Desmond Morris (1928–2026)

We often compare the urban lifestyle to that of a jungle. We're wrong. It's not to a jungle that we ought to compare it, but, to a zoo.

Desmond Morris exposes here why by tackling our city-dwellers' behaviours, that he puts in perspective against that of our fellow animals when caged in zoos. The other great apes, our closest kins, are on that point an enlightening mirror...

Cities might be a good thing indeed when it comes to reduce the problems associated to life in the wild and a natural show more environment (access to food, health care...), like zoos are for animals, then, but such a life in such a habitat also comes with a price. Such price, in fact, comes from, well, the fact that cities are, like zoos, unnatural! These are artificial enclosures, where we are compelled to live alongside each other, and to lead lives going from one extreme to the next (hectic activities or, on the contrary, unhealthy boredom).

Is it any surprising, asks the author, that such dysfunctional environments lead to no less dysfunctional behaviours? Violence becomes endemic, both against others (including our own offspring) and others; diseases of all sorts are developing (stress, obesity...); and even our sexuality isn't spared (masturbation, fetichism, homosexuality...), all kinds of comportments that we witness only in caged animals.

Desmond Morris, simply yet brilliantly, exposes how modifying our environment leads to a modifying of our behaviours, a fact that should leave us to ponder on how and why we modify it in the first place! Here's a striking read, offering a different view upon urban life (without condemning nor denouncing it) and the malaise that comes with it. Very, very interesting. show less

Book 159.
The Naked Ape.
Desmond Morris.
We both read this in 1975 and I found it on the bookshelf and took it to Spain to read again.
Absolutely fascinating!
My favourite chapters were sex and rearing. I want to know how he got some of his facts and figures! (See page 52 below)
Interesting things like why a schoolmaster would demand a boy to lower his trousers before thrashing him, why so many girls as young as 4 would choose a horse as their favourite animal (mounting an animal for a long series show more of rhythmic movements with legs spread wide).
Yes this book had feminists and female scientists rolling their eyes.
I will read it again.
Chloe Betty you might find it interesting?
"Morris said that Homo sapiens not only have the largest brains of all higher primates, but that sexual selection in human evolution has caused humans to have the highest ratio of penis size to body mass. Morris conjectured that human ear-lobes developed as an additional erogenous zone to facilitate the extended sexuality necessary in the evolution of human monogamous pair bonding. Morris further stated that the more rounded shape of human female breasts means they are mainly a sexual signalling device rather than simply for providing milk for infants."
9.5/10 show less

As Morris says in the Introduction, “There are one hundred and ninety-three living species of monkeys and apes. One hundred and ninety-two of them are covered with hair. The exception is a naked ape self-named Homo sapiens.

And so begins an examination of mankind as if from a disinterested third party, a representative of another species who can objectively make observations and draw conclusions about man, his social customs, learning, and sexual behavior. For man, to Morris, is an animal. show more An erudite animal, yes, but one who has only been “civilized” for a few thousand years, not enough time to drop his evolutionary genetic legacy so quickly – despite the thoughts of the members of its species to the contrary.

This is the strength of the work: it was a real challenge to mankind’s cherished views, and an attempt to scientifically study man to better explain why we are as we are. The chapter on sex was controversial in 1966 when the book was published, and is still very interesting today. As an example, he wonders why females of the human species have such large breasts in comparison to other apes, as this isn’t necessary for nursing babies (other apes do that, without the accoutrement). His explanation is that they serve as a sexual display, similar to the backside, but in front to motivate frontal entry during sex, which in turn promotes stronger pair-bonding.

Unfortunately the science behind it is sometimes weak. Morris was a zoologist, but this is borderline “pop science”, and unfortunately too many statements come across as fact when they are conjecture. Interesting conjecture, mind you, but conjecture. Morris said he wrote the book in four exhausting weeks, and while the passion and inspiration come through, sometimes he sounds hopelessly dated and wrong today. For example, he says that homosexuality may be influenced by an effeminate father and/or a dominant mother.

For all that, it’s a good read. The perspective he took was often fascinating. He’s not right on all things, but puts forth plausible explanations, rooted in biology and the natural word and more plausible than those stemming from our religious ‘origin stories’, and which provoke thought and debate. show less

Call this an exercise in bearing witness, as Morris provides an overview of a constellation of artists that, once you get past Francis Bacon and Henry Moore, you probably haven't heard of. It doesn't hurt that Morris knew a lot of these folks personally, and generally remembers them with affection and sympathy. If you want to point to an overarching trend it's the perversity of having an organization for people who were mostly "non-joiners," mostly united by their hatred of the failure of show more recognized authority. show less