Macachiavellian Intelligence: How Rhesus Macaques and Humans Have Conquered the World [Hardcover]

Dario Maestripieri (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 30, 2007

Judged by population size and distribution, homo sapiens are clearly the most successful primates. A close second, however, would be rhesus macaques, who have adapted to—and thrived in—such diverse environments as mountain forests, dry grasslands, and urban sprawl. Scientists have spent countless hours studying these opportunistic monkeys, but rhesus macaques have long been overshadowed in the public eye by the great apes, who, because of their greater intelligence, are naturally assumed to have more to teach us, both about other primates and about humans as well.

Dario Maestripieri thinks it is high time we shelve that misperception, and with Macachiavellian Intelligence he gives rhesus macaques their rightful turn in the spotlight. The product of more than twenty years studying these fascinating creatures, Macachiavellian Intelligence caricatures a society that is as much human as monkey, with hierarchies and power struggles that would impress Machiavelli himself. High-status macaques, for instance, maintain their rank through deft uses of violence and manipulation, while altruism is almost unknown and relationships are perpetually subject to the cruel laws of the market. Throughout this eye-opening account, Maestripieri weds his thorough knowledge of macaque behavior to his abiding fascination with human society and motivations. The result is a book unlike any other, one that draws on economics as much as evolutionary biology, politics as much as primatology.

Rife with unexpected connections and peppered with fascinating anecdotes, Macachiavellian Intelligence has as much to teach us about humans as it does about macaques, presenting a wry, rational, and wholly surprising view of our humanity as seen through the monkey in the mirror.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Rhesus monkeys and humans are highly successful survivors in a complex and sometimes cruel world. Macachiavellian Intelligence, a good read about the nitty-gritty details of how rhesus monkeys make it, tells us a lot about ourselves. It''s often not a pretty picture to read about manipulative social opportunism, but if we ignore the important message of this book we, not the monkeys or other animals, will be the big losers.”—Marc Bekoff, author of Minding Animals and The Emotional Lives of Animals
 

(Marc Bekoff )

"Maestripieri tells the story with incisive prose, sharp wit and admirable brevity, and the book should appeal to a wide audience from cynical teenagers to economists who believe that the ''invisible hand'' of competition underlies all human society."—Alison Jolly, Times Higher Education Supplement

(Alison Jolly Times Higher Education Supplement )

“Last year, a U.S. senator doomed his chances of reelection when he referred to a protestor as a ''macaca,'' a slur sometimes used for dark-skinned people. But ‘macaca’ is also a name for the rhesus macaque monkey, and Maestripieri writes, ‘If politicians knew more about the Machiavellian intelligence of rhesus macaques, they would probably call one another “macaca” all the time, but mean it as a compliment.’ Maestripieri goes on to describe the social lives and competitive society of macaques, who aren''t above using violence and manipulation to get ahead and stay there.”—Discover

(Discover )

“Macachiavellian Intelligence provides deep insights into the fascinating psychology of both rhesus macaques and humans. Written in an engaging style with gripping examples that highlight key principles, it gives readers a profound understanding of the things we all care about—sex, status, dominance, aggression, kin, cooperation, and conflict. Macachiavellian Intelligence is a must-read for anyone interested in the strategies we primates use to navigate the complexities of social living.”--David M. Buss, author of The Evolution of Desire:  Strategies of Human Mating and Evolutionary Psychology: The New Science of the Mind

(David M. Buss )

“Books devoted to the topic of primate behavior and its similarity to humans are dominated by studies of great apes. Dario Maestripieri fills that lamentable gap with Macachiavellian Intelligence, weaving an explanation of macaque evolution and social organization into a story that also helps to explain many aspects of human behavior. Maestripieri’s keen insights into both macaques and humans, presented with humor and personality, make Macachiavellian Intelligence a captivating read.”—William Hopkins, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University

(William Hopkins )

"Primate books are good for us. They remind us that we''re primates, too. And the embarrassing primate books are best. Macachiavellian Intelligence is an excellently embarrassing primate book, and just the thing to make us blush and shuffle our feet."—Michael Bywater, Telegraph

(Michael Bywater Telegraph )

"A salutary reminder that we are members of the Order Primates as much as of the Family Hominidae, and not all that different from our disquietingly nasty cousins."—Sarah F. Brosnan, Nature

(Sarah F. Brosnan Nature )

"This is a book that will appeal to a wide audience, but without losing the science."

