brings up a number of interesting theories regarding the evolutionary origins of man. While I am not an anthropologist, I did study the topic a bit in college. Fascinating book!! | | The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal (P.S.) by Harper Perennial On the Verge of Ridiculous | | The major premise of this book is that we share 99% of our DNA with chimps - and we should care about this. He seems to forget that this 99% is not human DNA, but chimp DNA. Isn't that important? Turns out we also share 99% of our DNA with pigs. Should we expect a "Third Piglet" book in the near future to cope with this? Probably. We might even share the same percentage of DNA with potatoes or bananas for that matter. Those ought to be fun children's books to read along with the classic "Everybody Poops." Just because Daimond may be more educated than you, doesn't mean he is right. This book is not science, it is speculation. I especially liked his little corrections along the way about 15 million years opposed to 18 millions of years with no source. Don't know why he does this. It usually has nothing to do with the chapter. Why squabble over 3 million years when it comes to speculation anyway? To say it lightly, this book is on the verge of ridiculous. | | The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal (P.S.) by Harper Perennial Ameno | Una primera parte del libro muy interesante con contenidos que explican porque la raza humana progresó hasta hacerse dominante y que básicamente se resume en el uso del lenguaje. Aborda también la sexualidad humana pero desde el punto de vista de su función reproductiva, explicando la causa de la conducta tan diferente al de otras especies. A la vez describe otras características muy propias del humano: el arte, la agricultura, las adicciones y la capacidad de dañar a la propia especie.
En la segunda parte aborda temas que son tratados mucho mas extensamente en libros posteriores del autor como Gérmenes, armas y acero y Colapso.
Como siempre, el autor expresa hipótesis las cuales falta probar. Es mas, en el epílogo hace una corrección de una de sus hipótesis a la luz de los conocimientos actuales (fue escrito en 1992). Pero el libro es tan interesante y tan bien trabajado que este pequeño detalle no afecta su calidad.
| | The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal (P.S.) by Harper Perennial Review for World Civilizations 1 | The Third Chimpanzee
By Jared Diamond
A review by Marlon Paine
The Third Chimpanzee, By Jared Diamond is a non-fiction book about human genealogy and separation of humans from apes and chimpanzees. In "The Third Chimpanzee," Diamond goes through our (meaning humans) evolution from apes and chimpanzees to becoming the different kinds of species before we actually became Homo sapiens, Diamond also goes through many subjects such as why we act, how we think, speak, look, and many more interesting categories of evolutionary things.
Jared Diamond is a professor of geography and physiology at The University of California, Los Angeles and has written many non-fiction books on human interactions, evolution and our rise to be the most powerful beings on earth. Diamond has written books such as "Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed" and "Guns, Germs and Steel: The Fates of Human." After writing "Guns, Germs and Steel," he won a Pulitzer Prize for it and it was turned in to a television series by National Geographic.
In the first half of "The Third Chimpanzee," Diamond explores many topics about Human genealogy and evolution such as things like "the evolution of human sexuality" and the "bridges to human language." In Part One of this book, Diamond explains how humans share roughly ninety-eight percent of our DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid) with common chimps and separated from them about seven million years ago. The second chapter in part one tells the story of the great leap forward, an event that caused humans, around fifty--thousand years ago time, to evolve at a rapid for an unknown reason. I quote from the book that "Until the great leap forward, had developed at a snail's pace for millions of years. That pace was dictated by the slow pace of genetic change. After the leap, cultural development no longer depended on genetic change." Part two is called "An animal with a strange life cycle." The main point in part two is that human's life cycle is much longer than almost all other life. Part Two goes on to explain how and why we do things such as how we pick our sex partners who look like people we grew up with as a child, where different races come from, And the last subject in part two is about why humans grow old and die. Part three takes a different look at things, and talks about how our distinction from animals is not only based on our traits that originally separated us from chimps. Part three starts by talking about how some of our main significant differences are our "spoken language, tool-based technology, and agriculture." Part three than begins to go over things like how humans began to talk and the basic developments of language. Part three also looks at where art comes from and how it helps separate us from animals, and goes over why humans make art, whether it is for pleasure, money, communicating, or some other reason. The last chapter that I read is called "Agriculture's mixed blessings." It is about half way through part three of the book and talks about the pros and cons of agriculture. How agriculture made everything easier, but also could be the possible demise of the human race. It talk about the fact that agriculture gave us a much larger supply and storage for food, but that it also gave us "disease and despotism," and it was also the founding step in creating class differences.
Diamond takes all of these facts and hypothesis and tests them to a great extent. He looks at and questions all views of different scientists and people who have made claims about these subjects. He answers (if he can) all questions in the book and questions you may be asking your self while reading. I greatly enjoyed reading this book, and in my opinion, Diamond has written an incredible book. "The Third Chimpanzee" is about a subject that I never thought I would be interested in, but when I read this book, it completely opened my mind to a new world. I never tired of reading it and I recommend this book to everyone, whether you are interested in this kind of subject and reading or not, it is an incredible, interesting book.
| | The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal (P.S.) by Harper Perennial First half is very interesting | This is definitely one of the books you should start reading.
First part of the book is very interesting, has lot of info (scientific) and reads very easily.
Second part of book goes into a lot of personal opinions, much less proven and backed up by data and, IMHO, becomes boring and drags on too much.
So, as i already said, one should read this book (or at least start it). Whether you will finish it...well that's not important. First half is interesting and informative enough to justify the effort. Thus, 4 stars from me. | | The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal (P.S.) by Harper Perennial Product Description | The Development of an Extraordinary Species We human beings share 98 percent of our genes with chimpanzees. Yet humans are the dominant species on the planet -- having founded civilizations and religions, developed intricate and diverse forms of communication, learned science, built cities, and created breathtaking works of art -- while chimps remain animals concerned primarily with the basic necessities of survival. What is it about that two percent difference in DNA that has created such a divergence between evolutionary cousins? In this fascinating, provocative, passionate, funny, endlessly entertaining work, renowned Pulitzer Prize–winning author and scientist Jared Diamond explores how the extraordinary human animal, in a remarkably short time, developed the capacity to rule the world . . . and the means to irrevocably destroy it. | | The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal (P.S.) by Harper Perennial Amazon.com | | Jared Diamond states the theme of his book up-front: "How the human species changed, within a short time, from just another species of big mammal to a world conqueror; and how we acquired the capacity to reverse all that progress overnight." The Third Chimpanzee is, in many ways, a prequel to Diamond's prize-winning Guns, Germs, and Steel. While Guns examines "the fates of human societies," this work surveys the longer sweep of human evolution, from our origin as just another chimpanzee a few million years ago. Diamond writes: It's obvious that humans are unlike all animals. It's also obvious that we're a species of big mammal down to the minutest details of our anatomy and our molecules. That contradiction is the most fascinating feature of the human species. The chapters in The Third Chimpanzee on the oddities of human reproductive biology were later expanded in Why Is Sex Fun? Here, they're linked to Diamond's views of human psychology and history. Diamond is officially a physiologist at UCLA medical school, but he's also one of the best birdwatchers in the world. The current scientific consensus that "primitive" humans created ecological catastrophes in the Pacific islands, Australia, and the New World owes a great deal to his fieldwork and insight. In Diamond's view, the current global ecological crisis isn't due to modern technology per se, but to basic weaknesses in human nature. But, he says, "I'm cautiously optimistic. If we will learn from our past that I have traced, our own future may yet prove brighter than that of the other two chimpanzees." --Mary Ellen Curtin |
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