Our Inner Ape

One of the world's foremost primatologists explores what our two closest relatives in the animal kingdom-the violent, power-hungry chimpanzee and the cooperative, empathetic bonobo-can tell us about the duality of our own human nature. We have long attributed man's violent, aggressive, competitive nature to his animal ancestry. But what if we are just as given to cooperation, empathy, and morality by virtue of our genes? From a scientist and writer whom E. O. Wilson has called the world authority on primate social behavior comes a lively look at the most provocative aspects of human nature-power, sex, violence, kindness, and morality-through our two closest cousins in the ape family. For nearly twenty years, Frans de Waal has worked with both the famously aggressive chimpanzee and the lesser-known egalitarian, erotic, matriarchal bonobo, two species whose DNA is nearly identical to that of humans. De Waal brings his apes to life on every page of this book, letting their personalities, relationships, power struggles, and high jinks captivate our hearts and minds. The result is an engrossing and surprising narrative that explores what their behavior can teach us about ourselves and about one other. Illustrated with one 16-page black-and-white insert.