The Lopsided Ape: Evolution of the Generative Mind [Paperback]

Michael C. Corballis (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0195083520 | ISBN-13: 978-0195083521 | Publication Date: June 10, 1993

What is it that allows human beings to think the way we do? What enables us to communicate with one another through the use of speech? Is the difference between Homo sapiens and other apes simply a matter of degree or are we unique and discontinuous from other species? Michael C. Corballis argues that this century-old debate lies in the fact that humans are the only primates that are predominantly right-handed, a sign of the specialization of the left hemisphere of the brain for language. He attributes humans' unique abilities to a biological mechanism in the left hemisphere of the brain called a "generative learning device" or GAD. The GAD, Corballis contends, enables us to generate a limitless number of forms and meanings from a few parsed elements, providing the basis for language and manufacture as well as mathematics, reasoning, art, music, and play. Surveying the current views of evolution using evidence from archeology, linguistics, neurology, and genetics, Corballis takes us on a fascinating tour of the origins and implications of the structure of the human brain accounting for the dominance of humanity over all species.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Are humans unique and discontinuous from other animals? How did our generative and creative capacities develop? These and other questions are presented in an exhaustive, step-by-step fashion in the course of which central issues in the areas of linguistics and evolutionary theory are made accessible to the lay reader. The author (psychology, Univ. of Auckland, New Zealand) follows both a logical, theory-building but also historical sequence within each chapter, going beyond Chomskyan linguistics (which argues that children possess specific linguistic abilities that enable them to learn language) to contend that language reflects a more basic human capacity to represent experience and to generate infinite representations--of which language is but one example. This complete, lucid presentation in the burgeoning field of cognitive psychology will be challenging but interesting to lay readers, and valuable to a broad group of scholars.
- Paul Hymowitz, New York Medical Coll.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Corballis...tackles this immensely difficult and multifaceted subject in a lively and engaging way and presents his views crisply, thoughtfully, and always with a modesty and a touch of good humor. The Lopsided Ape is full of intellectual riches, and it deserves and, I hope, will find a wide readership." --Science

"This complete, lucid presentation in the burgeoning field of cognitive psychology will be challenging but interesting to lay readers, and valuable to a broad group of scholars." --Library Journal

"A thoroughly intoxicating study...handsomely organized and clearly written." --Booklist

"Wide-ranging and erudite. . .An excellent read, enlivened by many anecdotes, historical details and jokes." --Nature

"A remarkable blend of erudition, clarity and humor. . .This book is compulsive reading." --The Times Higher Education Supplement

"The Lopsided Ape offers much to think about and Corballis provides a thorough review of the relevant literature." --Choice

"Opposing theories are presented with clarity and economy. The selection of research reports and helpful diagrams augment the usefulness of the work. . .provides an excellent overview of many current key issues in human and language origin theory, presents them in highly readable, jargon-free prose and in a well-organized, logical format. The book should be of value not only to human and language evolution theorists but to specialists and nonspecialists concerned with understanding human 'nature' and behavior." --Language Origins Society (LOS) Forum

"Fun reading. From the wealth of his substantial scholarship, Corballis embeds the presentation of GAD within a framework of questions that are of enduring interest to most of us. The initial salvo is a fascinating history of human uniqueness. This volume constitutes a valuable, if not the ultimate, contribution to this literature." --Contemporary Psychology

"Overall, the book is enjoyable and accessible reading for the nonspecialist and specialist alike, laced with interesting commentary on the history and cultural contexts of many of the topics covered." --International Journal of Primatology

"An excellent overview."--Alfred W. Kaszniak, University of Arizona

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (June 10, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195083520
• ISBN-13: 978-0195083521
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,718,017 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why people have right/left hemisphere preferences., April 1, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Altea, Spain) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Lopsided Ape: Evolution of the Generative Mind (Paperback)

This is a wonderful book and a really stimulating read. It's beautifully written and researched ( hundreds of references) and tells the story of the evolution of language from the time of its appearance among the earliest humans.

It shows how the overwhelming importance of speech has moulded the brain and it draws on evidence from the fossil record, DNA analysis, phases of reaching maturity, anatomy, experimental evidence and the greater or lesser role that genes play with respect to culture and learning.

The book has changed my way of looking at these things.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Right-handedness and language, January 31, 2005

By 

A. J. Cornish Bowden (Marseilles, France) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Lopsided Ape: Evolution of the Generative Mind (Paperback)

Most people are right-handed, though with a substantial minority of left-handers: this is such a familiar feature of human existence that we rarely think about it at all (especially if we are right-handed), and now that schools no longer try to force left-handers to write with the right hand, the psychological and emotional problems that this once produced have become a distant memory. Michael Corballis, however, thinks about handedness a great deal, and has devoted a large part of his career as a professor of psychology to studying it.

Because we don't think about it much at all, we don't usually notice that bias towards right-handness is a specifically human characteristic. Although animals may prefer to do some actions with one foot rather than the other, they show no consistent bias. To find a comparable case we need to go as far afield as to parrots, which generally prefer to pick up bits of food with their left feet, while standing on their right.

I usually regard discussion left-brain and right-brain specialization as the sort of science that belongs in popular magazines, to be read, perhaps, while waiting for a dental appointment, but otherwise to be treated with the same disdain as signs of the zodiac. Unlike signs of the zodiac, however, lateral specialization of the brain has a perfectly serious aspect, and Corballis makes a strong case that strong handedness in humans is related to an apparently quite different special characteristic of humans, their capacity for language.

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Human Cerebral Asymmetry, December 22, 2010

By 

Camilla Davis "It's a beautiful day!" (Greensboro, NC United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Lopsided Ape: The Evolution of the Generative Mind (Hardcover)

Corballis is an esteemed researcher AND an engaging writer which makes his research palatable to both the scientific community and to the lay public at large. If you're interested in developmental psychobiology and cognitive neuroscince - or if you ~think~ you might be - you can't go wrong with this publication.