Thursday, May 30, 2019

Humanimal

Humanimal looks at humans from an "animal" perspective. How is it that humans came to dominate the world? Use of tools helped, but many other animals have tools. The ability to pass on knowledge from generation to generation ends up being a main factor. He spends a good chunk of time looking at corollary behaviors in other animals. He cautions that people should not justify a human behavior simply because a similar behavior exists in nature. Animals may appear to rape and murder, but without a communicable thought process, there is no way to directly compare. He also spends time looking at sexual behaviors. There are a number of different reproductive mechanisms out there. There are also many instances of animals (including humans) engaging in sexual activity that will not produce offspring. Why is that so? There are some conclusions to that and the question of how homosexuality propagates. He dubunks many explanations, and cautiously presents his preferred explanations. (For example, homosexuals tend to come from larger families.) There are some areas that he decides are not worth touching, and just condemns them out of hand. There are some interesting bits, but it is overall an easily forgettable book.

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