methinks he has an axe to grind

[julesjones]

Quote from the back cover blurb of Desmond Morris's "The Human Zoo":

"Under natural conditions, wild animals do not mutilate themselves, masturbate, attack their offspring, develop stomach ulcers, become fetishists, suffer from obesity, form homosexual pair-bonds."

"Yet confined in the unnatural conditions of captivity, they exhibit just such neurotic behaviour patterns common to urban man caged in his crowded cities.

Granted, this book was first published in 1969. But even then, it required a certain level of wilful ignorance to think that some of the behaviours cited do not occur in wild animals. This strikes me as being very carefully pitched to push certain buttons guaranteed to ensure brisk sales. The contents are probably much less idiotic, but my impression of Morris has long been that his science is heavily coloured by his personal views on such things as the moral value of various sexual acts, and that he is not aware of this. This is always a hazard for writers of popular anthropology and related subjects, of course, but I think my tolerance for it has dropped sharply over the years. This one's going on the "who wants it?" shelf.

Comments

[supermouse.livejournal.com]

The book mostly suffers from being written several decades ago. For example, the realisation that animals form homosexual pair bonds in the wild is pretty recent.

[julesjones]

While it's not obvious from the way the rest of my post runs, the thing that *really* got my goat was the bit about "do not attack their offspring". That's the one where there really was no excuse for it even forty years ago.

[antikythera.livejournal.com]

And masturbation in healthy animals -- Jane Goodall started studying wild chimps in 1960, and chimps wank and rub on each other as part of their daily social routine. How long did it take her to observe that, and was Morris or his publisher just ignoring it (either because it was still seen as immoral, or because the science was coming from a woman)?

[julesjones]

I wasn't quite sure about the masturbation thing being known in wild animals that far back, but god knows it's easy enough to observe in psychologically healthy domestic and farm animals.

[spindriftdancer.livejournal.com]

Yes. Like my cat and wool blankets.
(hides the wool blankets forever)

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

It sure is. I once had care of a stallion that used to be at stud and was no longer 'getting any'. He certainly knew how to 'relieve tension'.

[supermouse.livejournal.com]

TBH, Morris also thought cats produced kittens 'quietly and without fuss' which is so *not* my experience after playing amateur midwife to a succession of cats. They yowl quite loudly when the heads come out.

[sweetheartwhale.livejournal.com]

Not sure about the attacking offspring point. Cleo's mother drove her out at a few months old according to the lady who had her before me, hence her being semi feral for the month or so before I got her. As for the masturbating, Murr, bless him, used to try to do what dogs do to your leg to my arm.:-)
Of course domestic cats are not "wild" animals, although I beleive scientists recently reclassified them as felis silvestris cattus as much of their behaviour was so similar to the European wildcat, as , apparently is their DNA.

[agoodwinsmith.livejournal.com]

Morris has suffered from being the pseudo-science[1] expert of the moment, and that moment has passed. His works were meant to titilate and validate during a time of social dissonance.

[1] - Morris might have been a scientist, but his popular books were not science.

[julesjones]

That's a lovely summary of the rather amorphous reaction I had when I picked up the book and looked at the blurb. After all, I must have thought there *was* something worth reading when I bought it (probably because I'd enjoyed The Naked Ape as a teenager even while recognising the pseudoscience and covert titillation element).