THE NAKED APE

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cended right through into his sexually adult life. There was plenty of time to imitate and learn the special techniques that had been devised by previous generations. His weaknesses as a physical and Instictive hunter could be more than compensated for by his intelligence and his imitative abilities. He could be taught by his parents as no animal had ever been taught before. But teaching alone was not enough. Genetic assistance was required. Basic biological changes in the nature of the hunting ape had to accompany this process. If one simply took a typical, forest-living, fruitpicking primate of the kind described earlier, and gave it a big brain and a hunting body, it would be difficult for it to become a successful hunting ape without some other modifications. Its basic behaviour patterns would be wrong. It might be able to think things out and plan in a very clever way, but its more fundamental animal urges would be of the wrong type. The teaching would be working against its natural tendencies, not only in its feeding behaviour, but also in its general social, aggressive and sexual behaviour, and in all the other basic behavioural aspects of its earlier primate existence. If genetically controlled changes were not wrought here too, then the new education of the young hunting ape would be an impossibly uphill task. Cultural training can achieve a great deal, but no matter how brilliant the machinery of the higher centres of the brain, it needs a considerable degree of support from the lower regions. If we look back now at the differences between the typical `pure' carnivore and the typical 'pure' primate, we can see how this probably came about. The advanced carnivore separates the actions of food-seeking (hunting and killing) from the actions of eating. They have become two distinct motivational systems with only partial dependence one on the other. This has come about because. the whole sequence is so lengthy and arduous. The act of feeding is too remote, and so the action of killing has to become a reward in itself. Researches with cats have even indicated that the sequence there has become further sub-divided. Catching the prey, killing it, preparing it (plucking it), and 32
eating it, each have their own partially independent motivational systems. If one of these patterns of behaviour is satiated, it does not automatically satiate the others. For the fruit-picking primate the situation is entirely different. Each feeding sequence, comprising simple food-searching and then immediate eating, is comparatively so brief that no splitting up into separate motivational systems is necessary. This is something that would have to be changed, and changed radically, in the case of the hunting ape. Hunting would have to bring its own reward, it could no longer simply act as an appetitive sequence leading up to the consummatory meal. Perhaps, as in the cat, hunting, killing and preparing the food would each develop their own separate, independent goals, would each become ends in themselves. Each would then have to find expression and one could not be damped down by satisfying another. If we examine-as we shall be doing in a later chapter-the feeding behaviour of present-day naked apes, we shall see that there are plenty of indications t fiat something like this did occur. In addition to becoming a biological (as opposed to a cultural) killer, the hunting ape also had to modify the timing arrangements of his eating behaviour. Minute-by-minute snacks were out and big, spaced meals were in. Food storage was practised. A basic tendency to return to a fixed home base had to be built in to the behavioural system. Orientation and homing abilities had to be improved. Defecation had to become a spatially organised pattern of behaviour, a private (carnivore) activity instead of a communal (primate) one. I mentioned earlier that one outcome of using a fixed home base is that it makes parasitisation by fleas possible. I also said that carnivores have fleas, but primates do not. If the hunting ape was unique amongst primates in having a fixed base, then we would also expect him to break the primate rule concerning fleas, and this certainly seems to be the case. We know that today our species is parasitised by these insects and that we have our own special kind of flea -one that belongs to a different species from other 33
Page 1 and 2: THE NAKED APE by Desmond Morris A B
Page 3 and 4: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS This book is intend
