The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee

by Jared Diamond

  The literature on mate choice by animals is at least as extensive as that for humans. A good starting point is a book edited by Patrick Bateson, Mate Choice (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1983). Bateson’s own studies on Japanese quail are summarized in Chapter Eleven of that book, and also in his papers ‘Sexual imprinting and optimal outbreeding’, Nature 273, pp. 659–60 (1978) and ‘Preferences for cousins in Japanese quail’, Nature 295, pp. 236–37 (1982). Studies of mice and rats that grow up to prefer the perfumes of their mothers or fathers are described by T.J. Fillion and E.M. Blass, ‘Infantile experience with suckling odors determines adult sexual behavior in male rats’, Science 231, pp. 729–31 (1986), and by B. D’Udine and E. Alleva, ‘Early experience and sexual preferences in rodents’, pp. 311–27 in the book cited above by Patrick Bateson.

  Finally, some other relevant papers are cited under the further readings for Chapters Three, Four and Six.

  Chapter 6: Sexual Selection, and the Origin of Human Races

  Darwin’s own classic account is still a good introduction to natural selection: Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life (John Murray, London, 1859). An outstanding modern account is that of Ernst Mayr, Animal Species and Evolution (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1963).

  Three books by Carleton S. Coon describe human geographic variation, compare it to geographic variation in climate, and attempt to account for human variation in terms of natural selection. They are The Origin of Races (Knopf, New York, 1962), The Living Races of Man (Knopf, New York, 1965), and Racial Adaptations (Nelson-Hall, Chicago, 1982). Three other relevant books are by Stanley M. Garn, Human Races, 2nd edition (Thomas, Springfield, Illinois, 1965), especially its Chapter Five; K.F. Dyer, The Biology of Racial Integration (Scientechnica, Bristol, 1974), especially its Chapters Two and Three; and A.S. Boughey, Man and the Environment, 2nd edition (Macmillan, New York, 1975).

  Interpretations of geographic variation in human skin colour in terms of natural selection are put forward by W.F. Loomis, ‘Skin-pigment regulation of vitamin-D biosynthesis in man’, Science 157, pp. 501–6 (1967); Vernon Riley, Pigmentation (Appleton-Century-Crofts, New York, 1972), especially its Chapter Two; R.F. Branda and J.W. Eaton, ‘Skin color and nutrient photolysis: an evolutionary hypothesis’, Science 201, pp. 625–26 (1978); P.J. Byard, ‘Quantitative genetics of human skin color’, Yearbook of Physical Anthropology 24, pp. 123–37 (1981); and W.J. Hamilton III, Life’s Color Code (McGraw-Hill, New York, 1983). Human geographic variation in response to cold is described by G.M. Brown and J. Page, ‘The effect of chronic exposure to cold on temperature and blood flow of the hand’, Journal of Applied Physiology 5, pp. 221–27 (1952), and T. Adams and B.G. Covino, ‘Racial variations to a standardized cold stress’, Journal Of Applied Physiology 12, pp. 9–12 (1958).

  Just as for natural selection, Darwin’s own account remains a good introduction to sexual selection: Charles Darwin, The Descent of Man, and Selection in Relation to Sex (John Murray, London, 1871). The further readings listed under Chapter Five for mate selection by animals are also relevant to this chapter. Malte Andersson describes his experiments on how female widowbirds responded to males with artificially shortened or lengthened tails in an article ‘Female choice selects for extreme tail length in a widowbird’, Nature 299, pp. 818–20 (1982). Three papers describing mate choice by white, blue, or pink snow geese are by F. Cooke and C.M. McNally: ‘Mate selection and colour preferences in Lesser Snow Geese’, Behaviour 53, pp. 151–70 (1975); F. Cooke et al, ‘Assortative mating in Lesser Snow Geese (Anser caerulescens)’, Behavior Genetics 6, pp. 127–40 (1976); and F. Cooke and J.C. Davies, ‘Assortative mating, mate choice, and reproductive fitness in Snow Geese’, pp. 279–95 in Mate Choice by Patrick Bateson, already cited.

  Chapter 7: Why Do We Grow Old and Die?

  The classic paper in which George Williams presented an evolutionary theory of aging is ‘Pleiotropy, natural selection, and the evolution of senescence’, Evolution 11, pp. 398–411 (1957). Other papers that have employed evolutionary approaches are by G. Bell, ‘Evolutionary and non-evolutionary theories of senescence’, American Naturalist 124, pp. 600–3 (1984); E. Beutler, ‘Planned obsolescence in humans and in other biosystems’, Perspectives in Biology and Medicine 29, pp. 175–79 (1986); R.J. Goss, ‘Why mammals don’t regenerate – or do they?’, News in Physiological Sciences 2, 112–15 (1987); L.D. Mueller, ‘Evolution of accelerated senescence in laboratory populations of Drosophila’, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 84, pp. 1974–77 (1987); and T.B. Kirkwood, ‘The nature and causes of ageing’, pp. 193–206 in a book edited by D. Evered and J. Whelan, Research and the Ageing Population (John Wiley, Chichester, 1988).

