The Human Zoo

Front Cover
Random House, Jul 2, 2009 - Social Science - 176 pages
0 Reviews

A must-read for anyone who has ever wondered why people do what they do, from the popular author of The Naked Ape.

This study concerns the city dweller. Morris finds remarkable similarities with captive zoo animals and looks closely at the aggressive, sexual and parental behaviour of the human species under the stresses and pressures of urban living.

‘Compelling and absorbing...Morris is concerned with the tension between our biology and our culture, as it is expressed in power, sex, status and war games’ New York Times

 

What people are saying - Write a review

THE HUMAN ZOO: A Zoologist's Study Of The Urban Animal

User Review  - Kirkus

This is a highly readable but thoroughly irritating book. Morris is a forceful stylist but the same quick flow of discourse which can be insightful about modern society often edges over into blunt ... Read full review

Selected pages

Contents

Tribes and Supertribes
1
Status and Superstatus 2
2
Sex and Supersex
3
Ingroups and Outgroups 76
7
Copyright

Other editions - View all

The Human Zoo
Desmond Morris
Snippet view - 1969
The Human Zoo
Desmond Morris
Snippet view - 1969
The Human Zoo
Desmond Morris
Snippet view - 1971
View all »

Common terms and phrases

already Ancient Cyprus Asia Athens Babywatching basic social pattern became become began behaviour bio-social pendulum Biology Of Art Bodytalk Bodywatching brain captive animal carnivore Catwatching ceremonies change biologically city-dweller civilization co-author cohesive forces colours compact group complex concrete jungle costume cultivation cultures delicate balance Desmond Morris Despots developed Dr John evolved fact farming farther food-finding form of social function helps human animal human beings camping human hunter/gatherer human hunters Human Zoo hunting ancestors Ice Age impersonal increasingly invention isolating laws land twenty miles language law forbids leaders long hunting apprenticeship Mammals Manuwatching massive super-tribe Mediterranean modern monkey mutual aid Naked Ape natural numbers original sin population Professor pseudo-tribal religion Rome scene Secret Surrealist setting up sub-groups simple tribal social custom social identity species spread super-tribal condition super-tribesman survived technologies thousand tiny tribe tribal animal tribal hunter tyrants urban elite urge to co-operate wild zoo world

About the author (2009)

Desmond Morris was born in Wiltshire in 1928. After gaining a degree in zoology from Birmimgham University, he obtained his D. Phil. from the University of Oxford. He became Curator of Mammals at London Zoo in 1959, a post he held for eight years.

He was already the author of some fifty scientific papers and seven books before completing The Naked Ape in 1967, which was to sell over 10 million copies throughout the world and be translated into almost every known language.

Desmond Morris has made many television programmes and films on human and animal behaviour, his friendly and accessible approach making him popular with both adults and children, and he is now one of the best-known presenters of natural history programmes.

He is also an accomplished artists and his books inlcude The Biology of Art, The Art of Ancient Cyprus and The Secret Surrealist, as well as his familiar series of Manwatching, Bodywatching, Animalwatching and Babywatching. His study of the meaning of gestures, Bodytalk: A World Guide to Gestures is published by Jonathan Cape.

Bibliographic information

QR code for The Human Zoo
TitleThe Human Zoo
AuthorDesmond Morris
PublisherRandom House, 2009
ISBN1409020622, 9781409020622
Length176 pages
Subjects ›  ›  › 

Psychology / Movements / Behaviorism
Science / General
Science / Life Sciences / Zoology / Primatology
Social Science / Sociology / Urban
  
Export CitationBiBTeX EndNote RefMan