The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal (P.S.)

relative dry book..great insights on human/anthropological development of chimps and us...but towards the second half of the book which are not quite relevant..and Sun spots affect Earth historic temperature fluctuation...not humans..BUT global warming IS an issue..humans have duty to protect, but it is the Sun affects the Earth...as if he tries too hard to squeeze all the passengers into a Shinkansen during Tokyo morning rush hour...

Jared Diamond's hard-hitting book paints a hyper-realistic and thorough picture of the place of mankind in the Darwinian evolution, of its tiny genetic, but huge `intellectual' differences with apes, of the deep animal roots of its behavior and of the evolutionary trade-offs explaining biological imperfections.

His book is divided in five parts.
Part one discusses the ascent of man and the great leap forward in the Darwinian evolution due to skeletal changes, upright walking and the use of tools.

Part two gives a full picture of man's life cycle: a limited number of offspring, parental care, mating selection with conception as only a by-product of copulation, social relations and life expectancy (slow aging).
Together with `normal' animal behavior like rape, infanticide, intergroup warfare or adultery, mankind has some unique characteristics like the menopause of women and the treatment of the latter through asymmetric adultery laws or genital mutilations.

Part three analyzes man's cultural traits, In the first place, the ascent of agriculture and its most important concomitant characteristics, like demographic explosions, rampant malnutrition, gross social and sexual inequalities, epidemic diseases and political dictatorships; also, language, art and technology.

Part four treats a unique and destructive feature of mankind: xenophobic killing of other human groups en masse, mostly in fighting for lebensraum. Man's arsenal of nuclear weapons can wipe out all living things on earth.

Part five analyzes man's assault on the environment (e.g., the self-destructive chemical abuse) and his mass extermination of other living species, on which depends his own survival.

Despite his pessimistic vision, Jared Diamond remains still cautiously optimistic because man has the power to find solutions for the actual dire state of the planet he lives on.

This book is a must read for all those who want to know who we are and in what kind of world we are actually living.

I've been searching for explanations pertaining to diet and health for many years. Why exactly do we eat the things we do, and, more importantly, how did we get here? As Dr. Diamond explains, "That transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture is generally considered a decisive step in our progress, when we at last acquired the stable food supply and leisure time prerequisite to the great accomplishments of modern civilization. In fact, careful examination of that transition suggests another conclusion: for most people the transition brought infectious diseases, malnutrition, and a shorter life span. For human society in general it worsened the relative lot of women and introduced class-based inequality. More than any other milestone along the path from chimpanzeehood to humanity, agriculture inextricably combines causes of our rise and our fall."

Further, if we're 98.5% genetically related to chimpanzees, how different can we be to each other? No, he doesn't answer that question explicitly; but, reading through the book one can't help but to wonder. Highly recommended reading... - lc

This book offers a lot of interesting information about the many similarities between humans and chimpanzees, as well as the few but important differences. Most claims about our evolution are speculative, but the author plausibly attributes our "great leap" forward to the refinement of our vocal apparatus which enabled us to develop complex speech, and hence to accumulate information about innovation, communicate that information, and pass on learning to new generations.

Unfortunately the author doesn't develop that thesis, and instead goes on to describe marginally related peculiarities of human beings, such as: Why do we conceal ovulation and copulation - unlike most other species of primates? Why do humans have permanently swollen breasts, unlike most mammals? Fascinating questions, but there are only speculative theories, no clear answers.

There is an extensive discussion about the tendency of our species to exploit and destroy our environment, exterminate other species, and eventually doom ourselves to an endless search for new territories. This topic is very important but seemingly disconnected from the main subject of the book. Another interesting but only marginally relevant discussion is that human-like species are very likely to exist on other planets in the universe, and knowing what we do about living things we should protect ourselves by avoiding rather than seeking contact with potentially superior aliens.

The author seems to contradict himself in being cautiously optimistic about our future, but considering that even some Third World countries are making progress to protect their natural resources, we in the West may eventually learn to respect the earth's limitations before it's too late. Despite its shortcomings I recommend this book and have ordered other titles by the same author.

Jared Diamond has established his reputation as a keen observer of the sweep of human history in two more recent books, Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies and Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed. (See my reviews). This 2006 reissue of his 1993 original offers readers of his better known works a glimpse of the seminal thinking that led to those excellent volumes.

The Third Chimpanzee offers Diamond's insight into the animal origins of many of the traits that we think make us human, and a few that we wish did not. His thoughtful consideration of the evolutionary background of genocide, sex practices, racial discrimination, and other knotty problems are thoroughly illuminating. His explanation of human development and diaspora are helpful, even if you are long familiar with our history. As in any scientific inquiry, some theorizing here has been surpassed by later discovery: for instance the 2010 discovery that Neanderthal did mate with Cro-Magnon, as evidenced by DNA analysis. (Diamond surmised that we eschewed each other as mates, but that we survivors probably killed off our bigger brained but less clever cousins.)

I highly recommend this study to anyone interested in human history and the dilemma we face in the near term, as our numbers swell far past the carrying capacity of this small planet and our extinction of the rest of our companions ratchets exponentially. We may be doomed, and here are many of the reasons why.

I cannot imagine why this awesome book is not available on Kindle.

The thing I love about Jared Diamond's work is that every one of his books has an undercurrent of human empowerment in it. Diamond lays out what is known on a subject and then starts playing with the ideas, and bringing in supporting facts and studies to explain his conclusions. They are often diametrically opposed to what we hear our learned and well paid media propagandists tell us every day.

So many great comparisons and contrasts between human beings and animals that sheds so much light on both. Another trait of Diamonds work is how bone chilling the revelations of our species' suicidal ignorance is.

This book, like "Guns, Germs and Steel" and "Collapse" are included in my top-shelf favorite and are the ones I always have loaded on all my electronic devices.

I sure would like the read this and annotate on my Kindle, there is so much to this book it's hard to keep it all in mind.

One thing I admire about Jared Diamond is his ability (like Carl Sagan) to take complex issues and scientific concepts then molding them into comprehensive bites that the average reader can swallow. The Third Chimpanzee a book that Diamond had published in 1992 has come back into print because of the success of Collapse and Germs, Guns & Steel which is terrific since it tackles a very different series of subjects from the ability of animals to communicate with each other, natural selection and why homosapiens managed to come out on the top of the heap, how/why we find certain people attractive and select our mates to whether or not aliens are listening for our radio signals (and why we might be in big trouble because we gave them our address IF they were listening).

