Review by Choice Review
The great apes have long fascinated people, their similarity to humans serving both as fodder for scientific inquiry into human evolution and as gasoline on the flames of creationists terrified that their ancestors might have been chimps. We are not derived from apes; the tips of the evolutionary tree are not continuous laterally, but are connected radially through time. Even so, the neural underpinnings of intelligence, emotion, language, and culture are certainly very similar in people and our closest living relatives, the great apes. Stanford (Univ. of Southern California) examines the biology and psychology of great apes (particularly chimpanzees and gorillas) in the context of selective pressures that led to their form and behavior today, and forcefully argues that ape behavior is a window on the evolution of humanity. He is an accomplished field investigator whose fascinating book combines a critical synthesis of his and others' primate research, a healthy dose of philosophizing on the scientific method (and in some circles the lack thereof), and a painful look at the plight of great apes today. Though Stanford's book will undoubtedly raise the ire of some, it is rich food for thought on what it means to be human. General readers; undergraduates through faculty. M. S. Grace Florida Institute of Technology
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review
Perfectly complementing Frans de Waal's magisterial The Ape and the Sushi Master [BKL Mr 1 01], Stanford homes in on the relationships between apes and humans, contending that "to understand human nature, you must understand the apes." In the book's first part, he shows that what has been learned about how ape societies handle food seeking, reproduction, and child rearing enlightens us about how early hominids behaved, why such traits as higher intelligence developed, and why certain problematic behaviors, such as infanticide, are so persistent. The second part takes up language, considered a sine qua non of humanity but which apes have modestly mastered; species' disparate language capabilities, Sanford says, should be investigated to discover "what adaptive problems are solved through the use of language." But nothing will be learned if the great apes die out, and in the concluding chapters, Stanford pleads for them, drawing on his experience in the field observing chimpanzees and mountain gorillas. And so science segues to advocacy, potently ending a cogent and absorbing book. --Ray Olson
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
Review by Booklist Review
