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Jared Diamond

Third Chimpanzee, The Paperback – October 23, 1992

by Jared Diamond (Author)

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Though we share 98 percent of our genes with the chimpanzee, our species evolved into something quite extraordinary. Jared Diamond explores the fascinating question of what in less than 2 percent of our genes has enabled us to found civilizations and religions, develop intricate languages, create art, learn science--and acquire the capacity to destroy all our achievements overnight. The Third Chimpanzee is a tour de force, an iconoclastic, entertaining, sometimes alarming look at the unique and marvelous creature that is the human animal.

Print length

416 pages
Language

English
Publisher

HarpPeren
Publication date

October 23, 1992
Dimensions

1 x 5.5 x 8 inches
ISBN-10

0060984031
ISBN-13

978-0060984038
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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Jared Diamond states the theme of his book up-front: "How the human species changed, within a short time, from just another species of big mammal to a world conqueror; and how we acquired the capacity to reverse all that progress overnight." The Third Chimpanzee is, in many ways, a prequel to Diamond's prize-winning Guns, Germs, and Steel. While Guns examines "the fates of human societies," this work surveys the longer sweep of human evolution, from our origin as just another chimpanzee a few million years ago. Diamond writes:

It's obvious that humans are unlike all animals. It's also obvious that we're a species of big mammal down to the minutest details of our anatomy and our molecules. That contradiction is the most fascinating feature of the human species.

The chapters in The Third Chimpanzee on the oddities of human reproductive biology were later expanded in Why Is Sex Fun? Here, they're linked to Diamond's views of human psychology and history.

Diamond is officially a physiologist at UCLA medical school, but he's also one of the best birdwatchers in the world. The current scientific consensus that "primitive" humans created ecological catastrophes in the Pacific islands, Australia, and the New World owes a great deal to his fieldwork and insight. In Diamond's view, the current global ecological crisis isn't due to modern technology per se, but to basic weaknesses in human nature. But, he says, "I'm cautiously optimistic. If we will learn from our past that I have traced, our own future may yet prove brighter than that of the other two chimpanzees." --Mary Ellen Curtin

Review

"The Third Chimpanzee will endure." -- -- Edward O. Wilson, Harvard University

"Everyone will enjoy reading this brilliant book. It helps us understand what it means to be human." -- -- Paul Ehrlich, Stanford University, and author of The Population Bomb

"Plenty of provocative ideas . . . Diamond is as sharp as his name." -- -- Kirkus Reviews

"Wonderful . . . Jared Diamond conducts his fascination study of our behavior and origins with a naturalist's eye and a philosopher's cunning." -- -- Diane Ackerman, author of A Natural History of the Senses

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarpPeren (October 23, 1992)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 416 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0060984031
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0060984038
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 1 x 5.5 x 8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #3,275,776 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3,222 in Genetics (Books)
- #8,369 in General Anthropology
- #19,445 in Biology (Books)

Customer Reviews:
451 ratings

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5 star		71%
4 star		19%
3 star		6%
2 star		2%
1 star		2%

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Amazon Customer

Thought provoking

Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2016

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Very interesting read...Goes quickly, each chapter is like a short story. Great if you are interested in the origins of human life and what it is that makes us human.

NOTE: Early in the book, Diamond makes an argument as to why humans and neanderthals could not have interbred. However, since this book was written (1990's), DNA evidence has proven that humans did breed with neanderthals.

34 people found this helpful

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Gerald

Jared Diamond's in-depth treatment of chimpanzee and human inheritance

Reviewed in the United States on October 24, 2019

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I thoroughly enjoyed Diamond's discussion of the anatomy of chimpanzees in contrast to that of gorillas and humans. I wish, however, the book had been written more recently. I took a course in physical anthropology this year and see that Diamond's attitude and research about Neandertals is inaccurate in several ways. For one thing, they were quite intelligent , and it has now been proven they did mate with other Europeans. We seem to have 10% Neandertal inheritance in our genes.

3 people found this helpful

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ZAAJÆ

Same book - different titles

Reviewed in the United States on January 17, 2013

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What I fail to see mentioned in any of the reviews thus far is the fact that this book (`The Third Chimpanzee') is essentially identical to a previous version under a different title by Jared Diamond, namely," The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee: How Our Animal Heritage Affects the Way We Live" circa 1991. Interestingly, the reviews of that book (`The Rise and Fall') also fails to mention that it is a previous version of this updated book (`The Third Chimpanzee'). Upon comparison, the differences appear to be quite minimal; the general thrust is identical. Nothing about this relationship is mentioned at the Jared Diamond page either. However, please be aware that with very little effort the older version (`The Rise and Fall') can be found in a free PDF format.

29 people found this helpful

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A great book about the Big questions of humanity

Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2009

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At this point, the entire world has read Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies and Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed . The question about The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal (P.S.) is whether it is worth reading after reading Diamond's other two books.

I have to say undoubtedly yes. This book, like the more recent ones, proposes answers to some of the biggest questions about humanity. Thus, even though the book is outdated, The Third Chimpanzee is great at both asking the important questions and explaining a process for answering them. The book covers everything from human language, sexuality, drinking, agriculture, and geopolitics through the analytical lens of evolutionary science. Thus, Diamond finds more interesting (and probably accurate) answers than those of philosophers, anthropologists, and political scientists addressing those same questions.

