Monkeyluv and Other Essays on our Lives as Animals

Book, 1969

Status

Available

Call number

612

Genres

Collection

Your library

Publication

Publisher Unknown (1969)

Description

Described by Oliver Sacks as 'one of the best scientist-writers of our time', Robert M. Sapolsky here presents the human animal in all its quirkiness and diversity. In these remarkable essays, Sapolsky once again deploys his compassion and insights into the human condition to tell us who, why and how we are. Monkeyluv touches on themes such as sexuality, aggression, love, parenting, religion, ageing, and mental illness. He ponders such topics as our need to seek out beauty; why our preferences in food become fixed; why we are sexually attracted to one another; why Alzheimer's disease tends to be a post-menopausal phenomenon; and why grandmothers buying groceries for their grandchildren are part of nature's Darwinian logic.

User reviews

LibraryThing member mandojoe

An interesting and entertaining read. Lots of "I-didn't-know-that!" moments. For me, the most important was this: In [William] James's view, your brain assesses the situation too quickly for you to be consciously aware yet of what you are feeling about it and rapidly kicks you body into gear with

whatever autonomic response it is going to have. Your brain then canvasses your body to see how it's reacting to the outside stimulus. So conscious emotions don't shape your autonomic bodily response; your autonomic bodily response shapes the conscious emotion you fell. ... Weird; seems ass backward, and it did to a lot of James's contemporaries. But hsi ideas are turning out to be true in a lot of ways.

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LibraryThing member Clueless

It had a really dumbed down explanation of gene expression. So now I finally get it. The Monkeyluv essay and the one about Munchausen by proxy were just heart breaking. I love his writing bcs he'll be all sciency and then say something really human. When he wonders if we are asking the right

questions it's like a breath of fresh air. Cool book.

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LibraryThing member the_awesome_opossum

Monkeyluv is a book of essays by Robert Sapolsky on animal (and human) behavior. I really loved A Primate's Memoir - his adventures in Africa studying baboons - so I got this on a whim. It's divided into three sections: the first, and most scientific, discusses the interactions of genes with the

environments in which they're placed. The second part talks about the actions of individuals from a genetic/evolutionary perspective, and the third is about the actions of society as a whole from the same perspective.

My favorite essays were "Nursery Crimes," about Munchausen's by proxy, and "The Cultural Desert," how different religions correspond to the environment where they were founded. He acknowledges at one point that a lot of his research is the result of a brief but intense obsession with a subject, so there is a variety of material here to mull over. He takes a relaxed but knowledgeable approach to biology, since most of these essays were originally published in mainstream magazines, so all of the material is very approachable. But he also doesn't condescend to the reader, and you end up having learned a lot when you're done.

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LibraryThing member nosborm

A very accessible science-oriented book! Dr. Sapolsky has collected an engaging series of his previous essays on humans and our behavior. This book is great for someone who's interested in understanding our biology but doesn't want to go read primary sources (ie journal articles). I'd put him up

there with Oliver Sacks as one of the great science writers (and speakers). I was inspired to read this after attending a talk he gave. Thankfully my girlfriend loaned me her much loved copy. I look forward to reading more by him, especially Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers.

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