All of this falls under the general theme of the book which focuses on the nature and future of humanity. Diamond has a breezy, enjoyable style that most readers will find inviting and that makes the more complex scientific ideas that much easier to swallow (whether it be how scientist calculate how often we go through evolutionary change or which theory about why men have bigger...you know what than our nearest relatives).

Diamond's book is over 15 years old so things have changed a bit since he first wrote it although interestingly the very things that he suggested could happen do appear to be coming true in many cases so he's added a post script discussing some of these new ideas, etc. that weren't available when the book was written.

As with Diamond's other books he is very upfront about his thoughtful opinions on the subject he focuses on. Whether or not you enjoy the book will probably depend on whether or not you like to have your preconceptions challenged, you agree with him or both.

Excellent book by Diamond. He analyzes the great leap forward (the time period in human history where great leaps were made that culminated in our becoming the dominant species on the planet.

Topics emphasized are the evolution of human language with great examples from studies in contemporary linguistics; human sexual behavior including concealed ovulation, monogamy or not, anatomy and physiology of human sex; the history of genocide and its implications with respect to the survival of genetic material.

One of the most interesting conclusions in the book is the projected fate of our species....extinction. As our population explodes, we are outgrowing Mother Earth's resources, polluting our environment and have developed the ability (through weaponry) to kill off entire civilizations without ever facing the victims on a battlefield.

Very humbling. When I think about the short period of time that we've been here and learn about extinction biology from examining the fossil and geologic records, I realize that we may just be a flash in the pan.

This is a really thought provoking book. I read Diamond's other books first. I'm really glad I picked this one up. It's several years old, but truly a masterpiece.

Homo sapiens are, as the title states, the Third Chimpanzee. Diamond's theme in this book is that humans are just one species among many; we make up just one small part of a large whole, which is the natural world. Through a historical context, Diamond creates a pallet with facts about the biology and evolution of humans. This book is written with power; presenting answers to the controversial questions of why humans, being the third species of ape, were able to conquer and dominate the earth while developing the high possibility of ending our short lived reign in disaster.
Diamond tells the story of the Third Chimpanzee in five parts. Part one methodologically recounts the most recent anthropological and genetic evidence of how humans possess a significantly close relationship with apes, such as chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans. Interestingly put forward are the implications that humans and chimpanzees diverged from the ancestral line after gorillas did. Humans are similar in 98.4 percent of their DNA to chimpanzees; according to the evidence, the common chimpanzees are human's closest primate relative as opposed to the original thought of gorillas being more closely related to humans.
Part two handles the changes that occurred in the human life pattern from the expansive length of time from several million years ago to ten thousand years ago. The differences between chimpanzees and humans in life cycles, mate selection, sexuality, and the possibility in the ways in which these various factors could have effected the evolution of humans, are all concentrated on in this part of the book. Diamond uses the right amount of technical detail to place the reader on a platform of understanding that is needed to grasp the theories of human evolution and future that are proposed in this book.
Part Three of the book discusses the many cultural traits of humans and how we believe that those specific cultural traits are what detach us from other species, particularly those relatives closest to us. Spoken language, art, agriculture, and tool-based technology are a few examples of the "cultural hallmarks" Diamond instills as being distinguishing cultural traits that we are proud of, as opposed to the many others introduced in this book as being detrimental to the survival of the human race. These ugly cultural traits are chemical abuse, mass exterminations of numerous other species, the negative attributes of agriculture, genocide, among others.
The destructive qualities that humans posses, such as environmental degradation and warfare are told of in Part Five. To bring the book to a close the epilogue summarizes the story of the third chimpanzee, telling of what the future may bring with melancholic and hopeful views alike.
In the first section of the book, Diamond provides plenty of background information, facts, findings and evidence for his assertions. Many interesting stories that he told capture and entice the reader. He discussed the different theories of human skin color in reference to location. The most popular of the theories being that differences in skin color are adaptive. This means that the shade (light/dark) of skin color benefits the person according to the region; white skins (supposedly) more effectively produce vitamin D aiding in the prevention of rickets and osteoporosis, where as darker skins induce sunlight that in turn reduces the chances of developing skin cancer. Many more theories exist, yet the one that Diamond lays on the table for pondering is Darwin's theory of sexual selection. Darwin's sexual selection theory attributes the differences in skin color to our ancestor's matting according to their preferences. Diamonds entire discussion on skin color is vividly illustrated thru a conversation that he had had with a few New Guinea men about female attractiveness and how they found white women to be repulsive.
Agriculture is a main theme throughout the entire book. Diamond tends to consider the invention of agriculture as being a great catastrophe. It has its benefits tied with its destructive attributes. Diamond makes claims to agriculture as being the exact opposite of what many people grow up believing it to be; the cause of class differences, monstrous wars, and the deterioration of the length and quality of life.
The second half of the book is filled more with Diamond's own speculation about the evolution of human behaviors, missing in this section is the evidence, facts and various theories that he used in his writing at the beginning. For an example of the lightly supported claims, Diamond presents the reader with his argument that smoking is a human behavior that is linked to sexual selection. He goes on to explain that potential mates notice that the smoker is able to ingest the toxins and not have any apparent negative affects, thus making the smoker more sexually attractive (fitter and stronger). Diamond went wrong here by not providing any allowances for human tendencies toward trends in social behavior and addictiveness of tobacco.
Diamond addresses questions about human development that are fascinating and controversial; from DNA drift, paleolinguistics, to the settlement of the Americas. There is some notice to Diamond's position and inflexibility on certain topics, of which are lacking supportive technical details. In all, even with its weaknesses, this well-written, interesting book explores human evolution and our relationship to our closest living primate.

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.

Ever since I read "Moral Animal," by Wright back in 1995, and then Ridley's "Red Queen," I have been a sucker for evolutionary psychology. It only makes sense to assume that the same natural selection that caused us to walk upright and develop big brains - also molded every nuance of our social and sexual interactions. The first half of "Third Chimpanzee" is classic EP.

Disclaimer: For those who are offended by the very suggestion that our behavior evolved from a pre-ape ancestor - and that our behavior is an elaborate, sophisticated manifestation of language and socialization which evolved by natural selection along with a huge brain - you won't like this book.