(Michael Cuisin Mammalia )

About the Author

Dario Maestripieri is associate professor of comparative human development and evolutionary biology at the University of Chicago.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press; 1 edition (November 30, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226501175
• ISBN-13: 978-0226501178
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 6.6 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #656,986 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dario Maestripieri is a Professor of Comparative Human Development, Neurobiology, and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Chicago, where he teaches and conducts research on biological aspects of social behavior in human and nonhuman primates. Dr. Maestripieri has a Ph.D. in Psychobiology from the University of Rome La Sapienza. He was a Visiting Scholar in the Sub-Department of Animal Behaviour at the University of Cambridge in 1990-1991 and a Research Associate at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center of Emory University from 1992 to 1999. Dr. Maestripieri was awarded the B. Grassi Prize as the Best Young Zoologist from the Accademia Nazionale dei Lincei in Italy in 1989, the Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution to Psychology from the American Psychological Association in 2000, and a Career Development Award from the National Institute of Mental Health in 2001. In 2005, he was elected Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Dr. Maestripieri has published over 150 scientific articles and several books. Dr. Maestripieri has appeared in many national and international TV and radio shows and his research has been featured in a number of newspapers and magazines including The New York Times, Pravda, LeMonde, Der Spiegel, the Guardian, La Repubblica, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, The New Scientist, American Scientist, Nature, and Science.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good Anthropological Account of Rhesus Macaques, December 22, 2009

By 

Kevin Currie-Knight "Education Grad Student" (Newark, Delaware) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Macachiavellian Intelligence: How Rhesus Macaques and Humans Have Conquered the World (Hardcover)

If chimpanzees and bonobos are our close evolutionary brothers and sisters, then rhesus macaques are, say, our step-brothers: not as genetically close as brothers but close enough to help plan the family reunion. Unfortunately, they are rarely talked about as related to homo sapiens. Maybe that is because, as will be seen in this book, they are so danged nasty.

The point of Dario Maestripieri's book is to give us an anthropological glimpse at rhesus macaques and their very Machiavellian behavior. And the point of doing that is to show that rhesus macaques are very, very similar to humans in certain, and not always good, ways. They are very territorial, trade favors for services, dislike "outsiders" (not of their group) with a passion, stage revolutions of the weak against the strong, etc, etc. Not to sound flippant, but the behavior of rhesus macaques is quite similar in kind to the behavior of human gangs (be they bloods, skinheads, motorcycle gangs, or la cosa nostra). Or to put it differently, rhesus society resembles a slightly less individualistic version of Hobbes's state of nature.

Maestripieri has spent decades looking at how rhesus macaques operate, and the book reads like an anthropology text. Behavior is explained and anecdotes are given to support these explanations. We see how macaques organize themselves into hierarchies (and hierarchies within hierarchies), how (fragile) bonds are formed by exchanging favors for...umm...services, and even how they play oligarchical politics.

To me, the big fault of the book is that the author never really argues the point that we should see rhesus behavior as an illuminator of our own behavior as much as he assumes it. In one chapter, he demonstrates that rhesus males have no part in child rearing, at the very end of the chapter suggesting that fatherly instincts are a recent development in humans. While I have little problem with this assertion (and suspect it may be true), the author leaps from description of macaques to pontificating on implications for humans without going through the middle step of arguing why rhesus behavior is any better a guide to humans than, say, bonobo behavior. (One negative reviewer took issue with certain similar statements the author made suggesting that rhesus females' non-participation in politics gives reason to suspect that human females do not have as much political instinct as males. I suspect that had the author argued why his rhesus descriptions are connected with his human speculations, these "leaps" would be less problematic.)

The other slight problem I had was the authors tendency to confuse proximate with ultimate causal explanations for behavior. Several times he talks about several macaque behaviors, like females' having sex with weaker males only during times when they can't concieve, as cost/benefit analysis. Of ccourse, behaviors like this may have evolved because their benefits outweigh their costs, but the author often describes these acts as if they were MOTIVATED by cost/benefit analysis. (Occasionally, the author will correct himself here but go on in the same chapter to make the same linguistic conflation.)