  Two books exemplifying the physiological (proximate-cause) approach to aging are by R.L. Walford, The Immunologic Theory of Aging (Munksgaard, Copenhagen, 1969), and MacFarlane Burnett, Intrinsic Mutagenesis: A Genetic Approach to Ageing (John Wiley, New York, 1974).

  Some papers exemplifying the literature on biological repair and turnover are by R.W. Young, ‘Biological renewal: applications to the eye’, Transactions of the Opthalmological Societies of the United Kingdom 102, pp. 42–75 (1982); A. Bernstein et al, ‘Genetic damage, mutation, and the evolution of sex’, Science 229, pp. 1277–81 (1985); J. F. Dice, ‘Molecular determinants of protein-half lives in eukaryotic cells’, Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology Journal 1, pp. 349–57 (1987); P.C. Hanawalt, ‘On the role of DNA damage and repair processes in aging: evidence for and against’, pp. 183–98 in a book edited by H.R. Warner et al, Modern Biological Theories of Aging (Raven Press, New York, 1987); and M. Radman and R. Wagner, ‘The high fidelity of DNA duplication’, Scientific American, pp. 40–46 (August 1988).

  While all readers will be aware of the changes in their own bodies with age, three papers describing the cruel facts for three different systems are R.L. Doty et al, ‘Smell identification ability: changes with age’, Science 226, pp. 1441–43 (1984); J. Menken et al, ‘Age and infertility’, Science 233, pp. 1389–94 (1986); and R. Katzman, ‘Normal aging and the brain’, News in Physiological Sciences 3, pp. 197–200 (1988).

  ‘The Adventure of the Creeping Man’ will be found in Arthur Conan Doyle’s The Complete Sherlock Holmes (Doubleday, New York, 1960). If you think that attempts at self-rejuvenation by hormonal injections were only a fantasy of Doyle’s, read how it was actually attempted in David Hamilton, The Monkey Gland Affair (Chatto and Windus, London, 1986).

  Chapter 8: Bridges to Human Language

  How Monkeys See the World (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1990), by Dorothy Cheney and Robert Seyfarth, is not only a readable account of vervet vocal communications, but also a good introduction to studies of how animals in general communicate to each other and view the world.

  Derek Bickerton has described his studies of creolization and his views on human language origins in two books and several papers. The books are Roots of Language (Karoma Press, Ann Arbor, 1981) and Language and Species (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1990). The papers include ‘Creole languages’, in Scientific American 249, no. 1, pp. 116–22 (1983); ‘The language bioprogram hypothesis’, in Behavioral and Brain Sciences 7, pp. 173–221 (1984); and ‘Creole languages and the bioprogram’, in Linguistics: the Cambridge Survey 2, pp. 267–84, edited by F.J. Newmeyer (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1988). The second of those articles includes, and the third is immediately followed by, presentations by other authors whose views often diverge from Bickerton’s.

  Pidgin and Creole Languages, by Robert A. Hall, Jnr (Cornell University Press, Ithaca, 1966), is a less recent account of its subject. The best introduction to Neo-Melanesian is The Jacaranda Diary and Grammar of Melanesian Pidgin by F. Mihalic (Jacaranda Press, Milton, Queensland, 1971).

  Among the many influential books on language by Noam Chomsky are Language and Mind (Harcourt B
race, New York, 1968) and Knowledge of Language: Its Nature, Origin, and Use (Praeger, New York, 1985).

