Customer Reviews

The Passionate Ape

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is an excellent speculation on the Aquatic Ape Theory which for several years has been expounded by Elaine Morgan, in her books, "The Aquatic Ape Hypothesis" and "Scars of Evolution," both of which I have reviewed here.

I first became interested in the theory when Desmond Morris mentioned it, in his book, "The Naked Ape," although he treated it lightly and seemed to favor the theory that our early pre-hominid ancestors dropped from the receding African arboreal environment onto the savannah and took off running, shedding their fur as they ran in order to cool off. The so-called "Savannah Theory."

A couple of things bothered me about that theory: bipedal running, which the theory postulated, is far less efficient than quadrupedal locomotion. The fastest land animals on earth are quadrupeds and they are all covered with fur. It didn't make sense. Also, humans have a subcutaneous layer of fat, which contributes not only warmth but also flotation, and we are unique among the primates in that regard. That would have been the first thing to go, rather than fur, if cooling was the desired evolutionary result. Evolution follows the same path, generally, in similar species, in order to accomplish a given result.

Hagstrom has carried Elaine Morgan's hypothesis further, though. He speculates on the causes of human monogamy, male facial hair, and the placement of sex organs, etc. Much of it is certainly speculation, but his deductions seem reasonable.

If you are interested in the subject of human evolution, this is a book that you should certainly have in your library, along with those by Desmond Morris, Robert Ardrey, and, last but certainly not least, Elaine Morgan.

Joseph H. Pierre

I just can't believe how complete, and completely accurate this book's theses feel. My life, my history, my talents, my experiences, my gifts, and also my dark side are dramatically illuminated and explained by the research and theory of this remarkable book. Every page resonated with crystal clear tones of truth in my very soul.

This book just may be the Rosetta Stone for relationships we didn't realize we needed. One of the most earth shattering revelations in the last 100 years, he does for anthropology, evolution and psychology what the theory of plate tectonics did for geology and the continental drift theory. This should lead to directly to a Unified Field Theory of Marriage if it doesn't qualify as such outright.

This is a MUST READ for any interested, scientifically minded person interested in human relationships. I literally could not put the book down carrying it about for three days until I finished it. Mainstream archaeologists are probably going to ignore it entirely rather than debate it.

Craig Hagstrom's Passionate Ape provides a set of alternative viewpoints on sex and evolution, arguing that face-to-face sex destroyed easy female orgasms, courting difficulties have led to both aesthetic growth and child abuse, and love's birth is related to addiction. Enjoy many eye-opening insights into how humans evolved and avoided extinction in the process in this intriguing title.

Craig Hagstrom has written a marvelous book describing how our development and evolution as humans may have caused our difficulties with love, marriages, child rearing, and our deep disturbing tendency to rape and murder each other. He gives a very compelling argument for why we developed neoteny and why women especially fight so hard to appear "young" throughout their lives. We struggle with these issues daily in our lives yet have little or no clue how they may have come about. This book presents many very plausible expanations for these psychological and anatomic peculiarities. It's refreshing to find such a readable set of arguments that makes so much sense.

While the author may ultimately be found to be 'off' on some of the details (as ALL investigation into the evolution of mankind is as yet hypotheses), this certainly brings me to the most plausible stream of thought about it that I've seen in my 62 years; and I'll betcha, that if you acquire the book and read it, you'll gain a greater understanding of what it is to be either a man or a woman, and of the opposite sex. Anything abetting that, can't possibly 'hurt' you... as our lack of understanding of who we are and how we came to be the way we are is fundamental to virtually all of our problems we experience in being human beings. Definitely 5 STAR in my opinion. :)

I just had two comments to make.

One of the points the author makes, and one which is discussed by other reviewers here, is that the aquatic origin makes more sense if you consider that quadrupedal locomotion is more efficient than bipedalism. While this is true, Richard Leakey points out in his book, the Origin of Humankind, that the proper comparison is between apes and monkeys and man. If Homo sapiens is compared with them, our mode of locomotion is the most efficient.

Also, the new fossil finds of orrorin tuganensis, ardipithecus ramidus, and sahelanthropus tchadensis show that our evolutionary line can now be pushed back 6-8 million years to pre-homonids that were not only adapted to life on the ground, whether it was in savannah or forest, but still retained significant tree-climbing ability. This is shown by the more human pelvis and long legs but apelike upper body and arms, with a higher ratio of ulnus/radius to humerous length.

The above evidence contradicts the author's idea and unfortunately is far more compelling than his aquatic origins theory, and he fails to discuss it in the book. However, I give the author points for creativity, even though I don't think his idea in the final analysis holds water.