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The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal (P.S.)
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List Price: $14.95
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Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 573.2
EAN: 9780060845506
ISBN: 0060845503
Label: Harper Perennial
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 432
Publication Date: 2006-01-01
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Release Date: 2006-01-03
Studio: Harper Perennial
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Editorial Reviews:
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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.
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating: 
Summary: Worth it for the first half
Comment: The first part, covering human evolution and biology, is fascinating. I especially enjoyed finding out that, compared to all other primates, I have an enormous penis. Have tried using this fact to impress women in bars with mixed results. Okay, not really mixed. No results.
The second part reads sortof like practice for Diamond's later, Pulitzer-winning "Guns, Germs and Steel"; he's starting to look into ideas that he fleshes out in more detail, and more convincingly, in that book. I wouldn't hold it against you if you skipped that part and moved right on to his later books.
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Summary: As Chimpy as You Wanna Be
Comment: Dr. Diamond's first book for which he won nothing but the admiration of some pathetic, lifeless losers like yours truly. But he should have. It was excellent. True that Chimpanzee is the Salieri to Guns' Mozart, but what it lacks in breadth it makes up in simplicity and erudition. I breezed through this book with nary a trip to Wikipedia unlike GGS, which sent me there virtually every day. And yet I still learned a ton.
The chapter titled "The Golden Age That Never Was" was a delightful decimation of the position that simpler times harbored some kind of environmental respect that we have since lost. It's like he read Quinn's manuscript for Ishmael (see) and wrote this in protest. Diamond points out that the Native New Worlders, far from respecting nature, precipitated the largest wave of extinction in human history. Just how respectful is it to walk up to a 500lb flightless bird that doesn't run from you because it didn't have the benefit of evolving to be afraid of humans and club it over the head? Or to kill a wooly mammoth, feast for 2 days and then leave the rest to rot?
About as respectful as trading Manhattan Island for some beads. At least now the species-killers get to keep our gambling money. What did the giant ground sloth get?
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Summary: Diamond is Brilliant
Comment: A good read for anyone who's interested in anthropology or evolution. One of Diamond's main points in this book is that humans are not so different from our biological cousins, the apes. In fact, he says, we are more genetically close to chimpanzees than some species of orangutans are to other species of orangutan. Not to spoil the story, but this is a good read!
Customer Rating:
Summary: This book is a Great Leap Forward
Comment: Of Jared Diamond's books, this one and Guns, Germs and Steel, I prefer this one. Unlike Guns this one is not as redundant and has more focused chapters. I compare it to going to listen to a good college lecturer where you might listen to well focused lectures that get you thinking, but may not have an ambitious global theme (like Guns) to tie it all together.
Most of the chapters I found enlightening and all though I am fairly well versed on physical anthropology there were many new insights that I picked up. The first chapter talks about breakthroughs in dna clocking that establishes the title.
The second chapter titled, The Great Leap Forward I found interesting and perhaps perplexing. Most anthropologists including Diamond seem to think that Homo Sapien goes back about 200,000 years. Most anthropologists mark 40,000 years ago, The Great Leap Forward as a critical time in Homo Sapien development. It seems clear that this is when we developed language which is supported by the physical changes in the skull. However, few seem to recognize this as the time when there was an actual species shift from Home Erectus to Home Sapien. This is also in spite of the fact that other possible rivals such as Neaderthal disappeared.
The best chapters in the book are three through six which detail aspects of human sexuality. I think these are must reading for anyone that is interested in an objective point of view of our sexual behaviours. There are enlightening sections that not only discuss behaviours that we have adapted such as monogamy but also why they would be advantageous to survival. There are other interesting discussions about menopause and why humans have large genitals comparative to other primates.
There is also a very good chapter called the Golden Age that Never Was. This questions the romantic notion that pre-westernized societies lived in harmony with nature and practiced better conservation habits then we did today. Diamond does a great job of debating this notion by detailing the disappearance of megafauna when coming into contact with humans. This is a controversial argument. I have spent an entire class with a professor who refuted this idea claiming that it is not likely that humans would hunt a species to extinction. Generally, I am biased to my education but in this case I was swayed to Diamond's point of view. He gave very convincing arguments. Especially, good was the discussion of the disappearance of Mammoth's in North America.
The only improvement I would ask for is the removal of the chapter 11, Why Do We Smoke, Drink and Use Dangerous Drugs. I really felt that he missed the mark on this one.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Print way too small
Comment: Wow! Got the paperback version. Need a magnifying glass to read it. Waiting for it to come on the Kindle.
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