Book Reviews
Scientific American
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."
Book Description
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.
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The
Third Chimpanzee by Jared Diamond
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