Another benefit of this book is that it is actually broader in scope than Diamond's more recent books. The latter chapters of the book deal with the same subjects as Guns, Germs, and Steel (why some civilizations grew rapidly) and Collapse (how civilization risks its existence through ecological destruction). However, the first half of the book, deals with different topics, from evolutionary explanations for alcoholism to why humans have sex in private. In fact, if you only have time to read one of Diamond's book, I recommend The Third Chimpanzee as it includes a broader range.

This addition of the book also includes a useful postscript which addresses some of the advances in our understanding of these topics since the book was first written.

19 people found this helpful

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Randolph Eck

An interesting discourse on the human species

Reviewed in the United States on March 16, 2009

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It is obvious from reading this book that the professor has accumulated a great deal of knowledge from various sources including his own field experiences in places such as Papua New Guinea. The Further Readings section of the book also testifies to this fact. Jared Diamond has put all this accumulated knowledge to use in formulating the theories he has put forth in this book.

Part one traces the development of this "species of big mammal" through its evolutionary history. He devotes a chapter to the Great Leap Forward -a topic of great interest to me. A number of things that profoundly affected the human species reputedly occurred during this interesting period.

Part two discusses human sexuality, adultery, mate selection, and growing old. In many of the discussions throughout the book, an attempt is made to relate human behavior with some similar behavior found in the animal world. As stated in the book "parts one and two discussed the biological foundations of our unique cultural traits."

Part three delves into how we are uniquely human and distinct from the animal world. Here he discusses the bridge or gulf, however you wish to view it, between language of humans and the ways in which animals communicate. He follows this with an interesting discussion of the development of language in human society. There is an attempt to relate human art to some animal precursors, a discussion of the mixed blessings of agriculture as well as why we engage in harmful practices.

In part four we learn about the effects of geography on civilization, the Proto-Indo-European language (PIE) and development of the Indo-European language, the "linguistic steamroller," and genocide - an attribute notably ascribed to humans.

Part five finally elaborates on the "Golden Age that never was" referring to the fact that "preindustrial societies have been exterminating species, destroying of habitats, and undermining their own existence for thousands of years." So this kind of behavior is nothing new to humans. There is a chapter on early life in the New World - the Americas, and finally, some thoughts on how the human species now has the capability of destroying not only themselves but even the planet.

I rate this book highly based on the detailed and through coverage Jared Diamond has given to the subject matters involved. This book is a worthy read to gain some interesting insight into the extraordinary machinations of the human species.

13 people found this helpful

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Top reviews from other countries

marginal

Mesmerizing!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 10, 2019

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One of the best books I had the privilege to read. Where do we come from, what makes us human, why our propensity for genocide and environmental destruction, are we on the verge of extinction? Deep scientific knowledge easy made for lays, makes this book a precious marvel for everyone interested in human evolution and history.

Luc REYNAERT

No Rousseauian fantasies and not a long tale of progress

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 23, 2009

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Jared Diamond's hard-hitting book paints a hyper-realistic and thorough picture of the place of mankind in the Darwinian evolution, of its tiny genetic, but huge `intellectual' differences with apes, of the deep animal roots of its behavior and of the evolutionary trade-offs explaining biological imperfections.

His book is divided in five parts.
Part one discusses the ascent of man and the great leap forward in the Darwinian evolution due to skeletal changes, upright walking and the use of tools.

Part two gives a full picture of man's life cycle: a limited number of offspring, parental care, mating selection with conception as only a by-product of copulation, social relations and life expectancy (slow aging).
Together with `normal' animal behavior like rape, infanticide, intergroup warfare or adultery, mankind has some unique characteristics like the menopause of women and the treatment of the latter through asymmetric adultery laws or genital mutilations.

Part three analyzes man's cultural traits, In the first place, the ascent of agriculture and its most important concomitant characteristics, like demographic explosions, rampant malnutrition, gross social and sexual inequalities, epidemic diseases and political dictatorships; also, language, art and technology.

Part four treats a unique and destructive feature of mankind: xenophobic killing of other human groups en masse, mostly in fighting for lebensraum. Man's arsenal of nuclear weapons can wipe out all living things on earth.

Part five analyzes man's assault on the environment (e.g., the self-destructive chemical abuse) and his mass extermination of other living species, on which depends his own survival.

Despite his pessimistic vision, Jared Diamond remains still cautiously optimistic because man has the power to find solutions for the actual dire state of the planet he lives on.

This book is a must read for all those who want to know who we are and in what kind of world we are actually living.

6 people found this helpful

jens ulstrup

An excellent purchase

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 20, 2019

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The book, known to me is excellent and highly thoughtful. The delivery was swift and in all respects problem-free.

PK

Compelling story

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 21, 2013

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He writes well, I first read Guns Germs and Steel, then Collapse before feeling that I ought to see where he started in books. Great description of mammalian nature and how it applies to us and our troubles. Not a problem to read his works out of order but he does expand on issues in this book, in his later books. If I had my time again I would read them more in order.

One person found this helpful

Keith Wileman

... haven't read anything by Jared Diamond that I didn't enjoy. Sometimes I think he is a little too ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 5, 2014

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I haven't read anything by Jared Diamond that I didn't enjoy. Sometimes I think he is a little too dogmatic in applying evolutionary explanations to every aspect of human behaviour. Is it not possible that drinking petrol is simply an example of stupidity? Still always readable, enjoyable and thought provoking. Throughly recommended.

One person found this helpful

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