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Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence Paperback – November 14, 1997

by Dale Peterson (Author), Richard Wrangham (Author)

52 customer reviews

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Whatever their virtues, men are more violent than women. Why do men kill, rape, and wage war, and what can we do about it? Demonic Males offers startling new answers to these questions. Drawing on the latest discoveries about human evolution and about our closest living relatives, the great apes, the book unfolds a compelling argument that the secrets of a peaceful society may well be, first, a sharing of power between males and females, and second, a high level and variety of sexual activity, both homosexual and heterosexual. Dramatic, vivid, and sometimes shocking, but firmly grounded in meticulous scientific research, Demonic Males will stir controversy and debate. It will be required reading for anyone concerned about the spiral of violence undermining human society.

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

If you harbor a sneaking suspicion that men are a herd of ignoble savages, then this book is for you. Authors Wrangham and Peterson will confirm your instincts. It turns out that hyperviolent social behavior is deeply rooted in male human genes and common among our closest male primate relatives. Rapes, beatings and killings are as much a part of life among the great apes as they are among us. The authors try to conclude on some upbeat notes that ring hollow, but their science reveals much about the dark side of human nature. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

Contradicting the common belief that chimpanzees in the wild are gentle creatures, Harvard anthropologist Wrangham and science writer Peterson have witnessed, since 1971, male African chimpanzees carry out rape, border raids, brutal beatings and warfare among rival territorial gangs. In a startling, beautifully written, riveting, provocative inquiry, they suggest that chimpanzee-like violence preceded and paved the way for human warfare?which would make modern humans the dazed survivors of a continuous, five-million-year habit of lethal aggression. They buttress their thesis with an examination of the ubiquitous rape among orangutans, gorilla infanticide and male-initiated violence and hyenas' territorial feuds, drawing parallels to the lethal raiding among the Yanomamo people of Brazil's Amazon forests and other so-called primitive tribes, as well as to modern "civilized" mass slaughter. In their analysis, patriotism ("stripped to its essence... male defense of the community") breeds aggression, yet, from an evolutionary standpoint, they reject the presumed inevitability of male violence and male dominance over women.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product details

Paperback: 350 pages
Publisher: Mariner Books; 10/15/97 edition (November 14, 1997)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0395877431
ISBN-13: 978-0395877432
Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.9 x 8.2 inches
Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
Average Customer Review: 52 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #213,875 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #32 in Books > Science & Math > Biological Sciences > Animals > Apes & Monkeys
- #488 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Anthropology > General
- #597 in Books > Science & Math > Biological Sciences > Zoology

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Loretta G. Breuning

A celebration of evolution, if you really think about it

February 3, 2011

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This book describes behaviors that appear in most mammalian species- dominance hierarchies, sexual rivalry, threat displays, alliance building, and violence toward males, females and even children at times. It shows that "demonic" behaviors promote reproductive success in the animal world, which of course means they're naturally selected for. This is not meant to excuse bad behavior in humans. It's meant to help violence-prevention efforts by illuminating biological aspects of behavior. I always knew there was a dark side of human nature, but this book helped me see clearly why it evolved. There's no preachy message. The authors present the facts in an engaging way and respect our ability to put that knowledge to good ends.
The book has no male-bashing rhetoric, though I thought it could benefit from acknowledging that females also behave badly in pursuit of reproductive success. Of course females are less violent, because each gender adopts the strategies that promote their DNA. I, Mammal: Why Your Brain Links Status and Happiness
Most humans manage to avoid demonic behavior most of the time. This is an accomplishment that we should value instead of taking it for granted. We avoid conflict and respect others because our cortex can predict the consequences of actions the limbic system might motivate, and squelch actions that are not in its best interest. This is a complex skill. When you understand the limbic system we've inherited from our mammalian ancestors, you appreciate what an achievement it is that so many people are kind and decent to each other. We are born with the potential for good and for evil. Good doesn't come automatically. I like this book because it helps us understand how much skill is necessary for people to transcend their animal nature.

10 people found this helpful

The books was amazing it had me hooked from the opening pages

July 25, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

The books was amazing it had me hooked from the opening pages. It gave valuable insight to what we are as humans and how violence is part of our inherent nature. I think using this research further evaluation is PSTD of all types should be looked at again.

2 people found this helpful

Enough monkeying around, lets talk theory

January 21, 2013

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I originally purchased this book after reading Richard Wrangham's "Catching Fire: How Cooking Made Us Human" and was so impressed with the overall experience that i had to explore "Demonic Males." As a person interested in human evolution and how things could be possibly led to where we are now, this book immediately sparked my interest in two ways, our human evolution and its possible explanation that makes us so prone to violence. I enjoyed the authors stories of bringing in the different kinds of great apes and also other species of animals and how their culture and lifestyles effect them. How violence is expressed and tolerated amongst these different great apes. At first, this book may seem to be all doom and gloom but the book has a buildup of a possible future where we can break through the chains of violence and live peacefully amongst ourselves and others like different species of animals do. Overall, this was a fantastic read and i would encourage forward thinkers to absorb some of this material. I am definitely looking forward to reading some more of Mr. Wrangham's work.