Recently, I have read about resistance in university humanities departments to EP - humans being so special and all. We are - in the sense that our intelligence has given us free reign over our world - but humans are still very imperfect. We are poorly designed in many ways - backs, knees, tendency to war, self-delusion - exactly what one would expect from evolution. Cockroaches or certain scorpions, which can live without food and water for almost a year, are also impressive. There is every reason to believe that our (at times) unethical sexual behavior as well as our superior intelligence evolved in just as Rube-Goldberg a fashion as did our (very complicated and redundant) blood clotting mechanism.

The next several chapters are an assortment of associated topics. The chapter on linguistics explains how pidgin and creole languages evolve - complicated syntax added by the next generation of children. The chapter on agriculture is a synopsis of Diamond's acclaimed "Guns, Germs, and Steel." The chapter on the human tendency to genocide is superb. Some readers will be surprised to find that religion is only one of five major causes of the sporadic genocides that have always plagued mankind. The chapter on the early 1930's discovery of 50,000 indigenous people living in highly diverse tribes in New Guinea prompted me to buy the book "First Contact."

I highly recommend this excellent book which is on its way to becoming a classic.

Jared Diamond has a knack for taking difficult anthropological theories, condensing them to a few pages, and making them eminently readable. This is the greatest success of "The Third Chimpanzee". If you ever wanted to know the latest ideas on why certain people are attracted to each other, why some people are dark skinned and others aren't (no, it's not simply a matter of sun exposure), or why we are vastly different from chimpanzees despite sharing 98% of our genetic code with theirs, this book is for you.
Ostensibly, the goal of Diamond's book is to explain how we grew from little more than a third species of chimpanzee (hence the title) to a species which possess the power to eliminate virtually all life on earth. Accordingly, the first few chapters detail where humanity came from, outlining our genetic divergence from apes and chimpanzees, and offering ideas as to why, after millions of years as hunter-gathers humans began to move toward more complex societies. These first few chapters are excellent, both in their explanatory power and in keeping with the larger theme of the book.
From these first few chapters Diamond goes on to explore some of the more interesting questions about sex, explaining, among other things, male testes size and female menopause. These chapters are no less interesting than the opening chapters, but it is at this point that the book begins to lose coherence--we are only dimly aware of how this information fits into the overall theme of the book.
After the chapters on sex, Diamond goes on to examine some of the more unique of the human traits--language, art, agriculture, drug abuse and genocide. While these chapters make for quite interesting reading, some of the "explanations" they offer are really little more than Diamond's own thoughts and theories. Further, the overall thrust of the book, to explain humanity's rise to dominance, and perhaps doom, is completely lost. Diamond seems to lose track of his reason for writing his book and becomes wrapped up in explaining how other animals may share art, language, agriculture, drug abuse, and genocide with us, but never makes it clear why this is relevant.
The book is closed out with a few chapters which are little more than environmentalist preaching mixed with some anthropological information. While I am sympathetic to the environmental threats Diamond identifies, he comes off as too alarmist; perhaps worse, Jared leaves us wondering exactly why he decided to run off on this tangent. Certainly environmental destruction fits into the overall theme of the book, but Diamond never tells us why this is unique to humans, or why we came to be so destructive.
Overall, "The Third Chimpanzee" is a very uneven book which would have worked better as a loosely grouped collection of articles than an actual book with a persistent theme. This is unfortunate because Diamond has shown, most notably in "Guns, Germs, and Steel," that he can carry an argument through the hundreds of pages necessary to create a book. Despite this flaw, Diamond has put together a book which is at once highly readable, highly informative, and highly entertaining. You certainly could do worse if you wanted to read up on some of the most famous of the anthropological theories.

This book is about man, the animal, and what makes him similar and what makes him different from other animals, especially his cousins, two species of chimpanzee. The book spreads itself across many fields: evolution, sex, language and arts, geography, war, and environment
The author postulates that man was just a third species of chimpanzee until about 40,000 years ago when he made a "great leap forward" to become a chattering, tool-using animal who came to dominate the world. Why that great leap forward took place is unknowable, but the author speculates that the development of language was the catalyst.
"The Third Chimpanzee" is written in a light style with lots of intriguing speculations and theories mixed amongst the facts. The author leads with that most fascinating of subjects - sex - and spends about 50 pages examining the sex lives of man and his primate relatives in voyeuristic detail. After hooking the reader on sex, the author goes on to more prosaic topics such as the spread of Indo-European languages, the geographical factors that influence history, and even a bit of speculation about intelligent life in the universe. The most serious notes in the book come toward the end when he takes up genocide and environmental disaster.
I like this book. For those of us who think that linguistics is served with clam sauce this is a digestible taste of science.

Diamond is the writer of the very successful Guns Steel and Germs. He is a biologist by profession and he has spent a lot of time in New Guinea. This is an earlier book and perhaps does not reach the standard of "Guns" but despite that is entertaining and interesting to read. Diamond is a witty and entertaining writer and he is good at popularizing scientific matters.
The book covers a range of issues and is in reality more of a series of essays than a book exploring a central theme. This however does not detract from its interest at all.
Most of the book is devoted to discussing evolution and putting a new perspective on it. In the past popular descriptions of evolution suggested that man evolved and as part of that evolution he developed a large brain which led to him being able to develop the use of tools, language and a range of skills which enabled him to dominate the planet. Diamond however explains a set of ideas that have become known as evolutionary psychology. What that means is that certain parts of our behavior and ideas are not things which we develop as part of our free intelligence but are part of our mental evolution. One example is the role of altruism and group cooperation. Humans are unique in having children who are very slow at developing. An animal child will be able to feed itself after birth, is able to move around a few days after being born and can function as an adult within a year. A human child cannot feed itself for a year and is dependent for at least six. This means that the mother has to protect it and is in turn vulnerable to predators. Diamond suggests that humans have developed a set of instinctive feelings which lead to group cooperation to offset this rather major evolutionary deficiency. Thus humans naturally tend to develop cooperation and long term sexual relationships.
Diamond also provides further research to again break down what used to be seen as the division between men and animals. He shows that some other animals, a specie of monkey, have a language which has complex verbal warnings to distinguish various predators such as leopards, birds of prey and other animals of the same type. Each leads to a different response from the monkeys with them running up trees or hiding on the ground depending on the sort of threat.
The book is fascinating and it is a valuable in making available to the general reader of a number of important advances in biology and science. Highly recommended.

