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S'està carregant… Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors: A Search for Who We Are (1992)de Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan
S'està carregant…
Apunta't a LibraryThing per saber si aquest llibre et pot agradar. No hi ha cap discussió a Converses sobre aquesta obra. Carl Sagan and his wife Ann Druyan poetically present the humble beginnings of homo sapiens. They begin with the formulation of the universe and then with the many processes that went into the origination of our planet. The wonder that is DNA and genetics is then explained, showing how closely linked humans are to everything but just how intimately related we are to the great apes, mostly the chimpanzees. The book is 80% about chimpanzee and other ape behavior and how they relate to us. I found it fascinating how many of our social behaviors are nearly identical with the apes. They function as a family unit. Mothers breastfeed their young and the young learn by seeing what the elders do. Apes groom each other and we like to give massages or cuddle with our loved ones. Chimps like Lucy displayed intelligence and the ability to think abstractedly. They have emotion and use facial expressions to communicate. Apes are also highly sexual and can be really violent. Especially the Hamadrya baboon. Where the male chimps loosely guard their females when they are not ovulating, the male baboon treats the females like private property and will violently discipline them if they stray to another male. Apes will go patrolling in groups and are masters of stealth and strategy. The military branches of the world can take a page out of the chimp's playbook. I found it all to be engrossing and enlightening. Carl and Ann shed a sliver of light on the shadows of our ancestors and bring them to the forefront for us to appreciate. We can learn so much about our past if we can continue to study our great antecedents. A look at the evolution of humanity, spending quite a bit of time on the mechanisms of evolution, then on the capabilities and social lives of our closest primate relatives. A bit dated in places, such as his plug for group-selection, but overall rather good. Perhaps I find the topic a bit overdone, and so I was never really that enthused by the book. Solid, though, and thought provoking in many places. 3.5 oc Sense ressenyes | afegeix-hi una ressenya
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"Dazzling...A feast. Absorbing and elegantly written, it tells of theorigins of life on earth, describes its variety and charaacter, and culminates in a discussion of human nature and teh complex traces ofhumankind's evolutionary past...It is an amazing story masterfully told." FINANCIAL TIMES (LONDON) World renowned scientist Carl Sagan and acclaimed author Ann Druyan have written a ROOTS for the human species, a lucid and riveting account of how humans got to be the way we are. It shows with humor and drama that many of our key traits--self-awareness, technology, family ties, submission to authority, hatred for those a little different from ourselves, reason, and ethics--are rooted in the deep past, and illuminated by our kinship with other animals. Astonishing in its scope, brilliant in its insights, and an absolutely compelling read, SHADOWS OF FORGOTTEN ANCESTORS is a triumph of popular science. No s'han trobat descripcions de biblioteca. |
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Google Books — S'està carregant… GèneresClassificació Decimal de Dewey (DDC)304.5Social sciences Social Sciences; Sociology and anthropology Factors affecting social behavior Genetic factorsLCC (Clas. Bibl. Congrés EUA)ValoracióMitjana:
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Nevertheless, I would recommend the reader hang in there through all the verbosity and extraneous content (to me) in order to fully appreciate the last several chapters. They are the meat of the book that should be absorbed by all that have the open-mindedness and backbone to look at the reality of human existence. ( )