An Instinct for Dragons

by David E. Jones

First published in 2002. The image of a dragon- magnificent, terrifying, voracious and powerful- is ingrained in our culture. But where di it originate? And how is that people from Africa to China to America picture it the same? An Instinct for Dragons is anthropologist David E. Jones' account of his search for the mysterious birth of this ubiquitous monster. Nit only does virtually every culture in the world have a name for dragons- smok in Polish, tatsu in Japanese, unktena in Cherokee- but dragons everywhere share many of the same multiple heads, blazing eyes, earth-shaking roars, fiery breath, and the abduction of princesses. Spanning dragon lore from all paces and periods, Jones scrutinizes sightings and references from dragon inscriptions on cave walls, cliffs and pots to the Loch Ness monster to the Internet. Jones' research is erudite, and his conclusion is stunning; not only is our fear and fascination with dragons a direct result of the predators who threatened our evolution, but humankind is essentially 'hardwired' to believe in the dragon. This book will fascinate any reader interested in the cultural history of this most venerable of monsters.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Anthropology, Mythology, Dragons, Science, Reference

239 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 1, 2000

Reviews

[Jody Mena]

A really fascinating and illuminating theory, and one that makes so much sense that it now seems obvious to me. While it takes away some of the magic and enchantment that surrounds the idea of 'dragon', it also inspires a sense of awe at the sheer scope and multifaceted complexity of the effects of time and space on the collective and individual human psyche. The concepts presented in this book run the gamit from anthropology, sociology and mythology to psychology, biology, and evolutionary theory, and connect the mystical and phenomenal with the seemingly mundane in a way that truly illustrates the way in which all things, real and percieved, are irrefutably connected. This book was not at all what I expected, but it was even better!

[Colin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fascinating look at the primate instincts, based on the early natural predators of our ancestors, that create the psychological complex making the concept of "dragons" a universal human phenomenon.

[Diana Michele · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting approach to dragons! I am not going to give more away than to say it is a fascinating approach from a biological-evolutionary perspective.

[Katie Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was kind of a fun book. It had some interesting thoughts on why there are dragons across every culture.

[W · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book starts out like Steve Job’s 2007 iPhone reveal: a music player… a mobile phone, a personal computer… a music player… a mobile phone… a personal computer…

But instead, it’s revealing the dragon myth: a leopard… an eagle… a serpent… a leopard… an eagle… a serpent…

As the author says: “in this study I have been guided by biocultural anthropology, a perspective that suggests that certain universal cultural constructs, e.g., dragons, should— in the absence of evidence demonstrating diffusion from some cultural center—be investigated from the standpoint of their possible biological origins.”

Thus, he argues that the dragon symbol stems from our primal fear of predators from the days when we were all just little lemurs.

He starts by giving a literature review of human and animal psychology experiments that demonstrate our primal fears… literally this: https://www.tiktok.com/@bestviralvidz...

Some of the speculations seem pretty BS, (e.g. dragons breath fire because that emulates “the condensation of the carnivore’s hot breath being expelled into the relatively cool air of the early morning…”), but other parts, like his discussion of neoevolutionary cultural theory (pg. 96. - 103), are quite fascinating.

The Appendix is a great index of dragon myths across cultures.

I buy some of it, but not most of it. He extends his theory too far in many places. He spends too much time talking about lemur psychology and not enough time convincing me of “the absence of evidence demonstrating diffusion from some cultural center.”

Still… thought provoking and fun.

[Luis Diego · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un libro muy interesante en el que el autor explora los origines del dragón y cómo está criatura forma parte de la gran mayoría de mitologías y culturas del mundo.

El autor compara varios mitos de distintas épocas y culturas y logra encontrar un área común que alimenta su tesis: el dragón se origina de una mezcla de la serpiente, el felino y el águila. Criaturas que supusieron el mayor peligro para nuestros antepasados y que se alguna manera se marcaron en nuestro subconsciente como esta mítica criatura.

[Kay · Rating 2 out of 5]

I shouldn’t fault the author just because this was not the book I wanted or expected. I anticipated this would be an anthropological review of how dragons appear across cultures and the differences in how they are represented.
Instead, it was just a highly repetitive assertion that dragons originated due to an evolutionary fear of the three primary predators to primates - snakes, leopards, and raptors. While this is interesting and I can agree with the assertion, I didn’t need 5 chapters repeating the same claim from different view points - evolutionary, biological, psychological, anthropological, genetic, etc.

While I appreciated the evolutionary context, I found the section relating dragons to animal phobias to be an absurd stretch by all accounts. Finally, after the book ends there are two appendices that are very disconnected from the rest of the book- e.g. The inclusion of the tree of life and tripartite cosmos and how it related to dragons was baffling.

All in all, it was an interesting read but I think this could have been summed up in a journal article rather than spread out across a seven chapter book. The fixation on primates, inaccessible language, and lack of a cohesive story leaves me wishing I read a different book.

[Juan Camilo Rojas Romero · Rating 5 out of 5]

Es el trabajo más completo que es posible encontrar sobre este motivo histórico de la humanidad. Los psicólogos jungianos podrían identificar que este motivo es el principal adversario del arquetipo del héroe. Ahora, el autor incorpora biología, historia, antropología, zoología y religión en un lenguaje fácil de seguir y entender.

[Jack Reifenberg]

fun read that fleshes out an interesting concept. Gets a little lost in examples at the end, would have appreciated a better conclusion

[Shelley · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.75

[Carl]

This is my first experience with evolutionary psychology. Looks pretty interesting, though it's all pretty new to me. I've been picking it up off and on the last year, but keep getting distracted with my real work. The author attempts to analyze the universality of the dragon in the world's various cultures by deriving the common features of this supernatural creature from the primary enemies of our primate ancestors-- big cats, raptors, and snakes, I believe. My initial reaction was skeptical, infected as I am by the structuralist-poststructuralist emphasis on synchronic analysis (you don't get much more diachronic than the evolutionary timescale!) and my cultural-anthropological/hermeneutic inclination towards explaining things according to cultural forces rather than genetic inheritence, but I think I may be in the process of being won over. My main complain is that the book is not properly comparative-- there is more attention to the argument, which assumes the similarity between dragon myths across the world, and the evidence in primates, rather than the evidence in the worlds cultures. It would be daunting, but this is an instance in which some form of the Finnish Method (Comparative-Geographic) would be appropriate-- show me that the dragon is the same all over the world first, then start explaining it! Well, maybe I'm being unfair-- that sort of uber-comparativism is out of style these days. But I still think it would be worthwile here.

[John Fredrickson · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was disappointing, but probably because I anticipated a different book than the one the author wrote. This literally explores the instinctual basis for a universal belief in dragon-creatures (pretty much what the title indicated :-) )

[Josiah DeGraaf · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting book. It had too much of an emphasis on human evolution for how the concepts of dragons originated, but had a really good biography for those interested in looking at more books on dragons. Fascinating research, even if I disagree with a lot of it.

2.5 Stars. (Okay)

[Irena Feng · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting approach to a subject that is more complicated and ubiquitous than it appears! Jones does a good job introducing elements of biocultural anthropology and behavioral genetics, and relating these topics back to his overall argument as well.

[KaWoodtiereads · Rating 2 out of 5]

Took forever to finish, way more scientific than I had realized.

[John R Naugle]

Year 2012 is special for several reasons. I was born in the Chinese Year of the Dragon and the topic of dragons fascinates me. They have amazed many cultures on all the continents... and over many millennia. Today I saw the History Channel special and they referenced this book.