"The Third Chimpanzee," by Jared Diamond, is a fascinating study on how humans evolved, how seperate they are from other animals, and if anything can be done to stop the global destruction they are causing today. Much of the text of this book illustrates just how much human behavior is controlled by genes; many of the behaviors which are regarded as immoral (adultery, for instance) are shown to give the person who behaves in this manner an evolutionary advantage. Partnered with describing how much of human behavior is genetically controlled is a clear, well documented argument that humans and their unique behavior (specifically culture) are not so unique in the animal kingdom. Almost every form of "unique" human behaviors, ranging from art to language to genocide, have been observed in other species of animals. Diamond makes the point that it is known that these behaviors are not unique to humans; humans just practice these behaviors to a greater degree than most other animal species. Diamond also traces the beginnings of the environmental problems that humans are facing today to the cro-magnon period of human history. Diamond makes the point that many of the large species of mammals, such as the wooly mammoth, were not killed off by the ice age. Rather, the mammoths were driven to extinction by early human hunting parties. Diamond points out with frightening clarity that environmental destruction is part of our evolutionary history based on our genes, a history which is still influencing us today. Finally, Diamond gives some thought to what can be done to reverse humanity's penchant for environmental destruction, and most importantly, if it is too late to save the earth. This book is thought-provoking, scientifically sound, and articulate, and a joy to read. Anybody who has any opinions on human evolution, human interaction, society, or the environment will find this book an intriguing and eye-opening experience. "The Third Chimpanzee" is a triumph of original scientific thought into the history and behavior of human beings

Having read Guns Germs and Steel a few monthos ago, i thought i would be ineteresting to pick up a copy of the Third Chimpanzee which is considered to be a prequel to Guns Germs and Steel. Overall, it looks at over all human behaviours and history helping to explain humanity at the present. Diamond does an excellent job describing human evolution out of Africa into other parts of the world and the different species of primates that played a role in this process. He goes further into describing how human behaviours such as sexuality, how humans pick partners and manage sexual relations. He also looks at things that make humans distincly human such as language and art. He compares these accomplishments to animals and questions the benefits of some such as agriculture and condemns others such as drug/alcohal use. He further goes into detail about the conquest of certain peoples by other people and how humans cultures have hurt their own progres making species extinct and making certain great civilization decline over time.
Overall, this is a good complement to Guns Germs and Stee.

The book is breathtaking in scope and has great nuggets of totally new information everywhere. Philosophically, it is not easy to answer how a human being is different from the nearest primate. The answer is attempted on dimensions as diverse as genes, human promiscuity, genocide or ability to speak. At every stage, the author throws light upon interesting new everyday questions that few may have ever thought of. And as a result, the disjointed book provides a fascinating tale of what makes us.

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.

If you've read Diamond's two most recent books -- "Why is Sex Fun?" and "Guns, Germs, and Steel" -- very little in this book will be new to you. "The Third Chimpanzee" covers a wider range of topics and is more overtly political than those two, but much of the same territory is examined.
In this book, which was his first for a general audience, Diamond examines the history of man's evolution, seeking to establish patterns that might explain man's future. He worries that man has a self-destructive tendency -- as typified by genocide, the threat of atomic warfare, and the loss of biodiversity -- that could lead to man's own self-destruction. While Diamond occasionally tries to strike an optimistic note, the book has a dark pessimism throughout it.
One of the book's only failings is that its several aims are sometimes at cross purposes. Diamond begins "The Third Chimpanzee" by trying to level man down to the animals. He does this by explaining how closely connected man is genetically to his closest living cousins, the chimpanzees (thus, the name of this book). On this basis, he then argues that a rethinking in our concept of human rights is in order.
Later in the book, however, when Diamond is exhorting his fellow homo sapiens to save the planet, he chooses to focus on man's unique traits, both destructive and redeeming. Man is capable of genocide, certain types of which, Diamond argues, are unique to man. On the other hand, man is also capable of learning from the history of his species, something which is also unique to man. Diamond's switch from presenting man as just another chimpanzee to presenting man as both world destroyer and potential world savior is a bit jarring, even if not necessarily contradictory.
"The Third Chimpanzee" is an easy and enjoyable read, but it fails to reach the intellectual heights of "Guns, Germs, and Steel" -- a superior book in every way. Clearly, this was a dry run for Diamond, and he would later improve his presentation by dropping most of the overt politics and pessimism, while slightly narrowing his focus. The result was a great book; this is merely a good one.

Having read books on the Origins question written by Paleontologists, archeologists, anthropologists and myticists, Jared Diamonds book is a refreshing new thought from a zoologist. The book itself is an easy read, with lot of humor thrown in, and with a vast array of examples.
This is a very good book if you already have opinions and ideas on the subject and are looking for examples and data. I tend to frequently disagree with the authors' view points since I see many personal biases reflected in the conclusions drawn.
Having said that, this is a book which makes you rethink a lot about our origins and what it means to be human, and Jared definitely achieves his purpose as described in the Introduction, a definite must read which opens the mind to new ways of thought

I picked this up from the bookstore after reading Guns, Germs, and Steel earlier this year. I expected another book that was well written, where the author could explain the material to a novice on this subject like myself. I was not disappointed.
How did humans become human, and how did we evolve so differently so quickly from our primate relatives? Those are the questions he tries to answer in this book. Readers of GG&S will be familiar with a couple of the chapters in this book that touch on the same subject matter. However, don't let that stop you from looking at this book. Diamond looks at many aspects of humanity-both good (art, language) and bad (drug abuse, murder/genocide, destruction of environment) and tries to figure out how they developed or where they came from. I particularly enjoyed his treatment of language developement as well as his discussion of murder and genocide. We are not as different from animals as I thought regarding those topics. Plus, he explains everything very well. I had no problems following his logic or explanations. I would recommend this book for all to read.

2006 Harper Perennial reissue of 1st edition (1992), 368 pages

This is another of the twenty books Charlie Munger recommends in the second edition of Poor Charlie's Almanack (which I recommend very strongly you get and read). Two of Jared Diamond's books make it on to the list (this one plus Guns, Germs and Steel), so I had high hopes for his first book, The Third Chimpanzee. I wasn't disappointed.

A big theme in Poor Charlie's Almanack is the importance of multi-disciplinary learning. Munger believes that many/most academic disciplines suffer from `man with a hammer syndrome': if your only tool is a hammer, everything tends to look like a nail. Jared Diamond is a man who comes equipped with a full tool kit: he started off in medical research, then pursued a parallel second career in bird ecology, evolution and biogeography and is learning his twelfth language.

