'APE WITHIN US, THE'

by John MacKinnon

Holt, Rinehardt and Winston, Copyright 1978, First Edition, Author, John MacKinnon,clean book and dust jacket, dust jacket light wear, total pages 286

Hardcover

First published April 20, 1978

Reviews

[Evelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

What starts as an interesting travelogue chronicling visits to sites where each of the great apes … gorillas, chimpanzees, bonobos and orangutans … and two of the lesser apes … gibbons and siamangs … are being studied, and some of the observations made at each site on each species’ behavior, transforms into a dull long-winded dissertation on human behavior as extrapolated from that of human’s ape ancestors. This section reflects many of the prejudices and stereotypes about people that were still prevalent at the time the book was written in the late 1970s.

The book concludes with a chapter discussing the future of humans based upon ape behavior studies, and sociological studies of humans. This chapter is quite offensive given the many prejudicial comments and stereotypes referenced about humans of different ethnic and racial backgrounds. They are extreme for this time period as many of them were being debunked at that time by scientists, and rejected by members of the public. So it is surprising to see them incorporated in this chapter.

The book rates 3 stars for its initial discussion of the ape research sites and studies, and its effort to draw lessons from these observations to enable one to better comprehend human behavior.

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[Rue Matthiessen · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a writer and what a subject. Great to zero in on the nature of us and the beginnings of things in these overwrought, troubled times. Fascinating.