  References to some related fields that I mentioned only briefly in Chapter Eight will also be of interest. Susan Curtiss’s book Genie: a Psycholinguistic Study of a Modern-Day “Wild Child” (Academic Press, New York, 1977) both relates a gut-wrenching human tragedy and is a detailed study of a child whose parents’ pathologies isolated her from normal human language and contact until the age of thirteen. Recent accounts of efforts to teach language-like communication to captive apes include Carolyn Ristau’s and Donald Robbins’s paper ‘Language and the great apes: a critical review’, in Advances in the Study of Behavior, vol. XII, pp. 141–255, edited by J.S. Rosenblatt et al (Academic Press, New York, 1982); E.S. Savage-Rumbaugh, Ape Language: from Conditioned Response to Symbol (Columbia University Press, 1986); and ‘Symbols: their communicative use, comprehension, and combination by bonobos (Pan paniscus)’, by E.S. Savage-Rumbaugh et al, in Advances in Infant Research vol. VI, pp. 221–78, edited by Carolyn Rovee-Collier and Lewis Lipsitt (Ablex Publishing Corporation, Norwood, New Jersey, 1990). Some starting points in the large literature on early language learning by children include Melissa Bowerman’s chapter ‘Language Development’ in the Handbook of Cross-cultural Psychology: Developmental Psychology, vol. IV, pp. 93–185, edited by Harvey Triandis and Alastair Heron (Allyn and Bacon, Boston, 1981); Eric Wanner and Lila Gleitman, Language Acquisition: the State of the Art (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1982); Dan Slobin, The Crosslinguistic Study of Language Acquisition, vols I and II (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, New Jersey, 1985); and Frank S. Kessel, The Development of Language and Language Researchers: Essays in Honor of Roger Brown (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, New Jersey, 1988).

  Chapter 9: Animal Origins of Art

  The book that describes elephant art and illustrates it with photographs of the artist and of her drawings is by David Gucwa and James Ehmann, To Whom It May Concern: An Investigation of the Art of Elephants (Norton, New York, 1985). For a similar account of ape art, see Desmond Morris, The Biology of Art (Knopf, New York, 1962). Animal art is also treated by Thomas Sebeok, The Play of Musement (Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 1981).

  There are two fine illustrated books on bowerbirds and birds of paradise, with pictures of their bowers: E.T. Gilliard, Birds of Paradise and Bower Birds (Natural History Press, Garden City, New York, 1969), and W.T. Cooper and J.M. Forshaw, The Birds of Paradise and Bower Birds (Collins, Sydney, 1977). For a more recent technical account, see my article ‘Biology of birds of paradise and bowerbirds’, Annual Reviews of Ecology and Systematics 17, pp. 17–37 (1986). I published two accounts of the bowerbird species with the fanciest bower, ‘Bower building and decoration by the bowerbird Amblyornis inornatus’, Ethology 7, pp. 177–204 (1987); and ‘Experimental study of bower decoration by the bowerbird Amblyornis inornatus, using colored poker chips’, American Naturalist 131, pp. 631–53 (1988). Gerald Borgia proved by experiments that female bowerbirds really do care about males’ bower decorations, in his paper, ‘Bower quality, number of decorations and mating success of male satin bowerbirds (Ptilonorhynchus violaceus): an experimental analysis’, Animal Behaviour 33, pp. 266–71 (1985). Birds of paradise with somewhat similar habits are described by S.G. and M. A. Pruett-Jones in ‘The use of court objects by Lawes’ Parotia’, Condor 90, pp. 538–45 (1988).

  Chapter 10: Agriculture’s Two-Edged Sword

  The health consequences of giving up hunting for farming receive detailed treatment in a book edited by Mark Cohen and George Armelagos, Paleopathology at the Origins of Agriculture (Academic Press, Orlando, 1984), and in The Paleolithic Prescription (Harper and Row, New York, 1988) by S. Boyd Eaton, Marjorie Shostak, and Melvin Konner. The world’s hunter-gatherers are summarized in a book edited by Richard B. Lee and Irven DeVore, Man the Hunter (Aldine, Chicago, 1968). References describing the work schedule of hunter-gatherers, and in some cases comparing it with that of farmers, include the same book, plus the book by Richard Lee The !Kung San (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1979), and the following articles: K. Hawkes et al, ‘Aché at the settlement: contrasts between farming and foraging’, Human Ecology 15, pp. 133–61 (1987); K. Hawkes et al, ‘Hardworking Hadza grandmothers’, pp. 341–66 in Comparative Socioecology of Mammals and Man, edited by V. Standen and R. Foley (London, Blackwell, 1987); and K. Hill and A.M. Hurtado, ‘Hunter-gatherers of the New World’, American Scientist 77, pp. 437–43 (1989). The slow spread of ancient farmers across Europe is described by Albert J. Ammerman and L.L. Cavalli-Sforza, The Neolithic Transition and the Genetics of Populations in Europe (Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1984).

  Chapter 11: Why Do We Smoke, Drink, and Use Dangerous Drugs?

