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Summary: Not what I was expecting, but a good book anyway.
Review: I expected the book to keep with the subject of pure humans. The book, instead, shifts to aspects of all other animals and compares the human to them to create a foundation. Since I didn't know much about animals, and past societies, the book was very apealing to me. However, if I had already known about these things I would have been disapointed with the book. In any case, I learned a hell of a lot from this book and I do feel confident with my understanding of how we have evolved. I don't mean to degrate this book by giving it a three star rating, it's just that with a tittle "The Third Chimpanzee" the book comes across as different from the actual read itself. It's still a great book. I enjoyed it enough to order Jared Diamond's following book "Guns, Germs,and Steel".
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Summary: Fed up with business books???Read the 3rd Chimp.
Review: On my way back from work, one evening of March 2000, an interview I was listening to, strongly attracted my attention. Once home, I continued to listen, desperately wanting to catch the name behind the subject. Pity, I couldn't. It took me some time (10 days) and finally a phone call to the broadcasting radio to find out that I had discovered Jared Diamond. Keying in his name on Amazon.com did the rest.. Anyone interested to know more about where we come from and what made us who we are, will thoroughly enjoy this master book. Observations and discoveries available from various fields have been structured in a masterly fashion. The combined creativity and passion in clarifying and explaining is nothing short of overwhelming. It gave me a sense of "I knew some of that (a few things here and there) but never would have imagined the depth of knowledge that could be extracted from it". The voyage through "The Third Chimpanzee" was, for me, the reading highlight of the year 2000.
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Summary: An appeal to reason
Review: Opening with a false statement: "it's obvious that humans are unlike other animals", this book goes on to strenuously refute this widely held assertion. Diamond spends the remaining chapters explaining why the allegation is false. He does this first by showing how close we are to the other primates. He follows that by bringing the human species into a more valid relationship with the rest of the animal kingdom. He uses the mechanisms of evolution, from eating habits through language to sexual practices. The theme of this book is to challenge to us to reconsider our view of our place in life's panorama. It's clear that we can no longer hold ourselves aloof from our relations in the animal kingdom. When art critics and psychologists can be deceived by animal-produced art, the claim that "humans are unlike other animals" rings pretty thin.The range of topics is extensive, and he handles them with a special talent, exercised with aplomb. We like to think we are exclusive among animals in having speech, writing, agriculture and other aspects of "civilization". Diamond shows us that those aspects we think are particular to us are in fact shared by numerous other species. Ours may be more pronounced, but they are not isolated in us. These abilities differ only in degree, usually limited by environment or physical capabilities. But they are the shared result of the evolutionary process. Diamond has a special talent for the sweeping view. He's used this aptitude elsewhere, but perhaps none of his books quite match what he's done here. Challenging many of our dearly held beliefs with a refreshing directness, he aptly demonstrates that if we can learn how evolution works, we'll gain a better understanding of ourselves. Given our history over the past four thousand years, our need for this understanding is approaching a critical level. He understands where we've been and where we might be going. There are endless warnings in this book about what decisions we're making and will make. We must do them thoughtfully. But first we must shed the concept that nature "owes" us anything. The biblical injunction to "have dominion over the earth" must be abandoned, and quickly. We share the planet with millions of other species and must act responsibly. Otherwise, extinction, and a premature one, at that, is sure to follow. How many more of those fellow creatures will we take with us? Those who decry Diamond for "politics" in this book are leading you astray. It isn't his politics that Diamond wants you to follow, but ethics. If there is any aspect of humanity that can separate us from the other animals, it's in making ethical decisions. His final chapter shows our intellect has brought us under two distinct clouds - the nuclear holocaust and the environmental one. The first may be slightly subdued, but the second is gaining on us. We are destroying natural habitat at an unprecedented rate. Diamond calls on us all to make adjustments to reduce and reverse that process. Whatever else of value this book offers, his call for common sense and applying the knowledge gained here is invaluable. If there's a political element involved here, it's the need for political will to save our species - and the other chimpanzees and animals we live with.
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Summary: Disappointed
Review: I was disappointed in the arguments made by Diamond in his book. His assumptions are often made on erroneous claims that an anthropologist should know are false. For example, he seems to think that evolution is a progressive system, always working towards some sort of higher goal. He seems to forget the fact that evolution can only work on existing variation that arises through mutation when he argues against the claim that skin color is not a product of natural selection. He consistently tries so hard to be politically correct that he forgets that evolution is undiscriminating and doesn't know political correctness. He seems to know more about birds than he does about any primates because he is constantly using birds as examples rather than say more closely related species to humans that would be more relevant. Overall this book makes some interesting claims but by far not an epiphany.