The first part of this book is about where we came from and how we have become so different to all of the other animals, when, for example, only 1.6% of our DNA differs from that of a chimpanzee. The second part is about our likely future as evidenced by our relatively recent past (though these broad headings are actually subdivided into five sections by the author).

The book is full of interesting facts and surprising (and well argued) theories. The evidence that he discusses when looking at whether we ever lived in harmony with nature and how far back and regularly our human genocidal tendencies manifested themselves is rather disquieting. It suggests strongly, for example, that my own laissez faire attitude towards the environment is emphatically not justified by human history. The difference between us and the Easter Islanders or Anasazi Indians is that we have a global resource base to compromise before we run into serious trouble.

Diamond also has a theory of how the plant and animal species available for domestication may well have proved the decisive factor in determining which of our societies spread and became dominant. I had not come across it before at all and I found it extremely interesting - it is a prime example of how broadening the information under review may lead to completely different and unusual conclusions.

The Third Chimpanzee is an excellent and interesting book and I have already purchased his next book Guns, Germs and Steel. (I particularly recommend the 2006 Harper Perennial reissue as it contains an interesting addendum at the back with information about Diamond, some recommended further reading, and, most importantly he also discusses new scientific discoveries made since the original 1992 edition.)

If your first impression that this is just another Natural Selection or Darwin diktat, at least I was pleasantly surprised that it was not, but more. As self described prelude/genesis to the more famous Guns, Germs & Steel, I found that the 3rd Chimpanzee had more educational value over its more successful sibling. Whether it was the discussions of the split/jump from Neanderthal to Cro-Magnon , hard-wired linguistic structures for communications advancement (see Noam Chomsky), or to the role domestication of agriculture and animals played in population growth -- the book will educate you on the bigger picture of human development and the subsequent expansion across the globe. A good enjoyable read with many long lasting anecdotal surprises along the way.

The DNA of a Homo sapiens and a bonobo chimpanzee (a.k.a. "Pygmy Chimp") differs by less than 2%. Why are humans so much more advanced that chimpanzees? That question, and many others, are answered by this informative and easily readable book. Besides explaining many facets of human behavoir (violence, monogamy, adultery, alcohol & drug use, and much more) Diamond also lets us in on the private lives of our closest ancesotrs, the chimpanzee and the gorilla. Many puzzling aspects of humanity are explainable by looking at the society and comportment of chimpanzees and gorillas. This is the type of book that not only informs, but will give you clever bits of knowledge to salt and pepper your next conversation. Very entertaining!

Wow. I can't stop thinking about this book, even though I finished it a month ago. I can see why Diamond is so in demand as a lecturer and author. He does what is difficult to do in science: speculates intelligently, and with authority. Even better, he labels his speculations as such. But once you hear his theories on a number of subjects, you won't be able to stop thinking about them. Although I am sure that Diamond might be wrong on such subjects on why we abuse drugs, he is so, so, very right in his observations and conclusions based on the evidence of many aspects of our culture, our strengths, and our weaknesses. You really should read this book. Everybody should.

After the spectacular success of UCLA geography Professor Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies (1997) and Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or to Succeed (2005), Harper Perennial has reissued this splendid book originally published in 1992. I'm glad they did. In this ambitious work, Diamond attempts to define human nature in evolutionary terms and to warn us of the dangers ahead. He is particularly worried about the two clouds he sees as hanging over our heads, nuclear warfare and an environmental holocaust. (p. 350)

In the early chapters, Diamond examines our nature and shows how we are similar to and differ from the common chimpanzee and the bonobo (AKA "the pygmy chimp" or as lately seen on TV, "the sexy chimp"). His expertise is nothing less than stunning. Even though this book is nearly 15 years old, most of what he writes needs no update. In the later chapters he concentrates on a variety of themes, genocide, the "noble savage," environmental loss, species extinction, etc. Here we can see the tentative ideas that later became the books mentioned above.

In chapter one, Diamond compares the three chimps. In chapter two he documents the so-called "great leap forward" about 40,000 years ago in which humans became truly human as evidenced by cave art, better tools and the ability to improve upon previous tool design. He attributes this leap to the development of symbolic language. In chapters three through six, he examines human sexuality and reproduction. In chapter seven he explains why we grow old and die. Chapters eight and nine explore language and art and their expression in other animals. In chapter ten, "Agriculture's Mixed Blessings," one of the best chapters in the book, Diamond shows us that life as a hunter-gatherer was preferable to life as one of the early agriculturists. With agriculture came the possibility of civilization and everything that civilization brings, which includes--in addition to art, technology and the massive harnessing of energy--herd diseases, malnutrition from monoculture farming, overpopulation, and hard and long work hours for most people. Average human height actually decreased following the birth of agriculture about 10,000 years ago.

In chapter eleven Diamond begins to stray from what he really knows to what he thinks he knows. He posits here that we drink and use "dangerous drugs" because of a macho need to show how fit we are. He takes Amotz Zahavi's famous handicap principle and applies it to the Marlboro man. But the advertising for cigarettes and alcohol that Diamond sees as appealing to fitness are better seen as appealing to a false sense of glamour or adventure. Actually we use drugs because they alter our consciousness or deaden it; and we continue to use them because we become psychologically dependent on them. A way of looking at drug use that is consistent with evolutionary principles is to see drug use as a relationship between species, between plant (producer of, e.g., nicotine, tetrahydrocannibinol) and human, or between yeast (alcohol) and human which has not yet reached a true symbiosis.

Another error that I think Diamond makes is his idea that intelligent species throughout the universe are unlikely. He uses the argument that intelligence arose only once on this planet and that if it was something that evolution could easily develop it would have arisen in other species, but hasn't. He even recalls an analogy that I've read elsewhere from woodpeckers. Noting that there are no native woodpeckers in Australia, it is postulated that although woodpecking is a fine subsistence niche, it requires such exacting skills that its evolution almost didn't happen on this planet. The same may be said for intelligence as an evolutionary skill. But the fact that woodpeckers already exist in the Americas and the Old World tends to preclude the evolution of other birds into woodpeckers. And who's to say what intelligent creatures might have evolved had we not come along (e.g., the Neanderthal)? And who's to say just how intelligent some dinosaurs were before they were wiped out? And who's to say what a colony of ants or bees ("swarm intelligence") may become after we are gone?

