Frans De Waal

It's no secret that humans and apes share a host of traits, from the tribal communities we form to our irrepressible curiosity. We have a common ancestor, scientists tell us, so it's natural that we act alike. But not all of these parallels are so appealing: the chimpanzee, for example, can be as vicious and manipulative as any human.Yet there's more to our shared primate heritage than just our violent streak. In Our Inner Ape, Frans de Waal, one of the world's great primatologists and a renowned expert on social behavior in apes, presents the provocative idea that our noblest qualities—generosity, kindness, altruism—are as much a part of our nature as are our baser instincts. After all, we share them with another primate: the lesser-known bonobo. As genetically similar to man as the chimpanzee, the bonobo has a temperament and a lifestyle vastly different from those of its genetic cousin. Where chimps are aggressive, territorial, and hierarchical, bonobos are gentle, loving, and erotic (sex for bonobos is as much about pleasure and social bonding as it is about reproduction).While the parallels between chimp brutality and human brutality are easy to see, de Waal suggests that the conciliatory bonobo is just as legitimate a model to study when we explore our primate heritage. He even connects humanity's desire for fairness and its morality with primate behavior, offering a view of society that contrasts markedly with the caricature people have of Darwinian evolution. It's plain that our finest qualities run deeper in our DNA than experts have previously thought.Frans de Waal has spent the last two decades studying our closest primate relations, and his observations of each species in Our Inner Ape encompass the spectrum of human behavior. This is an audacious book, an engrossing discourse that proposes thought-provoking and sometimes shocking connections among chimps, bonobos, and those most paradoxical of apes, human beings.

"The Ape and the Sushi Master challenges our most basic assumptions about who we are and how we differ from other animals. In a delightful mix of autobiographical anecdote, rigorous research, and speculation, eminent primatologist Frans de Waal leads us to consider the possibility that apes have their own culture. We think that only we humans are culturally free and sophisticated, varying our behavior from group to group. But what if apes react to situations with behavior learned through observation of their elders (culture) rather than through pure genetic instinct (nature)? Such a scenario shakes our centuries-old convictions about what makes humans distinct. It also counters our recent tendency to look at other animals as slaves of their genetic programs: if animals learn from each other the way we do, this brings them much closer to us."--Jacket.

Most people have never heard of the bonobo, an intriguing member of the great ape family, despite the fact that bonobos are as close to us as their much better known relatives, the chimpanzees. Scientists are only beginning to explore the social life of the bonobo. Whereas chimpanzees are known for male power politics, cooperative hunting, and intergroup warfare, bonobo society is egalitarian and peaceful. One major distinction of the bonobo seems to be sensitivity to others. Now, two world-renowned experts in their fields, primatologist Frans de Waal and wildlife photographer Frans Lanting, have joined to celebrate this wonderful and little-known creature. Theirs is the first extended profile of the bonobo for the general reader. It presents the most up-to-date information on the species, including comparative data from zoo populations and from the field and interviews with leading bonobo experts. This is a book for all primate-watchers, amateur and specialist, for anyone interested in the origin of our own species, and for those studying evolution or gender relations.

Waal shows how ethical behavior is as much a matter of evolution as any other trait.

"This extraordinary account of schmoozing, scheming, and consensus building among the chimpanzees of a large zoo colony in Arnhem, The Netherlands, attracted attention.". "Throughout this revised edition - which features a new gallery of color photographs along with a new introduction and epilogue - de Waal expands and updates his story of the Arnhem colony and its continuing political upheavals. We learn the fate of many memorable characters and meet the colony's current leaders and their allies. The new edition remains a detailed and thoroughly engrossing account - of sexual rivalries and coalitions, of actions governed by intelligence rather than instinct - and it reaffirms the complex bond between humans and their closest living relatives. As we watch the chimpanzees of Arnhem behave in ways we recognize from Machiavelli (and from the nightly news), de Waal reminds us again that the roots of politics are older than humanity."--BOOK JACKET.

Onderzoek naar overeenkomsten en verschillen in sociaal gedrag van chimpansees, bonobo's en mensen.

Morality is often defined in opposition to the natural "instincts," or as a tool to keep those instincts in check. New findings in neuroscience, social psychology, animal behaviour, and anthropology have brought us back to the original Darwinian position that moral behaviour is continuous with the social behavior of animals, and most likely evolved to enhance the cooperativeness of society. In this view, morality is part of human nature rather than its opposite. This interdisciplinary volume debates the origin and working of human morality within the context of science as well as religion and philosophy. Experts from widely different backgrounds speculate how morality may have evolved, how it develops in the child, and what science can tell us about its working and origin. They also discuss how to deal with the age-old facts-versus-values debate, also known as the naturalistic fallacy. The implications of this exchange are enormous, as they may transform cherished views on if and why we are the only moral species.

Prises de pouvoir, luttes d'influence, bluff, intimidation, opportunisme, manipulations, règlements de comptes... il n'est rien, ou presque, de ce qui se trame dans les antichambres du pouvoir qu'on ne puisse trouver en germe dans la vie sociale d'une colonie de grands singes. Bref, les racines de la politique sont peut-être plus anciennes que l'humanité. Telle est la révélation majeure de ce classique de l'éthologie, qui résulte de plusieurs années de patientes observations effectuées par Frans de Waal et son équipe au zoo d'Arnhem, aux Pays-Bas, où vivent en semi-liberté des chimpanzés.

Aggression and competition are customarily presented as the natural state of affairs in both human society and the animal kingdom. Yet, as this book shows, our species relies heavily on cooperation for survival as do many others -- from wolves and dolphins to monkeys and apes. A distinguished group of fifty-two authors, including many of the world's leading experts on human and animal behavior, review evidence from multiple disciplines on natural conflict resolution, making the case that reconciliation and compromise are as much a part of our heritage as is waging war.

A renowned primatologist argues that ethical behavior witnessed in animals is the evolutionary and biological origin of human fairness and explains that morality has more to do with natural instincts than with religion.

L'éthologue et primatologue américain F. de Waal observe depuis près d'une vingtaine d'années les chimpanzés et les bonobos, deux très proches cousins de l'homme et tire de ses travaux sur leur personnalité, leurs rapports, leurs luttes de pouvoirs et leurs ébats, des aperçus éclairants sur les comportements humains.