The Naked Ape: A Zoologist’s Study of the Human Animal is a 1967 book by English zoologist and ethologist Desmond Morris
Long review!
No spoiler!
I would like to think of myself as an avid book reader but every other day someone somewhere tells of a famous book which I have not read! I feel so let down at that! Then again, you cannot do everything!
The review here is a preview for those who still have not read it and a summary for those who may not read it!
Now this book was a revolution of sorts released in the year 1967 and though it was a long time ago; this is like a grand father of books which have recently become very famous like the Homo Sapiens and Guns germs and steel!
The narrative is straight forward without any attempt to be serious or give scientific evidence like most boring history books!
The fact that the only species of Ape which is naked! That is the line which gets your attention and keeps you hooked!
He states that the only ape who has all his weakness or genitalia so exposed is the Homo Sapiens. So much so that whatever little hair he or she has is also the hair is soft and sparse!
He also states how that is a connection to our other mammalian ancestors like the whale who also have no hair just like us! And how that can also explain our hairy head which bob’s out of water!
Among the many difference he says about the Naked Ape, he states how they never get fleas but at least here the Naked Ape is like other ! And that was primarily due to two things apparently! Now we do get the occasional flea bite which form rare diagnosis but those are accidental fleas!
The basic point, is that carnivores have fleas but primates do not.
So Monkeys and apes are plagued by lice and certain other external parasites but, contrary to popular opinion, they are completely flealess!
To understand this, it is necessary to examine the life-cycle of the flea.
This insect lays its eggs, not on the body of its host, but amongst the detritus (waste or debris of any kind) of its victim’s sleeping quarters!
The eggs take three days to hatch into small, crawling maggots.
These larvae do not feed on blood, but on the waste matter that has accumulated in the dirt of the den or lair!
After a couple of weeks they spin a cocoon and pupate and remain in this dormant condition for approximately two more weeks before emerging as adults, ready to hop on to a suitable host body! This means that they like some specific people of some specific species who take so much time to get ready!
So for at least the first month of its life a flea is cut off from its host species!
It is clear from this why a nomadic mammal, such as a monkey or ape, is not troubled by fleas! Even if a few stray fleas do happen on to one and mate successfully, their eggs will be left behind as the primate group moves on, and when the pupae hatch there will be no host ‘at home’ to continue the relationship. Fleas are therefore parasites only of animals with a fixed home base, such as the typical carnivores!
Then a whole chapter is dedicated to the the sexual act and motion including the erotic areas of male and female and the very act of copulation described in vivid details! You can read about it yourself!
Another observation is about the the feeding technique which is most effective! Now, apparently mothers who feed on the left side or holding the baby on the left side feel that the baby gets comforted more faster! This phenomenon was actually studied further and they also found similar finding! If you feed the baby in the left side then the baby gets comforted faster than the right and in fact even if you do not feed and simply hold the baby on the left side the baby gets more comfort and finds more pleasure (read; stops crying!!).
One theory put forward was that the left side of the body of the mother is having the heart at least in most cases since we can safely rule out the very rare condition called the dextrocardia! Now everyone knows that the heartbeat is heard on the left side and there is a nation that the rhythmic movement of the heart or the heart beat is a pleasant music for the infant! It is of course the constant sound which he or she heard in the womb with the beating of the heart!
Desmond also says how even the growing teens who are away from their parents influence also get influenced by the rhythmic music which is similar to the beat of the heart like the rock or pop music! Exceptions aside, most normal people like the rhythmic beats and try to synchronize the beat with their body which is actually they trying to match the beat of the heart!
He tells about the balance between two emotions or Neophilia or love of new things to Neo Phobia which is fear of the new! The child is actually so curious that you have to restrain him or her!
Then he tells about food and the famous sweet tooth of the Naked ape!
How we start out meals with a sweet and end with one!
How we gobble up sweets as soon as we see them somewhere and how we have sweet shops and no sour shops! Now this novel was written 1967 and now we actually have sour shops too! The taste is more varied now and the range is huge! Though sweet still remains top in the list!
During Puberty the preference for fruity and sweet odours falls for flowery oil and musky ones! The juvenile weakness for sweet though can be easily exploited and is frequently is!
The male of a group especially the primate like the Gorilla or the chimp have to assert their dominance by an open challenge! The posturing can be a loud noise or thumping or in some animals, standing on two legs to increase height! In some they make the hair stand out or the wings out! The mean posturing is supposed to look scary and overwhelming to the opponent!
A fear is generated and this is enough most of the times since an actual fight is not going to be beneficial to any of the party!
A show of might or more power is all that is required!
Then there is the act of submission which is universal and this behaviour is reflected even in human behaviour. When Humans divide the sections of a house in to different smaller rooms or when they in an act of submission hand their back! A Gorilla in an act of submission may offer his hand to be bitten! How sitting in the car when a cop approaches is counter productive! How religion and belief in a supreme power is actually an act of submission! How little the naked ape has changed like how even if we touch a member of the opposite sex by accident we apologize!