I also think Diamond is missing something when he declares that "advanced extraterrestrials who discovered us would surely treat us in the same" barbaric way we have treated other primates (or indeed other peoples). (p. 214) For one thing those little green men, considering the vastness of interstellar space, would have a hard time getting here, and any that did arrive here would be light years in advance of us not only technologically but probably morally as well.

A recurring theme throughout the book is the human propensity to kill and our hypocrisy about that killing. From the mastodons to the children of the Middle East, humans have always killed while maintaining that killing is evil. Diamond does a nice job of explaining just how this Orwellian doublethink works. The main mental trick is to see those we want to kill as different and separate from ourselves. The taboo against killing humans, Diamond reveals, is really just a taboo against killing members of our own family and tribe. Once we are able to see others as outsiders, we can demonize them and trivialize them, turn them into subhuman objects and get on with the slaughter. Diamond considers how those of us on the sidelines, those of us who have not demonized the victims, can let this happen. His conclusion is that human nature can stand only so much blood-splattered horror before we become numb to the killing and turn away.

Although Diamond waxes hopeful near the end of the book as he thinks of his children and grandchildren, the overall impression I got is that humans are probably not going to be able to prevent the twin nuclear and environmental holocausts to come.

What species is most closely related to the chimp? If you guessed humans, you're right! Chimps and humans share more than 98% of the same genes. Given this fact, Jared explores human behavior and is somehow able to do this from outside of the human perspective. While we like to think of ourselves as being far above other species, Jared is careful to recognize other less flattering and uniquely human traits such as our addiction to chemical substances and our practice of genocide. The Third Chimpanzee offers a unique and balanced perspective of the human animal and the role we play in the global environment. Read this book to gain a more complete understanding of what it means to be human, where we came from, and where we might be headed.

I truly found this book fascinating. It covers the whole gamut of human behavior and evolution, in all it's glory and shame. I imagine this is the way any science should be expressed: Brutally honest and always backed up by data. I definitely cringed at some of the more despicable characteristics of our species, and was deeply saddened when confronted with the bare facts of some of the genocides we've visited upon ourselves, but I also found heart in some of the positive progress we've made in the way we treat others and our environment.

There are a lot of hypothesis and theories in here that really made me think - things I never even thought to comtemplate.

This is one of those books I think everyone should read.

Jared Diamond has done something that most science writers do not: describe the process of science. He presents various stages of recontructions and also discusses alternative hypotheses. His examples are fascinating (at least I have not seen them in the popular science literature before), especially about New Guinea peoples and birds. Diamond's description of how the proto indoeuropean language has been reconstructed is a masterpiece (I cannot comment on the linguistic accuracy, but it shows how science works by small incremental steps; and not by great Eureka! insights).

Dr. Diamond's first book for which he won nothing but the admiration of some pathetic, lifeless losers like yours truly. But he should have. It was excellent. True that Chimpanzee is the Salieri to Guns' Mozart, but what it lacks in breadth it makes up in simplicity and erudition. I breezed through this book with nary a trip to Wikipedia unlike GGS, which sent me there virtually every day. And yet I still learned a ton.

The chapter titled "The Golden Age That Never Was" was a delightful decimation of the position that simpler times harbored some kind of environmental respect that we have since lost. It's like he read Quinn's manuscript for Ishmael (see) and wrote this in protest. Diamond points out that the Native New Worlders, far from respecting nature, precipitated the largest wave of extinction in human history. Just how respectful is it to walk up to a 500lb flightless bird that doesn't run from you because it didn't have the benefit of evolving to be afraid of humans and club it over the head? Or to kill a wooly mammoth, feast for 2 days and then leave the rest to rot?

About as respectful as trading Manhattan Island for some beads. At least now the species-killers get to keep our gambling money. What did the giant ground sloth get?

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.

Dr. Diamond's first book for which he won nothing but the admiration of some pathetic, lifeless losers like yours truly. But he should have. It was excellent. True that Chimpanzee is the Salieri to Guns' Mozart, but what it lacks in breadth it makes up in simplicity and erudition. I breezed through this book with nary a trip to Wikipedia unlike GGS, which sent me there virtually every day. And yet I still learned a ton.

The chapter titled "The Golden Age That Never Was" was a delightful decimation of the position that simpler times harbored some kind of environmental respect that we have since lost. It's like he read Quinn's manuscript for Ishmael (see) and wrote this in protest. Diamond points out that the Native New Worlders, far from respecting nature, precipitated the largest wave of extinction in human history. Just how respectful is it to walk up to a 500lb flightless bird that doesn't run from you because it didn't have the benefit of evolving to be afraid of humans and club it over the head? Or to kill a wooly mammoth, feast for 2 days and then leave the rest to rot?

About as respectful as trading Manhattan Island for some beads. At least now the species-killers get to keep our gambling money. What did the giant ground sloth get?

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.

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.

This book is well written, and has interesting facts, stories, insights and humor on every page. Having said this, some are bound to be offended by it. When the author speaks with authority in areas outside of his discipline, and especially when he dismisses theories that have a lot of support with just one or two sentences, other academics are bound to scream. On top of this, much of the book carries an explicit ethical bias which is generally not accepted in 20th century scholarship.
The book reminds me of how scharship was done prior to the 20th century. Marx, for example, was called a 'Political-Economist', and used political, economic, social, historical and other data to argue that people needed to behave a certain way. Both Marx and Diamond discuss topics that cut across many of today's academic disciplines, and to varying degrees, both take the tone of an evangelist, saying 'Change thy ways, or ye are doomed!'.
I say that its a good thing for academics, after decades in their field, to do this. I suspect that the problems of the 21st century and beyond will be solved as much by those who bring disciplines together and provide ethical guidance, as those who produce original research in a very specific area devoid of ethical considerations.

I thought this book made many interesting and intellectual connections between human nature and the evolution of primates. The author does an excellent job of substantiating his hypthesis with scientific and established facts. His predictions for the future of humans are logically explained.

That being said, some topics are over explained and repetitious.

Overall I think this book is very much worth reading.

The Third Chimpanzee is one of the most interesting, wide ranging and informative books about human development on Earth that I've ever read. Jared Diamond thinks as a scientist, obviously, but amazingly writes for the lay person. He explains why anthropologists, paleontologists and linguists have developed the concepts about the origins and spread of Homo Sapiens that they currently hold. It's a must-read book for anyone curious about our roots in the animal world and why we are as we are.

This is definitely one of the books you should start reading.