4 people found this helpful

Elizabeth Barry

Nature vs nurture, again

November 4, 2013

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

First, I am not a primatologist nor an evolutionary biologist, and I have not done a great deal of reading in those fields. So I can't presume to evaluate some of the claims that this book sets forth. That claim is that violence is programmed into the genes of male humans, just as it is programmed into the genes of SOME of the other great apes.

The authors say that there are five families of great apes, and Homo sapiens is one of those families. The other four are the orang-utans, the gorillas, the chimpanzees, and the bonobos.

The orang-utans do exhibit some violent behaviors such as rape, but these rapes are only committed by the smaller males, not the dominant large males. Gorillas apparently almost never rape anybody, but they do kill infant gorillas sometimes. The chimpanzees are quite violent, according to the authors, and they not only abuse female chimpanzees, but they also go on raids into the territories of other chimps, apparently with the intent of waging war and killing some of their "enemies."

But what about the bonobos? These great apes apparently do none of these things. They have a peaceful, pan-sexual existence on the south side of the Zaire river, secluded from their meaner cousins the chimps and gorillas.

For some reason, the authors seem to think that humans must be genetically more like chimps than like bonobos, because human males are often violent and war is endemic to most human society at present. But to me it seems just as likely that humans could be genetically more similar to bonobos, and that the human male penchant for war and mayhem could be a cultural construct. After all, not all human societies are very violent. Some societies have glorified war and male dominance to the extent that most men in those societies identify maleness with violence, but in other societies, murder, rape and war are rare or absent. Not all human societies are patriarchal. IT seems unlikely to me that violence is programmed into the genetic makeup of boys and men.

We may never know what early humans were like in terms of their level of aggression, compared to other primates. In a way it doesn't matter. Any rational person living today would say that less violence is better; less rape is better; and fewer wars would be better. The question is how to limit aggression in humans. The authors of this book posit that societies with strong central, state power as opposed to warlordism have less interpersonal violence; that a strong central authority such as a state can police and limit interpersonal violence. That is probably true, but history is replete with examples of strong states that go to war against each other.

I am more persuaded by the authors' contention that powerful female alliances limit male violence in some primate and human societies. Certainly a woman surrounded by her family allies is safer from interpersonal violence at the hands of men. It remains to be seen whether a stronger female presence at the highest levels of government can quell the aggressive streak in states.

6 people found this helpful

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Most recent customer reviews

Excellent but arguably with an anti-male bias

This book is an eye opener on human nature, and for the most part compelling and well written. However I ‘d like to note one important shortcoming, though it doesn’t necessarily...Read more

Published 11 months ago

Amazon Customer

Some parts are very interesting

The first and the last few chapters are very interesting. But the middle of the book is rather slow, especially if you are familiar with human evolution.

Published 11 months ago

Kasandra Zaragoza

Definitely recommend!

Came eqrlier than expected. Definitely recommend!

Published 1 year ago

Well, ordering it got me mansplained by the seller

Although, the SELLER contacted me DIRECTLY to my PERSONAL EMAIL with this note:
Hi E Laren, I am contacting you because I am curious why you decided to order the Demonic...Read more

Published 1 year ago

More like a narrow-minded, demonic interpretation of males

I found Demonic Males to be best taken with a grain of salt. The authors makes some compelling arguments about the origin of human violence by using comparative behavioral studies...Read more

Published 1 year ago

Very interesting updated book on human evelution. If they ...

Very interesting updated book on human evelution. If they could just find and eliminate the psychopath gene, we might survive as a species.

Published on October 23, 2015

I think this is my favorite book ever written. I recommend it to everyone

Published on May 1, 2015

Another customer

Telling people what they want to hear

I suppose I should cut this book some slack because it is dated, but it is just nonsense on too many points.Read more

Published on April 20, 2015

-That an 1 1/2 feet Ape like Ida that took over 43 millions of years to ...

Only Evolutionist's back up that retardance of Apes evolving into Mens, cuz is not Real, and those evolutionist's are a bunch of retarded, liers, words twisting; Babbon's...Read more

Published on March 7, 2015

I was pleasantly surprised by the breadth and depth of ...

I was pleasantly surprised by the breadth and depth of the research covered in this book. To understand violence, gender, and gendered violence IS to understand a large portion of...Read more

Published on January 12, 2015

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