Word: ardrey
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CLEARLY human bodies are the result of evolutionary forces working on the lower animals. But what about human behavior? In African Genesis, Robert Ardrey attempts to prove that modern man has evolved from a prehistoric African killer ape, and has preserved not only the physical but also the psychological qualities of that...
...thesis, and a controversial book, which tries to provide social Darwinism with a basis in biological fact. Much of African Genesis is pure speculation, much is bad interpretation of well-known phenomena, and more than a little of it is simply untrue. But it is all interesting, and if Ardrey's most startling argument, that man has always been a weapon-bearing predator, should prove true, then our conceptions about the innate nature of man may have to be drastically revised...
...Ardrey develops his case like a good lawyer, beginning with the least objectionable points of his argument, and gradually working toward more volatile matters. He opens with a discussion of the drive for territorial possession as it appears among all animals, but most especially man's closest animal relations, the primates...
Having established these three points--territorial compulsion, society, and dominance drives--Ardrey attempts to apply them to man. He is not successful. It is hard to dispute his suggestion that primate territoriality may underlie man's feelings of nationalism and patriotism, but his specific interpretations of human behavior are oversimplified...
...ROBERT ARDREY Rome...