All in all, I gave the book four stars because I found it extremely interesting (on a subject often overlooked) and very engaging. The author succeeds in giving us great description about rhesus macaques. Where the author does not succeed is in convincing us that rhesus macaques can really illuminate human behavior any better (or even as good as) bonobos and chimpanzees, who are much closer relatives and just as similar behaviorally. Yes, we are similar in ways to rhesus monkeys, but so are we to many animals, most of whom are not close relatives. Pointing out behavioral similarities do not themselves justify analogies; those must be argued for, which is what this book lacks. If you read this book solely as a study and explanation of rhesus macaque behavior, though, the book is illuminating and entertaining indeed.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Just what I was looking for, September 6, 2008

By 

Tojagi (West) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Macachiavellian Intelligence: How Rhesus Macaques and Humans Have Conquered the World (Hardcover)

"Humans can be quite flexible and adjust to their circumstances, but when all the outer layers of individualism and egalitarianism are peeled off, they have a despotic and nepotistic core that is not unlike that of rhesus macaques." - Dario Maestripieri (p164)

Yes, the book could use a writer's touch. But it is by no means difficult reading. Yes, some of the pop culture metaphors are a bit hokey. But it's a book that's meant to be fun, for people like me, who are new to primatology, and are curious as to what primate research is telling us about human nature. I thought the story of the social climbing female named Tequila was an absolute riot, whether or not it was tinged by anthropomorphism. As a layperson, I also understand that this is only one species, and only one window through which to look at primate behavior as a reflection of our own. I expect the experts to squabble over specifics - like a group of rhesus macaques.

But for anyone interested in the big picture of primate and human `culture', and for anyone who appreciates some insights and opinions rather than just facts, I strongly suggest they include this book in their reading along with a few books by Frans de Waal - and the somewhat outdated but still entertaining classic from the sixties by Desmond Morris titled "The Naked Ape".

11 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Needs editing, February 4, 2008

By 

Matthew Smith "Roger Mexico" (TN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Macachiavellian Intelligence: How Rhesus Macaques and Humans Have Conquered the World (Hardcover)

This book had some very interesting sections and some of the overall insights were thought provoking, but the book was just not organized well at all and it was filled with terrible metaphors. The overall affect of the organization of this work really made this book a disappointing read for me.

The author attempts to make comparisons between his subjects and human beings but the reader never knows when the author is going to make these comparisons. They seem to come from nowhere and the reader just has to take the book as it comes. I would have much rather had the book broken down into cross sections that discuss Rhesus Macaque behavior and then a whole new section that compares that behavior with human behavior. This would have given the book a much firmer structure and would have broken down the information in a much more palatable way for the reader.

Next the metaphors the author used throughout this book were just terrible. For me these metaphors had the affect of dumbing down the content of this work. I'm sure this was not the intent of the author, but I felt as though I were being talked down to throughout this work. The author also uses mixed metaphors which really leaves a bad impression on the reader.

Next at the end of the chapter entitled Sex and Business the author makes some statements that seem extremely misogynistic. The author talks about how women have not learned to achieve political power and how they are much less adept at politics than their male counter parts. Of course the facts are that women have been playing at power politics since the Romans and Greeks and well before that. The author doesn't speak of the fact that the majority of the societies that have developed have formed highly patriarchal societies in which men have been the main beneficiaries and women for the most part have been oppressed. So it is not that women are not adept at power politics but instead they have never had the opportunity to fully participate in the systems. Not only that but women have been able to exert extraordinary influence on politics and the world through very narrow corridors of access.

The author also ignores the huge progress that has been made by women in really the last hundred years or so. For a group that has really only gained full access to the political spectrum (and of course the argument could be made they are still discriminated against) very recently in human history women have made huge impacts everywhere around the world and will continue to make even greater contributions as they are able to make even more gains in the political sphere.

I am sure the author's intent was not to come of as a misogynist but to me he did. He was only trying to make a comparison between Macaque societies and human society. This book would have been much better with some better editing and an additional rewrite, but unfortunately for the author many of the problems were not caught in the editing process and the work suffers terribly for it. The author is a Primatologist not an English Ph.D., but the author has written a book and must be judged on this effort. The author would be greatly served finding a new editor.

The book was not great and I have read works that I would recommend much more highly than this one. It had its moments but they were not enough to redeem this awkward book. If you are just getting into ethology then you may want to give this work a try, but if you are versed int the topic already just skip this particular work.