THE NAKED APE

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lever manage much more than a simple rhythmic tattoo, we elaborate it into complex poly-rhythms and augment it with vibrating rattles and itch variations. We also make additional noises by bowing into hollow cavities and scraping or plucking pieces of metal. The screams and hoots of the chimpanzee become in us inventive chants. Our development of complicated musical performances appears, in simpler social groups, to have played much the same role as the drumming and hooting sessions of the chimpanzees, namely, mutual group arousal. Unlike picturemaking, it was not an activity pattern that became commandeered for the transmission of detailed information on a major scale. The sending of messages by drumming sequences in certain cultures was an exception to this rule, but by and large music was developed as a communal mood-provoker and synchroniser. Its inventive and exploratory content became stronger and stronger, however, and, freed of any important `representational' duties, it has become a major area of abstract aesthetic experimentation. (Because of its other prior information commitments, painting has only just caught up with it.) Dancing has followed much the same course as music and singing. The chimpanzees include many swaying and jigging movements in their drumming rituals and these also accompany the mood-provoking musical performances of our own species. From there, like music, they have been elaborated and expanded into aesthetically complex performances. Closely: related to dancing has been the growth of gymnastics. Rhythmical physical performances are common in the play of both young chimps and young children. They rapidly become stylised, but retain a strong element of variability within the structured patterns they assume. But the physical games of chimpanzees do not grow and mature, they fizzle out. We, on the other hand, explore their possibilities to the full and elaborate them in our adult lives into many complex forms of exercises and sports. Again they are important as communal synchronistng devices, but essentially they are means of maintaining and expanding our exploration of our physical capacities. 120
Writing, a formalised offshoot of picture-making, and verbalised vocal communication have, of course, been developed as our major means of transmitting and recording information, but they have also been utilised as vehicles for aesthetic exploration on an enormous scale. The intricate elaboration of our ancestral grunts and squeaks into complex symbolic speech has enabled us to sit and `play' with thoughts in our heads, and to manipulate our (primarily instructional) word sequences to new ends as aesthetic, experimental play-things. So, in all these spheres-in painting, sculpture, drawing, music, singing, dancing, gymnastics, games, sports, writing and speech-we can carry on to our heart's content, all through our long lives, complex and specialised forms of exploration and experiment. Through elaborate training, both as performers and observers, we can sensitise our responsiveness to the immense exploratory potential that these pursuits have to offer. If we set aside the secondary functions of these activities (the making of money, gaining of status, and so forth), then they all emerge, biologically, either as the extension into adult life of infantile play-patterns, or as the superimposition on to adult informationcommunication systems of `play-rules'. These rules can be stated as follows: (i) you shall investigate the unfamiliar until it has become familiar; (R) you shall impose rhythmic repetition on the familiar; (3) you shall vary this repetition in as many ways as possible; (4) you shall select the most satisfying of these variations and develop these at the expense of others; (5) you shall combine and recombine these variations one with another; and (6) you shall do all this for its own sake, as an end in itself. These principles apply from one end of the scale to the other, whether you are considering an infant playing in the sand, or a composer working on a symphony. The last rule is particularly important. Exploratory behaviour also plays a role in the basic survival patterns of feeding, fighting, mating and the rest. But there it is confined to the early appetitive phases of the activity sequences and is geared to their special demands. For many species of animals it is no more 121
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THE NAKED APE by Desmond Morris A B
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book is intend
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INTRODUCTION THERE are one hundred
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some respect. If they were healthy,
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CHAPTER ONE ORIGINS THERE is a labe
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we put it, it looks out of place. E
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The primate group, to which our nak
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Faced with a new environment, our a
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complex manoeuvres could be develop
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The brightest stars in the carnivor
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a pack of African hunting dogs it i
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the night, but the contrast is neve
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in the dirt of the den or lair. Aft
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was a process of differential infan
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eating it, each have their own part
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Male and female hunting apes had to
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feature was its naked skin, which l
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home bases, its dens became heavily
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vital missing links in our ancient
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first appears. A great deal will de
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CHAPTER TWO SEX SEXUALLY the naked
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phase, privacy is sought and the su
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summatory act of sperm ejaculation
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the arteries pumping blood into the
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activity. Once the climax has been
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old females will have experienced o
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stay put and mind the babies while
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-the female remains responsive to t
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mucous surfaces permanently exposed
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areas in other animals where there
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Any body relationship, they feel, s
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At some point, back in our ancestry
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Page 87 and 88: CHAPTER THREE REARING THE burden of
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Page 105 and 106: We develop the vital bond of attach
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Page 109 and 110: CHAPTER FOUR EXPLORATION ALL mammal
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Page 123 and 124: epeatedly bite themselves, or pull
Page 125 and 126: on the other hand, of vital signifi
Page 127 and 128: in respiratory activity. Breathing
Page 129 and 130: under the extreme conditions of agg
Page 131 and 132: formalised into rhythmic twistings
Page 133 and 134: sdditional energy on it, and it is
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Page 139 and 140: intensities of it are expressed in
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Page 143 and 144: largely confined now to a form of s
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Page 153 and 154: frequent accompaniment of wailing o
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If they appeal to our old primate w
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disposal, we might be expected to r
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giving an impression of great conce
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the female can then fondle it and c
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is it aesthetically pleasing. Its f
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significance of the hair. In its re
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co-operativeness, specialised groom
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it is a strong dose of security tha
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If the environment becomes too cold
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CHAPTER EIGHT ANIMALS UP to this po
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prey-predator relationship, since i
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substitute space-traveller. No othe
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interferes with the efficient runni
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point of view, are fully justified
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small objects (chimpanzee, monkey,
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The unexpected discovery here is th
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on its back. It must be stressed he
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This cannot be explained solely on
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spiders being nasty, hairy things.
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symbolically, scientifically or aes
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tendencies; that if we have to beco
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Heart-beat response: Salk, 1966. Gr
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BIBLIOGRAPHY AMBROSE, J. A., `The s
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MILES, W. R., 'Chimpanzee behaviour
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Mimikry der Primaten'. Die Naturwis
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