Macachiavellian Intelligence: How Rhesus Macaques and Humans Have Conquered the World
buy bestselling books in print, audio books
|
 |
List Price: $25.00
Our Price:
$16.50
You Save: $8.5
|
| [ + Zoom ] [ Buy Now ] |
Book : Usually ships in 24 hours |
|
Macachiavellian Intelligence: How Rhesus Macaques and Humans Have Conquered the World Customer Reviews
|
|
|
|
♥♥♥♥♥ |
Needs editing
|
This book had some very interesting sections and some of the overall insights were thought provoking, but the book was just not organized well at all and it was filled with terrible metaphors. The overall affect of the organization of this work really made this book a disappointing read for me.
The author attempts to make comparisons between his subjects and human beings but the reader never knows when the author is going to make these comparisons. They seem to come from nowhere and the reader just has to take the book as it comes. I would have much rather had the book broken down into cross sections that discuss Rhesus Macaque behavior and then a whole new section that compares that behavior with human behavior. This would have given the book a much firmer structure and would have broken down the information in a much more palatable way for the reader.
Next the metaphors the author used throughout this book were just terrible. For me these metaphors had the affect of dumbing down the content of this work. I'm sure this was not the intent of the author, but I felt as though I were being talked down to throughout this work. The author also uses mixed metaphors which really leaves a bad impression on the reader.
Next at the end of the chapter entitled Sex and Business the author makes some statements that seem extremely misogynistic. The author talks about how women have not learned to achieve political power and how they are much less adept at politics than their male counter parts. Of course the facts are that women have been playing at power politics since the Romans and Greeks and well before that. The author doesn't speak of the fact that the majority of the societies that have developed have formed highly patriarchal societies in which men have been the main beneficiaries and women for the most part have been oppressed. So it is not that women are not adept at power politics but instead they have never had the opportunity to fully participate in the systems. Not only that but women have been able to exert extraordinary influence on politics and the world through very narrow corridors of access.
The author also ignores the huge progress that has been made by women in really the last hundred years or so. For a group that has really only gained full access to the political spectrum (and of course the argument could be made they are still discriminated against) very recently in human history women have made huge impacts everywhere around the world and will continue to make even greater contributions as they are able to make even more gains in the political sphere.
I am sure the author's intent was not to come of as a misogynist but to me he did. He was only trying to make a comparison between Macaque societies and human society. This book would have been much better with some better editing and an additional rewrite, but unfortunately for the author many of the problems were not caught in the editing process and the work suffers terribly for it. The author is a Primatologist not an English Ph.D., but the author has written a book and must be judged on this effort. The author would be greatly served finding a new editor.
The book was not great and I have read works that I would recommend much more highly than this one. It had its moments but they were not enough to redeem this awkward book. If you are just getting into ethology then you may want to give this work a try, but if you are versed int the topic already just skip this particular work. |
|
Macachiavellian Intelligence: How Rhesus Macaques and Humans Have Conquered the World Books In Print, Audio Books.