'The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing' Richard Dawkins

The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee by Jared Diamond

The book is divided into five parts, in which different aspects of the biology and behavior of the people are treated. In the first part of the book entitled "Just a mammal just like any other" Diamond discusses why the humans to the close relatives are so special, what the cause of the "Great Leap Forward" could have been. He sees the human ability to differentiated vocalizations and on a grammar -based language as key drivers of this and explained this on the basis of research results of Derek Bickertons. Moreover, the second part of the life cycle of the human considered and highlighted its unique features compared to the nature of our closely related species. One focus here was on human sexuality and their evolutionary significance (Diamond, p. 110-113). Diamond concludes that, for example, the "hidden ovulation" and the "hidden coitus" strengthens the pair bond and a certain constancy in social coexistence is possible - because unlike the female chimps in women is the phase of invisible receptivity, and the sexual act that takes place in humans does not normally take place in front of everyone. These important aspects of the social life Diamond holds for the development of language and culture just as important as the anatomical changes. After the first two parts, it is the third part that is concerned with the cultural characteristics that distinguish human beings from animals. Here, first the human language and the art is treated (Diamond, p. 110-113). Diamond then explained that the development of agriculture did not represent in any way a step forward for humanity. This, he reasoned, for example, with the findings of paleopathology, which operated in agriculture show people showing more diseases and nutritional deficiencies as at the same time surviving hunter-gatherers. In addition, he also discussed the use of drugs by the handicap principle presents an explaining model. The fourth section examines the ways in which man has spread across the globe after the previous parts of the grounds for the development of man as the dominant species on Earth. Diamond cites evidence that this process has always been - in the past - at the expense of nature, and was accompanied by the extinction of other species. Moreover, the spread of the highly successful repressed cultures and the less successful and therefore directed against one's own species. It also examines the reasons why some cultures have undergone a faster development than others. The fifth and final part is about whether and how humanity is willing to learn from the past, so from mistakes of earlier societies. It leads to Diamond that we frequently analyze the past as a certain compromised nostalgia. The parts thus work out three to five properties of the people with whom this endangered its status as the dominant species on the planet itself (Diamond, p. 110-113).

Many of the reviewers keep Diamond's work because of his ...