Rating: 
Summary: logical, insightful and entertaining
Review: I love the way he strips off our thin venear of civilization and shows us our bigger family history. Our primal urges are what makes all that is good and evil about human beings. To understand this is so important to understanding ourselves, and on a higher level, moulding future civilisations. Fascinating reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Amazing
Review: I read this book only 3 years ago, and I admit it has forever changed my outlook on human-kind. If we want to admit it or not, humans are animals, and the undiluted observations from Morris are in the least refreshing, and at best, a confirmation of what you've long suspected! Highly reccommended!
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating!
Review: I read this book over 30 years ago and it remains one of the most impressive works I've ever read. It was actually I book I got from the book club because I forgot to tell them not to send it to me. I thought that I might as well read it and I was thoroughly astounded by what it had to say. The author, Desmond Morris, takes a look at man as a part of the animal kingdom and gives us a portrait of a species only slightly above other genuses and species. His examples and explanations are thoroughly compelling and one comes away presuaded. The question is; persuaded of what? Does "The Naked Ape" denigrate humans or elevate our fellow primates? You decide when you read this most enjoyable work written by an author who knows how to communicate his ideas.
Rating:
Summary: Fascinating!
Review: I read this book over 30 years ago and it remains one of the most impressive works I've ever read. It was actually I book I got from the book club because I forgot to tell them not to send it to me. I thought that I might as well read it and I was thoroughly astounded by what it had to say. The author, Desmond Morris, takes a look at man as a part of the animal kingdom and gives us a portrait of a species only slightly above other genuses and species. His examples and explanations are thoroughly compelling and one comes away presuaded. The question is; persuaded of what? Does "The Naked Ape" denigrate humans or elevate our fellow primates? You decide when you read this most enjoyable work written by an author who knows how to communicate his ideas.
Rating: 
Summary: Tainted by sexism
Review: I read this when it came out, I was 10 years-old. I've since become a cognitive psychologist and am therefore in a position to appraise the book as an insider.
At one point, Morris claims that if you hand little girls a doll, they will "instinctively" cradle it so that the doll's head lies on the left, close to the heart. He claims this is evidence of the mothering instinct. So, I took a doll to school and experimented on my friends. I experimented on about 35 kids, boys and girls. I found that Morris was wrong. Little girls did not differ from boys as to the way they first held the doll.
So, if you read this book, watch out. It contains many DUBIOUS claims which would lead one to believe that differences in behavior between men and women are "natural" or "instinctive".
Rating: 
Summary: I beg all of you to question 'Naked Ape' inside and out
Review: If you missed it the first time: I beg all of you to question 'Naked Ape' inside and out. Specifically you who assumed right off the bat that his theory of the evolution of female topography makes sense. Morris hardly bothers to look at human evolution without slanting it toward the preferences of modern culture. As one example: he immediately assumes since that because men of 20nth century western society prefer curvaceous women, men of all societies share in their preference. NOT the case! Not only do women in isolated hunter-gatherer societies not emulate the aesthetic standards of modern western males, but the men of those primitive societies don't even care for hemisperical breasts or curvy figures. Secondly Morris obviously loves his vision of man as the hunter and stops at nothing to revolve all of anthropology around it. What that leaves us with is a whole lotta speculation stemming from a LARGELY unproven theory of human evolution as I must remind anybody before they pick this book up. It seems Morris doesn't question the Savannah Theory as much as he should. He outlines the social structure of baboons and compares it to that of humans. Doesn't he find it odd that he makes human hierarchies sound more similar to baboons than that of our closer chimpanzee kin? He explains that as both baboons and humans moved out onto savannah territory, they restructured society in such a way to keep it glued together out in the perilous open. Doesn't he find it odd that other species who evolve in savannah land don't follow these same trends. Thirdly, according to 'Naked Ape' men evolved to hunt, women evolved because men hunted. (But women never seemed to influence the evolution of men) He describes woman's evolutionary role as something of a pampered cavebunny who survived only by pleasing men sexually. The carefully veiled sexism doesn't bother me nearly as much as how far-fetched some of these ideas were. I hope anybody who has read this book or will read this book will keep in mind that some of this material can be outdated and one-sided.
Rating:
Summary: thought provoking and enlightening
Review: In this book, Desmond Morris gives a very unique view at our species. He examines the biology and behavior of humans in much the same way an entomologist might study a newly discovered insect or an ornitholigist might describe a previously unknown bird. He takes a step back from his own anthropocentric bias and attempts to explain humans in terms of evolutionary biology. When confronted with evolutionary explanations to issues generally taken for granted, one may find oneself questioning the answers given by such accepted institutions as psychology and religion. This may be why The Naked Ape has remained so thought provoking and controversial so many years after its original publication
Rating:
Summary: Enlightening!
Review: It brings a new meaning to phrases such as "We are all human beings." In one word: enlightening. Also, Dr. Morris showed the rest of us how to conduct research and analyses of human beings.
Rating:
Summary: The human being as it is.
Review: It told me a lot on the FAQ`s about human relations.One thing is certain for anyone who reads this book: you won't view the human being as you did before you read it.
Rating:
Summary: Entertaining but probably wrong
Review: Morris is an entertaining and engaging writer, and most things he writes about are plausible at first glance. However, when you really start to analyze it, he's really just another humanochauvinist working from the assumption that the human form is the pinnacle of perfection and that it represents some sort of "advancement" over the "lower" species. In fact, the human body is a real mess from a bioengineering point of view. The idea that bipedalism is somehow "superior" to other modes of locomotion just doesn't stand up, if you'll excuse the pun. It has caused us as a species untold health problems. Hypertension, headaches, bad backs, bad knees, indigestion, hemhorroids, the list of ailments attributable to our frankly bizarre posture goes on and on. The idea that an essentially quadripedal animal would one day just decide to get up and walk because someday he might want to use tools is just too pat for my taste. Evolution has no crystal ball. Lest you think I'm just hand-waving here, the savannah hypothesis Morris bases most of his assumptions upon has been largely demolished as of late in the face of new fossil and genetic findings. The foundation is rapidly washing out from under his argument. Enjoy the writing but take its conclusions with a grain of salt. Read Elaine Morgan's work for a theory which I think holds water. (If you get it, please excuse the pun again. If you don't get it, please read her work...)
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