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Summary: A Fascinating and Provocative Look at the Human Species
Review: Jared Diamonds award winning work, The Third Chimpanzee, is really a collection of essays put together and given a coherent form. As Diamond notes, the theme is about how the Human species became so unique, and what its achievements and limitations are. Divided into five parts, the first deals with the evolution of humans from other apes, and emphasizes the importance of language in explaining the huge leap forward in human techology and sophistication 40,000 years ago. The second section deals with the biological aspects of the human life cycle. This includes such controversial topics such as adultery, race origins, and aging. In each chapter he brings forth new ideas that are both intellectually sound and original, such as that human races evolved not due to climate, but personal preference. His third section, "Uniquely human," includes two chapters that have generally been overlooked. In one, he argues that the agriculutural revolution has been responsible for both mankind's advances and woes. And the last chapter suggests that scientists are wasting their time looking for other intelligent life in the universe, since intelligence is a small niche that biology filled here, but probably not on other planets. The fourth section is the precursor to Guns, Germs, and Steel, where be begins to lay out his theory, and discusses the disastrous effecs of agricultural societies meeting hunter-gatherer ones. The final section is perhaps the most interesting. It discusses how pre-modern man managed to wipe out the large animals in nearly every new region of the world he came to, whether it be New Zealand, Madagascar, or Polynesia. Ditto for the New World. Europeans were not alone in their destruction of the environment. The book ends with an exhortation for a more prudent ecological policy. In sum, this book is a great read, filled with fascinating insights and theories, that will fill any readers head with a wealth of information he may never have imagined beforehand. Readers familiar with Diamond will not be disappointed, and those who have not yet read him will soon be acquainted with his easy yet sophisiticated writing style, which make it a pleasure to learn about complicated topics such as these.
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Summary: Great Book
Review: This is simply a great book!
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Summary: Will civilization be our downfall?
Review: Humans are more genetically similar to chimpanzees than dogs are among their differing breeds. And yet humans have evolved to the point of threatening their future within only about 10,000 years, after a successful evolution as hunter-gatherers for millions of years prior to the birth of widespread agriculture and civilization. Diamond convincingly tells the story of this evolution along with explanations for our behaviors. Heeding his warning, should we choose to continue to evolve as a species, will be critical.
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Summary: Prophetic about extinction
Review: Nothing too new but reworked in an inimitable and warm style. Eye opening about the wildlife our species has anhialated and very prophetic about future extinctions happening right now. Bringing in such disparate topics like Indo-european languages and genocide, Diamond succeeds in demolishing the statement "science is inhuman". The book's very strength is that it is not too scientific (science being in its strict form a narrow minded religion). Cannot be too highly commended for those who value biodiversity.
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Summary: Bad Politics Spoils Good Science
Review: Ugg! Mr. Diamond writes well and has great examples and experiences, but he spoils much of it by excessive political commentary. I love politics on TV. But when I read a book about science, that is what I want, SCIENCE. Instead the first chapter, and most of the final ones, are drenched in partison politics which detracts from the real science in the book. If you avoid these chapters, or skim them briefly, this book has much to offer. The general approach of the book is to look for "human characteristics" in animals, thus making them "inhuman" or animalistic, in the final analysis. Thus, Mr. Diamond shows how basic human failings as adultry, genocide and slavery or our strengths as a species, from creativity to art to farming, can all be found in different animal species. In this part of his mission, the book is great fun, an easy read, and, at the same time, a good learning experience. Is Man the only species that fights wars? No. Ants and Apes, apparently do. Do we have a monopoly on speech? No. Mr. Diamond believes some forms of animals have simple speech. Well, is there anything at special about us at all? Maybe sex. Apparently we are one of the few, maybe only, species that mates for fun. At the very least, we don't know when a women is ready to get pregnant. So we have to try and try and try again. Its good to be the King (of the beasts that is.) If the book stayed on subject, it would have been great. I notice that most of the reviewers here, indeed, think it is a great book. It is not. It is not a great book because Mr. Diamond's observations are clouded by his own experiences, passions and biases. For example, his work with tribes in Indonesia may be typical of tribes elsewhere. It is also possible that people in different areas can be very different. Over and over, he went to his base, his experience in Indonesia. Fine, if this is a book about those experiences. It is not. This book, as referenced by its title, is a book about the third chimpanze, man. It has a broad scope beginning with the death of the big brained Neanderthal Man (I learned that they had a bigger brain as well as bigger bicepts then man) and speculating at the end about the final destruction of a genocidal human race. In such a book, his personal experiences were still interesting, but they took away from part of the book. Still, the book is worth reading. I just wish, at least, the politics could have been edited out. Since Mr. Diamnd is a bestseller, for science, I presume that his other books will have more, not less, of his political commentaries. Is it to much to hope, at least, to have less references to his twin boys? Probably so, but his future books will no doubt still be interesting, just not as well written as they could be.
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Summary: An Exemplary Look at Humanities Relationship to the Primates
Review: Diamond carefully carves through the history that has separated humans from their non-human relatives. Diamond examines the physical and psychological traits of man and primate that appear to evovle from a common source. This thought provoking analysis will leave you forever contemplating man's relationship with the natural world.
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