  Amotz Zahavi explains his handicap theory in two papers, ‘Mate selection – a selection for a handicap’, Journal of Theoretical Biology 53, pp. 205–14 (1975), and ‘The cost of honesty (further remarks on the handicap principle)’, Journal of Theoretical Biology 67, pp. 603–5 (1977). Two other well-known models of how animals evolve to choose their mates are the runaway selection model and the truth-in-advertising model. The former was developed in a book by R.A. Fisher, The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1930); the latter, in a paper by A. Kodric-Brown and J.H. Brown ‘Truth in advertising: the kinds of traits favoured by sexual selection’, American Naturalist 14, pp. 309–23 (1984). Melvin Konner develops another perspective on risky human behaviour patterns in a chapter ‘Why the reckless survive’ from his book with the same title (Viking, New York, 1990). For discussions of American Indian enemas, see Peter Furst’s and Michael Coe’s account of the discovery of Maya enema vases in their article ‘Ritual enemas’, Natural History Magazine 86, pp. 88–91 (March 1977); Johannes Wilbert’s book Tobacco and Shamanism in South America (Yale University Press, New Haven, 1987); and Justin Kerr’s The Maya Vase Book, 2 vols (Kerr Associates, New York, 1989 and 1990), illustrating Maya vases and analysing one enema vase in detail on pp. 349–61 of Vol. II. Also relevant are the many further readings on sexual selection and mate choice already listed under Chapters Five and Six.

  Chapter 12: Alone in a Crowded Universe

  Everything that you might want to know about woodpeckers in general, and about each particular species of them, is contained in a book by Lester L. Short, Woodpeckers of the World (Delaware Museum of Natural History, Greenville, Delaware, 1982). Pioneering calculations arguing for the existence of intelligent extraterrestrial life were carried out by I.S. Shklovskii and Carl Sagan, Intelligent Life in the Universe (Holden-Day, San Francisco, 1966).

  Chapter 13: The Last First Contacts

  Bob Connolly’s and Robin Anderson’s book First Contact (Viking Penguin, New York, 1987) describes first contact in the New Guinea highlands through the eyes of both the whites and the New Guineans who met there. The quotation on page 207 is taken from their book. Other gripping accounts of first contacts and of pre-contact conditions include Don Richardon’s Peace Child (Regal Books, Ventura, 1974) for the Sawi people of southwest New Guinea, and Napoleon A. Chagnon’s Yanomamo, The Fierce People, 3rd edition (Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York, 1983) for the Yanomamo Indians of Venezuela and Brazil. A clear history of the exploration of New Guinea is by Gavin Souter, New Guinea: The Last Unknown (Angus and Robertson, London, 1963). The leaders of the Third Archbold Expedition describe their entrance into the Grand Valley of the Balim River in the report by Richard Archbold et al, ‘Results of the Archbold Expeditions. No. 41. Summary of the 1938–1939 New Guinea expedition’, Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 79, pp. 197–288 (1942). Two accounts by earlier explorers who attempted to penetrate the mountains of New Guinea are by A.F.R. Wollaston, Pygmies and Papuans (Smith Elder, London, 1912), and A.S. Meek, A Naturalist in Cannibal Land (Fisher Unwin, London, 1913).

  Chapter 14: Accidental Conquerors

  Books that discuss plant as well as animal domest
ication in relation to the development of civilization include C.D. Darlington, The Evolution of Man and Society (Simon and Schuster, New York, 1969); Peter J. Ucko and G.W. Dimbleby, The Domestication and Exploitation of Plants and Animals (Aldine, Chicago, 1969); Erich Isaac, Geography of Domestication (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey, 1970); and David R. Harris and Gordon C. Hillman, Foraging and Farming (Unwin Hyman, London, 1989).

  References on animal domestication include S. Bokonyi, History of Domestic Mammals in Central and Eastern Europe (Akademiai Kiado, Budapest, 1974); S.J.M. Davis and F.R. Valla, ‘Evidence for domestication of the dog 12,000 years ago in the Natufian of Israel’, Nature 276, pp. 608–10 (1978); Juliet Clutton-Brock, ‘Man-made dogs’, Science 197, pp. 1340–42 (1977), and Domesticated Animals from Early Times (British Museum of Natural History, London, 1981); Andrew Sherratt, ‘Plough and pastoralism: aspects of the secondary products revolution’, pp. 261–305 in a book edited by Ian Hodder et al, Pattern of the Past (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1981); Stanley J. Olsen, Origins of the Domestic Dog (University of Arizona Press, Tucson, 1985); E.S. Wing, ‘Domestication of Andean mammals’, pp. 246–64 in High Altitude Tropical Biogeography, edited by F. Vuilleumier and M. Monasterio (Oxford University Press, New York, 1986); Simon J.M. Davis, The Archaeology of Animals (Yale University Press, New Haven, 1987); Dennis C. Turner and Patrick Bateson, The Domestic Cat: The Biology of its Behaviour (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1988); and Wolf Herre and Manfred Rohrs, Haustiere – zoologisch gesehen, 2nd edition (Fischer, Stuttgart, 1990).