Of course exceptions to every rule is there apparently! Like individuals who are professionally concerned making large number of contacts or people with behavioral defects that make them abnormally shy or lonely!
Also it has been seen that old habits die hard and even in choices by children who like tall animals like Giraffe or elephant it is because we like things which are long tall and straight! Even dogs are made to sit upright so that we like them more!
Then a whole section on temperature response, there is one particular aspect of sweating that should be mentioned. Detailed studies of sweating responses in our species have revealed that they are not as simple as they may first appear. Most areas of the body surface begin to perspire freely under conditions of increased heat, and this is undoubtedly the original, basic response of the sweat-gland system. But certain regions have become reactive to other types of stimulation and sweating can occur there regardless of the external temperature. The eating of highly spiced foods, for example, produces its own special pattern of facial sweating. Emotional stress quickly leads to sweating on the palms of the hands, the soles of the feet, the armpits and sometimes also the fore-head, but not on other parts of the body. There is a further distinction in the areas of emotional sweating, the palms and the soles differing from the armpits and the forehead. The first two regions respond well only to emotional situations, whereas the last two react to both emotional and to temperature stimuli. The moistening of the palms and soles during stress appears to have become a special feature of the ‘ready for anything’ response that the body gives when danger threatens. Spitting on the hands before wielding an axe is, in a sense, the non-physio-logical equivalent of this process! So sensitive is the palmar sweating response that whole communities or nations may show sudden increase in this reaction if their groups security is threatened in any way!
As a result of this during a recent political crisis, when there was a temporary increase in the likelihood of nuclear war, all experiments into palmar sweating at a research institute had to be abandoned because the base level of the response had become so abnormal that the tests would have been meaningless.
The author concludes that having our palms read by a fortune-teller may not tell us much about the future, but having them read by a physiologist can certainly tell us something about our fears for the future!
Now the only way to keep skin clean of parasites and later on disease is to keep the ticks and other infestations under check. If there are areas which cannot be reached by the primate then the only solution is social grooming, the development of a friendly mutual-aid system! This can be seen in a wide range of both bird and mammal species, but it reaches a peak of expression amongst the higher primates!
So apparently special grooming invitation signals have been evolved here and social ‘cosmetic’ activities are prolonged and intense.
When a groomer monkey approaches a groomee monkey, the former signals its intentions to the latter with a characteristic facial expression. It performs a rapid lip-smacking movement, often sticking its tongue out between each smack! The groomee can signal its acceptance of the groomer’s approach by adopting a relaxed posture, perhaps offering a particular region of its body to be groomed. This lip-smacking action has evolved as a special ritual out of the repeated particle-tasting movements that take place during a bout of fur-cleaning! Apparently whatever comes out of the grooming session is rapidly put in the mouth! It can be some dust or some tick or even parts of food and even faeces! By speeding them up and making them more exaggerated and rhythmic, it has been possible to convert them into a conspicuous and unmistakable visual signal! I am never looking at lips again!
A whole section about domestication has been discussed with special focus on most ancient symbiont in our history which is undoubtedly the dog!
He says that they cannot be certain exactly when our ancestors first began to domesticate this valuable animal, but it appears to be at least ten thousand years ago! The story is apparently a fascinating one!
The wild, wolf-like ancestors of the domestic dog must have been serious competitors with our hunting forebears. Both were co-operative pack-hunters of large prey and, at first, little love can have been lost between them. But the wild dogs possessed certain special refinements that our own hunters lacked. They were particularly adept at herding and driving prey during hunting manoeuvres and could carry this out at high speed. They also had more delicate senses of smell and hearing. If these attributes could be exploited in exchange for a share in the kill, then the bargain was a good one. Somehow an inter-specific bond was forged. It is probable that it began as a result of young puppies being brought in to the tribal home base to be fattened as food! The value of these creatures as alert nocturnal watch-dogs would have scored a mark in their favour at an early stage. Those that were allowed to live in a now tamed condition and permitted to accompany the males on their hunting trips would soon show their paces in assisting to track down the prey. Having been hand-reared, the dogs would consider themselves to be members of the naked-ape pack and would co-operate instinctively with their adopted leaders. Selective breeding over a number of generations would soon weed out the trouble-makers and a new, improved stock of increasingly restrained and controllable domestic hunting dogs would arise. It has been suggested that it was this progression in the dog relationship that made possible the earliest forms of ungulate prey domestication. The goats, sheep and reindeer were under some degree of control before the advent of the true agricultural phase, and the improved dog is envisaged as the vital agent that made this feasible by assisting large-scale and long-term herding of these animals.
The author also puts in side notes about food and how the unchecked population of the naked ape would turn out to be disastrous one day and then all other species would be wiped! He says how we have eaten every possible species and by some wonder simply differentiated them into routinely edible or not like the fish and the goldfish!
We have selectively wiped out so many species that have either not been useful to us or come in our way!
The only other solution is to find some other planet to migrate!
The novel ends with references to the theories and opinions given in the book. All in all a very interesting read!
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