First part of the book is very interesting, has lot of info (scientific) and reads very easily.
Second part of book goes into a lot of personal opinions, much less proven and backed up by data and, IMHO, becomes boring and drags on too much.

So, as i already said, one should read this book (or at least start it). Whether you will finish it...well that's not important. First half is interesting and informative enough to justify the effort. Thus, 4 stars from me.

The first part, covering human evolution and biology, is fascinating. I especially enjoyed finding out that, compared to all other primates, I have an enormous penis. Have tried using this fact to impress women in bars with mixed results. Okay, not really mixed. No results.

The second part reads sortof like practice for Diamond's later, Pulitzer-winning "Guns, Germs and Steel"; he's starting to look into ideas that he fleshes out in more detail, and more convincingly, in that book. I wouldn't hold it against you if you skipped that part and moved right on to his later books.

I teach to college students a precis of Diamond's "Guns, Germs, and Steel" book from a UCLA lecture he gave summarizing that work in 40 minutes. His energetic style rushes past dazzling insights that only later cause you to pause and then question them more thoroughly, in retrospect. By then, Diamond's long ahead of you, on to yet another byway along his intellectual marathon. You never can catch up with his pace.

Such aplomb can be found in his earlier collection, which suffers a bit by comparison. It lacks the unity that linked GGS. You can find his "later" ideas published in the next decade and more here percolating--"Accidental Conquerors" the raw material for GGS; part five "Reversing Our Progress Overnight" anticipating "Collapse." Without exception, the length of these essays, individually often full of intriguing anecdotes, remains constant. They satisify with analogies as disparate as a Mercedes dealer, a relative from the Holocaust, his toddler's vocabulary, and how bowerbirds' love shacks compare with dating rituals on the Sunset Strip.

Their origins in Discover and Natural History magazines reveal also their limitations. Compressing complex theories into a small space for a broad audience is Diamond's admirable skill. Yet, he raises more questions than he can answer. This open-ended approach perhaps stems from his style of lecturing, but on paper it leaves the reader less satisfied than his listeners, I sense. I learned much from each disparate essay, but I never reached the conclusion without feeling a bit shortchanged. His annotated bibliographies document the breadth and depth of his research, and I have nothing but praise for his abilities. Yet, I find in his more unified later publications a more cohesive, if equally debatable, presentation of his very fertile intelligence.

This book was certainly thought provoking. It introduced the subject matter well for anyone unfamiliar with the primate family (although I'm not sure how many people would read this if they had no interest in primates) and built upon this with little stories and speculations that makes you appreciate being human. Certainly speculative, the read should be taken with a grain of salt, but with that said, it is an interesting read.

In The Third Chimpansee, Jared Diamond presents a marvelous analysis of the human animal. Observing us like a visitor from outter space, the author discusses humanity from a perspective that incorporates both the social and the biological factors. The incredible sense made when seeing through Diamond's eyes will stir the brain of every reader. This book is a must for all those interested in evolutionary biology and biological anthropology. If you've ever wondered why humans act the way they do, Diamond will certainly offer an insight that will captivate your entire mind.

Borrowing insight from a multitude of scientific fields, Diamond retells the human story in unwavering honesty. He places a spotlight on human sexuality and aging, the role of linguistics and art, and our adoption of agriculture and animal husbandry, not forgetting to mention our seemingly innate propensities towards addiction, genocide, and fellow species extinction. See also "The Moral Animal" by Robert Wright.

An immensely readable book. Though written in magazine articles in the 1980s and put into a book, it still holds up in 2012. I like the fact he is not a specialist in that he compares across the academic spectrum. The specialists will nit pick this theory or this fact but Mister Diamond understands the big picture and I love his style for it.

I currently reading The Third Chimpanzee by Jared Diamond and think that it is a very great book. Jared Diamond wrote this book to show humans a few things. For one, how close to chimps we are. We share 98 percent of our genes with them, yet we are the far more dominant species on the planet. Humans have founded societies and invented languages. We've also invented electricity and done many other things, while chimps. Diamond poses the question of why the differences are so huge with only a two percent change in our DNA. What about that two percent causes such a wide array of changes? Diamond tells through passion and humor how humans have differed from our closest ancestor in such a short time how we are slowly destroying the planet. Diamond strongly feels that the worst mistake in the history of man was when we split away from our chimp ancestors. When I first heard this, I thought he was crazy. But now having read The Third Chimpanzee, I still don't agree with him, but I can see where he's coming from. The book is divided into five sections. In the first part of the book, Diamond takes us from several million years ago up until when agriculture first appeared ten thousand years ago. The second part deals with the changes in the human life cycle, which was needed to develop language and move forward to where we are today. Part three deals with the traits that we use to distinguish ourselves from animals. Part four deals with the part of our minds that has us kill other groups of humans. The final part deals with how in order to survive, humans find in necessary to destroy their environment. The structure of the book helps to make it easily readable. Diamond doesn't mix up various parts into each other, making it a messy read. Third Chimpanzee is a long book, and it's definitely not an easy read. But unlike most books of the genre, it kept me extremely interested. It did not have the dry textbook feeling to it. It was packed from cover to cover with information, but it does not get the reader bored like a textbook. In conclusion, The Third Chimpanzee by Jared Diamond is a great book with very interesting information in it. If you were ever even remotely interested in the origins of mankind, read it. It will keep you begging for more and unable to put the book down.

A comparison of how our closest relatives from the animal kingdom show a remarkable number of our most cherished features. Diamond makes the bold claim that we are so similar in genetic make up, that we should stop and reconsider how we treat our chimpanzee cousins. He gives great coverage of our physical and psychological characteristics that have diverged from our ancestors, and he also gives reasons why. He paints a good portrait of human behaviour, both the good and the bad, and animal precedents we can refer to, to help us understand why we are the way we are. Finally we must be cautious, because only now does the human race have the technology to end not only other species existence, but our own.

While some parts of this book were difficult for me to grasp on first reading (such as language), most of it was well written and understandable, and of course, fascinating. A couple things, however, I did not like...

1. Diamond's conclusions at the end of Chapter 13. It discusses the last "first contacts" in the modern world and how our increasing population is actually shrinking our cultural diversity. While the entire chapter has to do with shrinking cultural diversity, his last sentence is "Loss of cultural diversity may be the price that we have to pay for survival". I personally just don't like the tone of (what I interpret as) defeat. He willingly accepts that "our accelerating cultural homogenization" will save us ("hopefully") from annihilating ourselves.

