Comparative Books

Our Inner Ape: A Leading Primatologist Explains Why We Are Who We Are

Frans De Waal

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 36 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Power, sex, violence and kindness: these four broad-spectrum categories encompass much of human behavior, so it's only fitting that they're also the primary subject material for Frans de Waal's (The Ape and The Sushi Master) book Our Inner Ape. The few (but deeply detailed) chapters are a mesmerizing read that spans biology, child psychology, postmodern theorists and fundamental morality, using tales of stern chimps, and sexy bonobos to examine humans' place between them. In the process, he examines why we need to know our place in the world, how our body language communicates feelings, and where the roots of empathy lie in mammalian life.

De Waal's respect for both his readers and his research subjects come shining through in the simple clarity he uses when describing both the endless sex of bonobo apes and the heartrending violence occasionally present in chimp hierarchal structure. By illustrating his points with a mixture of straight-from-research experiences and jokes at the expense of modern politicians, he keeps his ideas compelling for anyone with a basic understanding of evolutionary science without drifting towards the academic drone that could be expected of by a researcher of his experience.

You won't find specific conclusions concerning human nature, but instead a gentle, almost rambling look at two primate species with vastly different social networks and how, perhaps, humanity can learn from each to our benefit. A few of de Waal's lovely duotone photos (My Family Album: 30 Years of Primate Photography grace the end of the book, featuring close-up shots of the folks he's been writing about--chimps like Yeroen, Nikkie and Mama, and bonobo Kuif and adopted daughter Roosje are downright thrilling to see after reading such interesting stories about their lives. Jill Lightner

Measuring Behaviour: An Introductory Guide

Paul Martin, Patrick Bateson

Amazon Price: $39.99 List Price: $39.99 In stock soon. Order now to get in line. First come, first served. By: Cambridge University Press Amazon Marketplace: 13 new & used starting at $15.00

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Concise, clear reference 5 out of 5 stars.
16 of 16 people found this review helpful.

This is a fantastic book for anyone interested in the study of human or non-human behavior in lab or field settings. The authors pack nothing but the vital basics in this guide. They cover topics such as research design (sample sizes) and data analysis (parametric vs. nonparametric stats). Reading this book is a great use of your time if you're considering research on animal behavior.

A perfect introduction 5 out of 5 stars.
12 of 13 people found this review helpful.

This book is a perfect introduction to the field of behavioral data collection. I purchased this book for my first behavioral study of captive primates and it was extremely helpful. If you have never conducted research in this area, this book is a must have.

Editorial Review:

Measuring Behaviour is a guide to the principles and methods of quantitative studies of behavior, with an emphasis on techniques of direct observation, recording, and analysis. In the new edition, all sections have been updated and revised, particularly those dealing with the technology of recording behavior, and there are new sections on regression and multivariate statistics. As with the first edition, the authors strive for brevity and clarity of presentation.

Beautiful Minds: The Parallel Lives of Great Apes and Dolphins

Maddalena Bearzi, Craig B. Stanford

Amazon Price: $16.47 List Price: $24.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Harvard University Press Amazon Marketplace: 37 new & used starting at $14.95

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Subjects -> Professional & Technical -> Professional Science -> Biological Sciences -> Zoology -> Mammals

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Apes and dolphins: primates and cetaceans. Could any creatures appear to be more different? Yet both are large-brained intelligent mammals with complex communication and social interaction. In the first book to study apes and dolphins side by side, Maddalena Bearzi and Craig B. Stanford, a dolphin biologist and a primatologist who have spent their careers studying these animals in the wild, combine their insights with compelling results. Beautiful Minds explains how and why apes and dolphins are so distantly related yet so cognitively alike and what this teaches us about another large-brained mammal: Homo sapiens.

Noting that apes and dolphins have had no common ancestor in nearly 100 million years, Bearzi and Stanford describe the parallel evolution that gave rise to their intelligence. And they closely observe that intelligence in action, in the territorial grassland and rainforest communities of chimpanzees and other apes, and in groups of dolphins moving freely through open coastal waters. The authors detail their subjects’ ability to develop family bonds, form alliances, and care for their young. They offer an understanding of their culture, politics, social structure, personality, and capacity for emotion. The resulting dual portrait—with striking overlaps in behavior—is key to understanding the nature of “beautiful minds.”

(20080128)

The Human Zoo: A Zoologist's Study of the Urban Animal (Kodansha Globe)

Desmond Morris

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 10 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

How does city life change the way we act? What accounts for the increasing prevalence of violence and anxiety in our world? In this new edition of his controversial 1969 bestseller, The Human Zoo, renowned zoologist Desmond Morris argues that many of the social instabilities we face are largely a product of the artificial, impersonal confines of our urban surroundings. Indeed, our behavior often startlingly resembles that of captive animals, and our developed and urbane environment seems not so much a concrete jungle as it does a human zoo. Animals do not normally exhibit stress, random violence, and erratic behavioruntil they are confined. Similarly, the human propensity toward antisocial and sociopathic behavior is intensified in todays cities. Morris argues that we are biologically still tribal and ill-equipped to thrive in the impersonal urban sprawl. As important and meaningful today as it was a quarter-century ago, The Human Zoo sounds an urgent warning and provides startling insight into our increasingly complex lives.

