Mama's Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us about Ourselves

2019-03-12 Science

Author : Frans de Waal
Release : 2019-03-12
Genre : Science
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 074/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Mama's Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us about Ourselves by : Frans de Waal

Download or read book Mama's Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us about Ourselves written by Frans de Waal. This book was released on 2019-03-12. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times best-selling author and primatologist Frans de Waal explores the fascinating world of animal and human emotions. Frans de Waal has spent four decades at the forefront of animal research. Following up on the best-selling Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?, which investigated animal intelligence, Mama’s Last Hug delivers a fascinating exploration of the rich emotional lives of animals. Mama’s Last Hug begins with the death of Mama, a chimpanzee matriarch who formed a deep bond with biologist Jan van Hooff. When Mama was dying, van Hooff took the unusual step of visiting her in her night cage for a last hug. Their goodbyes were filmed and went viral. Millions of people were deeply moved by the way Mama embraced the professor, welcoming him with a big smile while reassuring him by patting his neck, in a gesture often considered typically human but that is in fact common to all primates. This story and others like it form the core of de Waal’s argument, showing that humans are not the only species with the capacity for love, hate, fear, shame, guilt, joy, disgust, and empathy. De Waal discusses facial expressions, the emotions behind human politics, the illusion of free will, animal sentience, and, of course, Mama’s life and death. The message is one of continuity between us and other species, such as the radical proposal that emotions are like organs: we don’t have a single organ that other animals don’t have, and the same is true for our emotions. Mama’s Last Hug opens our hearts and minds to the many ways in which humans and other animals are connected, transforming how we view the living world around us.

Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?

2016-04-25 Science

Author : Frans de Waal
Release : 2016-04-25
Genre : Science
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 191/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? by : Frans de Waal

Download or read book Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? written by Frans de Waal. This book was released on 2016-04-25. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times bestseller: "A passionate and convincing case for the sophistication of nonhuman minds." —Alison Gopnik, The Atlantic Hailed as a classic, Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? explores the oddities and complexities of animal cognition—in crows, dolphins, parrots, sheep, wasps, bats, chimpanzees, and bonobos—to reveal how smart animals really are, and how we’ve underestimated their abilities for too long. Did you know that octopuses use coconut shells as tools, that elephants classify humans by gender and language, and that there is a young male chimpanzee at Kyoto University whose flash memory puts that of humans to shame? Fascinating, entertaining, and deeply informed, de Waal’s landmark work will convince you to rethink everything you thought you knew about animal—and human—intelligence.

Different: Gender Through the Eyes of a Primatologist

2022-04-05 Science

Author : Frans de Waal
Release : 2022-04-05
Genre : Science
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 117/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Different: Gender Through the Eyes of a Primatologist by : Frans de Waal

Download or read book Different: Gender Through the Eyes of a Primatologist written by Frans de Waal. This book was released on 2022-04-05. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Every new book by Frans de Waal is a cause for excitement, and this one is no different. A breath of fresh air in the cramped debate about the differences between men and women. Fascinating, nuanced, and very timely.” —Rutger Bregman, author of Humankind: A Hopeful History In Different, world-renowned primatologist Frans de Waal draws on decades of observation and studies of both human and animal behavior to argue that despite the linkage between gender and biological sex, biology does not automatically support the traditional gender roles in human societies. While humans and other primates do share some behavioral differences, biology offers no justification for existing gender inequalities. Using chimpanzees and bonobos to illustrate this point—two ape relatives that are genetically equally close to humans—de Waal challenges widely held beliefs about masculinity and femininity, and common assumptions about authority, leadership, cooperation, competition, filial bonds, and sexual behavior. Chimpanzees are male-dominated and violent, while bonobos are female-dominated and peaceful. In both species, political power needs to be distinguished from physical dominance. Power is not limited to the males, and both sexes show true leadership capacities. Different is a fresh and thought-provoking approach to the long-running debate about the balance between nature and nurture, and where sex and gender roles fit in. De Waal peppers his discussion with details from his own life—a Dutch childhood in a family of six boys, his marriage to a French woman with a different orientation toward gender, and decades of academic turf wars over outdated scientific theories that have proven hard to dislodge from public discourse. He discusses sexual orientation, gender identity, and the limitations of the gender binary, exceptions to which are also found in other primates. With humor, clarity, and compassion, Different seeks to broaden the conversation about human gender dynamics by promoting an inclusive model that embraces differences, rather than negating them.

Mama's Last Hug

2019-03-12 Science

Author : Frans de Waal
Release : 2019-03-12
Genre : Science
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 066/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Mama's Last Hug by : Frans de Waal

Download or read book Mama's Last Hug written by Frans de Waal. This book was released on 2019-03-12. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Bestseller and winner of the PEN / E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award Primatologist Frans de Waal explores the fascinating world of animal and human emotions. Frans de Waal has spent four decades at the forefront of animal research. Following up on the best-selling Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?, which investigated animal intelligence, Mama’s Last Hug delivers a fascinating exploration of the rich emotional lives of animals. Mama’s Last Hug begins with the death of Mama, a chimpanzee matriarch who formed a deep bond with biologist Jan van Hooff. When Mama was dying, van Hooff took the unusual step of visiting her in her night cage for a last hug. Their goodbyes were filmed and went viral. Millions of people were deeply moved by the way Mama embraced the professor, welcoming him with a big smile while reassuring him by patting his neck, in a gesture often considered typically human but that is in fact common to all primates. This story and others like it form the core of de Waal’s argument, showing that humans are not the only species with the capacity for love, hate, fear, shame, guilt, joy, disgust, and empathy. De Waal discusses facial expressions, the emotions behind human politics, the illusion of free will, animal sentience, and, of course, Mama’s life and death. The message is one of continuity between us and other species, such as the radical proposal that emotions are like organs: we don’t have a single organ that other animals don’t have, and the same is true for our emotions. Mama’s Last Hug opens our hearts and minds to the many ways in which humans and other animals are connected, transforming how we view the living world around us.

Every Creature Has a Story

2020-07-27 Science

Author : Janaki Lenin
Release : 2020-07-27
Genre : Science
Kind : eBook
Book Rating : 071/5 ( reviews)

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Book Synopsis Every Creature Has a Story by : Janaki Lenin

Download or read book Every Creature Has a Story written by Janaki Lenin. This book was released on 2020-07-27. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We are surrounded by an astounding variety of lifeforms. Over millennia, they have evolved to exploit unique niches, in the process developing features and skills that set them apart.Have you ever wondered what price the giraffe pays for its long neck? The neck increases its blood pressure to pump blood up to its brain, which endangers its life every time it bends down to drink. Or have you thought about how female nightingales decide which male will share the burdens of parenthood with them? They listen to prospective candidates' songs to gauge if they'd make good fathers. And did you know that glassfrogs pee on their eggs and the gender of bearded dragons is fixed by sex chromosomes or temperature?In Every Creature Has a Story, Janaki Lenin draws us towards the wonders of the natural world in evocative and witty words. She uncovers the surprising, sometimes bizarre but always amazing ways in which creatures breed and survive, from spiders salivating during sex and snails entombing their parasites into their shells to elephants developing immunity to cancer. After reading this book, you'll never look at nature in the same way again.

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