2. The apparent close-mindedness towards Neanderthals. In the beginning chapters he says that Neanderthals were just "another species of big mammal". As far as I have learned when I took an anthropology course a year ago, and through my own reading, Neanderthals were not just another species of "big mammal". Modern humans and Neanderthals co-existed. That our species survived and theirs didn't doesn't seem to me to mean that ours is the "better" species. Neanderthals made tools, buried their dead, and there is also evidence they cared for their sick. Diamond almost acknowledges a capacity for art in Neanderthals, but then casts doubt: "The first preserved hints of human art consist of some flower remains around Neanderthal skeletons, and some scratches on animal bones at Neanderthal campsites. However, the interpretation that they were arranged or scratched intentionally is in doubt" (p. 170). In my opinion, he displays too many feelings of superiority on this subject, and does not want to acknowledge for a second that Neanderthals were humans capable of much more than authors like him have been willing to grant them.

A good read for anyone who's interested in anthropology or evolution. One of Diamond's main points in this book is that humans are not so different from our biological cousins, the apes. In fact, he says, we are more genetically close to chimpanzees than some species of orangutans are to other species of orangutan. Not to spoil the story, but this is a good read!

Perused this book while shopping in a "brick & mortar bookstore. Having read Guns, Germs & Steel I was familiar with the author's strength - intelligent discourse in a very readable style. The Third Chimpanzee, like GG&S, requires some involvement on the part of the reader. About 70% of the time I felt like I was learning something new and the other 30% my brain was comparing Diamond's thoughts to personal experiences and formulating new perspectives. The topics, which could easily be boring are made interesting by Diamond's frequent linkages to modern reference points. The book's chapters do not need to be read in order and in fact many were published as stand alone articles in Discover and Natural History Magazines. (This may be the secret to their readability.) Diamond does weave a progressive story through the book which culminates in a very thought provoking last chapter. I finished the book thinking, "so what am I going to do about these issues". The reader participation doesn't stop at the end of the book. Two weeks later and it's still percolating in my mind.

Really-really good science writing. Very illuminating and readable. I intend reading it for the n-th time soon. Along with Dawkins, Hawking, Wilson, Gribbin ... Diamond is a prime science writer of our time.

The author accuses we humans of inflicting an environmental holocaust that started some 40 thousand years ago, is presently accelerating, and will climax within the new century. He alleges that in our past we murdered all the Neanderthals and hunted to extinction most of the big mammals and other large animals that roamed in our path. Other extinctions were caused or encouraged by the pests (i.e. rats) that were spread as we expanded worldwide. The trend will supposedly continue since environmental destruction is a human hallmark. While this message may seem unsurprising to we cynics, a great deal of information and speculation is provided that is fresh and provocative.

Diamond provides an interesting study of human progress but usually provides a biased list of options regarding causation. One would tend to think that he knows the answers and that they are consistent with his synthesis of the data. This makes the book interesting but somewhat too popularized? On the whole, it was written with wit and had thought provoking concepts that could be developed using some of the reference material. In total, worth the money and the reading time.

The Third Chimpanzee

BY: Jared Diamond

The theme that Diamond wanted to get across to his audience was that humans are just a small species that is in a new world with technology and science. Through his novel he explains how that not only are humans the most intelligent species but asks questions about why we age so fast, and how we evolved so slowly through our ape ancestors. Through each chapter you learn about all his theories and how they are relevant to our time period and how he discovered or at least thought of good reasons how we do what we do everyday of our lives. Within the first ten chapters he explains through biology and evolution how we act the way we act and how we are the third Chimpanzee (as the title states The Third Chimpanzee) or Homo sapiens.

Through part one of the novel "Just another Species of Mammal" Diamond writes that we as humans are only 2.6% different from chimps/apes in DNA but we act and think differently from them. In part two "In animal with a strange life cycle" it says that how apes evolved so much with life span because right now apes only last for fifty years unlike humans which are known to last about twice that. He also explains that even in sexual selection and how we choose our mates have changed because of either of sexually appearance or the management of the couple. Even so , Jared tries to keep the reader's (such as me) leveled with what is happening and not put them in to a situation where they have no idea what is happening.

In part three "Uniquely human" Jared explains how the bridges to our culture/language have changed and how they have adapted easily, but sadly have wanted to change other beliefs and rituals because it sometimes leads to war and other environmental dangers which wipe out species. He also asks why we do all the things that destroy our inner body such as the use of alcohol but states that humans are merely prone to such things by anger, stress or just by the person's surrounds like gangs or problems at home that are wished to be forgotten. For the humans that smoke often have a better sex appeal because of the inhaling of the toxins and receiving nonnegative affect creating a strong fit guy who can with stand toxics. Yet he also wonders on the absents of space and the wonders that it gives us like are there others like us out there and or will we ever meet? Diamond gives facts and biological reasons why we may never get to meet others because of how we live or because we just are not ready to experience something like this.

In part four "World Conquers" Jared states that humans dominate our selves by our own technology, in other words that our leaders are killing their own people just to satisfy there needs towards a country or by war related times. In the chapter "Accidental Conquers" Diamond asks why was technological and political actions slowed down while reaching America? Such as iron tools and writing, yet in America, only a very few states had writers and had tools that were made with iron or even crossing the ocean.

In "Horses, Hittites and History", J. Diamond believes that English was the originating language that started the huge change in languages. Over 5,000 tongues are spoken today all originating from English Old English). In the earlier chapters Jared explains that how people `s color of skin is changed by persons location of temperature like near the equator causes a high risk of skin cancer but the people there are some what prone to it because of there dark skin.

People farther away slowly go lighter eventually getting in to a pale skinned person.

In part three "Reversing our progress over night" explains how humans are just starting to worry about how our future might be or if we'll even have a future for our selves because of all the toxins we've given the earth. He says that were rapidly destroying all the work that Mother Nature has given us just to satisfy our needs.

In conclusion "The Third Chimpanzee" is a great novel to pick up if you feel that your also wondering why people do what they do.

The connection of the the evoutionary and phsychological charachteristics of human beings is worth the read. The evidance is lacking but more then made up for by circumstantial logic. There are few books that shed light on human charachteristics and such finds should not be skipped.

Jared Diamond explains in his awesome style how we are related to the various ape species and why the chimps are our closest cousins (or rather brothers). Based on the differences and similarities between us, do we have the right to consider ourselves so much different from animals, and do we have the right not to grant at least some human rights to our closest relatives...

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.