Intelligence in Nature

Jeremy Narby

List Price: $23.95 By: Tarcher Amazon Marketplace: 35 new & used starting at $1.91

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Anthropologist Jeremy Narby has altered how we understand the shamanic cultures and traditions that have undergone a worldwide revival in recent years. Now, in one of his most extraordinary journeys, Narby travels around the globe-from the Amazon basin to the Far East-to probe what traditional healers and pioneering researchers perceive about the intelligence present in all forms of life.

Intelligence in Nature offers overwhelming illustrative evidence that independent intelligence is not unique to humanity. Indeed, bacteria, plants, animals, and other forms of nonhuman life display an uncanny proclivity for self-deterministic decisions, patterns, and actions. The Japanese possess a word for this universal knowing: chi-sei. For the first time, Narby presents an in-depth anthropological study of this concept in the West. He not only uncovers a mysterious thread of intelligent behavior within the natural world but also probes the question of what humanity can learn from nature's economy and knowingness in its own search for a saner and more sustainable way of life.

Introduction to Animal Behavior

Roland J. Siiter

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

A high school text book 1 out of 5 stars.
7 of 9 people found this review helpful.

This 'text' is a horrible assessment of animal behavior. It attempts to cover all aspects of the subject matter, but contridicts itself throughout. This is truly a first edition. The author, editor, and publisher must have been in a rush to produce this. It reads as a high school text book in that it touches upon a bunch of subjects and studies, but never explains them. This is an amateur attempt at describing animal behavior, not to mention that this book is extremely overpriced. Don't waste your time or money on this worthless publication.

Editorial Review:

With more emphasis than usual on the behavior of vertebrates and primates (although the author still includes classic bird and insect studies) the book examines how wild animals live, survive, and reproduce in their natural, wild habitats. This unique approach is presented in a straightforward manner without jargon, ensuring that students find the text informative and entertaining. Well-placed examples and explanations provide students with further opportunity to understand the application of the concepts.

Animal Guides: In Life, Myth and Dreams (Studies in Jungian Psychology By Jungian Analysts, 97)

Neil Russack

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

some good points 3 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

Neil Russack's book, "Animal Guides" was recommended to me by a therapist who works in dream analysis. There is much to be said for the author's book, but it takes some discipline to get through it.

After a bumpy start Russack settles down as he begins to describe his patients' dreams and he seems to be a man who speaks from a good deal of professional experience. He devotes many pages to his patients and his connections with him. There are some wonderful moments about elephants and horses and dragons....Russack comes into his fullest when describing an elderly woman who can barely speak and how she is dealing with the end of her life. There are some funny moments, too.....a colleague who measured his steps from his back office to the outside at lunchtime, leapt down stairs only to find his car ticketed each day. Therapists need therapists, as they say.

I came to the conclusion early on while reading this book that the author was more interested in talking about himself. There's nothing wrong with an autobiography but I had hoped for something
more detached from his personal life. A good textbook followed by a second book of a more personal nature would have established Russack in the public's eye. The author is not a great writer (and he needs a new editor!) but he spilled all his beans at once. Perhaps there is only one book in him.

The good thing to recommend about Neil Russack's book is that those who read it might find it easier to approach therapy. Once taboo, therapy has become an accepted life force for many of us.

Adaptive Dynamics: The Theoretical Analysis of Behavior

J. E. R. Staddon

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Editorial Review:

In this book J. E. R. Staddon proposes an explanation of behavior that lies between cognitive psychology, which seeks to explain it in terms of mentalistic constructs, and cognitive neuroscience, which tries to explain it in terms of the brain. Staddon suggests a new way to understand the laws and causes of learning, based on the invention, comparison, testing, and modification or rejection of parsimonious real-time models for behavior. The models are neither physiological nor cognitive: they are behavioristic. Staddon shows how simple dynamic models can explain a surprising variety of animal and human behavior, ranging from simple orientation, reflexes, and habituation through feeding regulation, operant conditioning, spatial navigation, stimulus generalization, and interval timing.

The Sex Contract: The Evolution of Human Behavior

Helen E. Fisher

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The origin of our behavior 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 6 people found this review helpful.

Never a book has helped me understand the very nature of human behavior like "The sex Contract". It deals with the essence and origin of our acts and thoughts: sexual differences. A great book!

Powerful concept 5 out of 5 stars.
4 of 5 people found this review helpful.

The Sex Contract does a great job of developing a novel concept for the development of human intelligence via pair bonding and mutual assistance. It examins cooperative development as a competitive stratigy in early hominids. It builds a compelling argument for the strong development of social stratigy in the success of the species.

Well written with a broad appeal for serious behaviorial scientists as well as sutdents of the human condition.

Comparative Psychology: Evolution and Development of Behavior

Mauricio R. Papini

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Editorial Review:

This introduction to the evolutionary and developmental principles underlying the study of animal behavior provides a broad view of animal behavior from the comparative psychology perspective. Emphasizing problems and research interests that have traditional relevance for psychologist, the book uses examples drawn from specialized journals to provide a firm grasp of evolutionary science as it is applied to the understanding of behavior. The author discusses all aspects of the animal behavior including comparative learning and cognition, brain evolution and behavior, behavior genetics, behavioral ecology, social behavior in an ecological context, early experience and development, and the ontogeny of social behavior. For individuals interested in developing and deepening their understanding of evolutionary principles within psychology.