Monkey

Animal Series

by Desmond Morris

Monkeys populate our culture, from the adorable hijinks of Curious George and the loyal friendship between Aladdin and Abu to the menacing gait of the winged ones in The Wizard of Oz . We visit them in zoos and even sometimes keep them as pets à la Catherine de Medici and Michael Jackson. As renowned zoologist Desmond Morris shows, it is not surprising that we are so attracted to them. While we sometimes view monkeys as trivial or comic, their mischievousness is delightful, and their urge to explore and love of activity fascinate us.

 

Monkey unpacks human attitudes toward these animals, tracing our connection with them throughout history. ­Morris reveals that our fascination with monkeys extends through many cultures and eras—ancient Egyptians revered baboons, monkey deities featured prominently in ancient Chinese and Japanese religions, and sacred status was given to the langur monkey by some groups in India. He also describes how our relationship with monkeys has changed since Darwin, and even become more troubled—this in-depth knowledge of our own origins amplifies our identification with and concern for the idea of monkeys’ primitivism and destructive behaviors. Drawing a vibrant picture of these beguiling animals and their continued popularity with humans, Monkey brings a new understanding to our complicated relationship with the ever-curious George.

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Desmond John Morris (born 24 January 1928) is an English zoologist, ethologist and surrealist painter, as well as a popular author in human sociobiology. He is known for his 1967 book The Naked Ape, and for his television programmes such as Zoo Time.

Reviews

[Stephanie Froebel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book definitely improved as the chapters progressed. That being said, I never felt a cohesive narrative.

Morris's Monkey is a jumbled-up compilation of many things monkey. The first half recognizes different perspectives on monkeys in human cultural history (sacred monkeys, despised monkeys, loved monkeys, etc.). While a nice breadth of information, it felt underresearched. Wild Man from Borneo, a book that discusses the cultural history of orangutans exhibited a stronger application of delving into cultural history, using a variety of sources and forms of evidence. I also preferred their citations, being far more extensive than what Morris provided. Much of the cultural history sections are left without footnotes, bringing to question the merit and ethos of his argument. I also found it strange when Morris decided to bluntly insert his own emotionally charged language into a topic. He uses words such as "tragedy" or "sadly" in a sentence but never explains why these topics are inherently wrong. In such cases, the narrative feels rushed.

The second section of the book addresses the different types of monkeys based on morphological features, intelligence, rarity, etc. I enjoyed these brief overviews, especially the table discussing the conservation status of the primates.

The best part of his book actually occurs in the appendices. The first appendix notes every known monkey species, common & scientific names, and their found locations. The second appendix describes the different ways "monkey" is used in the English language: the different idioms, meanings, and expressions. While this does not reference anything from the main body of his book, it's fun and honestly the most informative cultural section.

Overall, I'm not particularly impressed with this book, but given the limited literature on monkeys, it will do if you have run out of other things to read.

[Sohail · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too brief, too basic.