Page 5 and 6: INTRODUCTION THERE are one hundred
Page 7 and 8: some respect. If they were healthy,
Page 9 and 10: CHAPTER ONE ORIGINS THERE is a labe
Page 11 and 12: we put it, it looks out of place. E
Page 13 and 14: The primate group, to which our nak
Page 15 and 16: Faced with a new environment, our a
Page 17 and 18: complex manoeuvres could be develop
Page 19 and 20: The brightest stars in the carnivor
Page 21 and 22: a pack of African hunting dogs it i
Page 23 and 24: the night, but the contrast is neve
Page 25 and 26: in the dirt of the den or lair. Aft
Page 27: was a process of differential infan
Page 31 and 32: Male and female hunting apes had to
Page 33 and 34: feature was its naked skin, which l
Page 35 and 36: home bases, its dens became heavily
Page 37 and 38: vital missing links in our ancient
Page 39 and 40: first appears. A great deal will de
Page 41 and 42: CHAPTER TWO SEX SEXUALLY the naked
Page 43 and 44: phase, privacy is sought and the su
Page 45 and 46: summatory act of sperm ejaculation
Page 47 and 48: the arteries pumping blood into the
Page 49 and 50: activity. Once the climax has been
Page 51 and 52: old females will have experienced o
Page 53 and 54: stay put and mind the babies while
Page 55 and 56: -the female remains responsive to t
Page 57 and 58: mucous surfaces permanently exposed
Page 59 and 60: areas in other animals where there
Page 61 and 62: Any body relationship, they feel, s
Page 63 and 64: At some point, back in our ancestry
Page 65 and 66: sexual contacts. In this particular
Page 67 and 68: This may also explain why the male
Page 69 and 70: lengths to render her as sexually r
Page 71 and 72: ised his sex life. The contemporary
Page 73 and 74: apology being proportional to the d
Page 75 and 76: enlarges it, imitating in this way
Page 77 and 78: ituation where the female is produc
Page 79 and 80:
and avoids being attacked. A subord
Page 81 and 82:
object lacking these signals. Secon
Page 83 and 84:
is that the prolonged period of inf
Page 85 and 86:
on the fundamental sexual structure
Page 87 and 88:
CHAPTER THREE REARING THE burden of
Page 89 and 90:
is not enough for the infant's lips
Page 91 and 92:
mother, either instinctively or by
Page 93 and 94:
apid during the first two years of
Page 95 and 96:
onwards. It may even clasp on to he
Page 97 and 98:
unlike the verbal signals, they eme
Page 99 and 100:
mother's face and to distinguish he
Page 101 and 102:
oth frighteningly odd and at the sa
Page 103 and 104:
friendly, but if we greet them by l
Page 105 and 106:
We develop the vital bond of attach
Page 107 and 108:
andom and unco-ordinated. The cryin
Page 109 and 110:
CHAPTER FOUR EXPLORATION ALL mammal
Page 111 and 112:
But the reverse is actually the cas
Page 113 and 114:
are combined, one with another, to
Page 115 and 116:
equired no reward-it was its own re
Page 117 and 118:
Writing, a formalised offshoot of p
Page 119 and 120:
and clothing, in furniture and cars
Page 121 and 122:
contacts immensely difficult and wi
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
Page 135 and 136:
the grooming itself. Monkeys make g
Page 137 and 138:
signal. (With the arm bent and held
Page 139 and 140:
intensities of it are expressed in
Page 141 and 142:
mechanisms. Many moths have a pair
Page 143 and 144:
largely confined now to a form of s
Page 145 and 146:
such a situation can be seen to per
Page 147 and 148:
the policeman into a position of im
Page 149 and 150:
attacker and his enemy, and it is t
Page 151 and 152:
intelligence that must get us out.
Page 153 and 154:
frequent accompaniment of wailing o
Page 155 and 156:
of the `pomp and circumstance' will
Page 157 and 158:
in profusion. This is usually expla
Page 159 and 160:
personal acquaintances listed there
Page 161 and 162:
grounds. It is a predominantly masc
Page 163 and 164:
elements of challenge, luck and ris
Page 165 and 166:
Another interpretation is that we h
Page 167 and 168:
If they appeal to our old primate w
Page 169 and 170:
disposal, we might be expected to r
Page 171 and 172:
giving an impression of great conce
Page 173 and 174:
the female can then fondle it and c
Page 175 and 176:
is it aesthetically pleasing. Its f
Page 177 and 178:
significance of the hair. In its re
Page 179 and 180:
co-operativeness, specialised groom
Page 181 and 182:
it is a strong dose of security tha
Page 183 and 184:
If the environment becomes too cold
Page 185 and 186:
CHAPTER EIGHT ANIMALS UP to this po
Page 187 and 188:
prey-predator relationship, since i
Page 189 and 190:
substitute space-traveller. No othe
Page 191 and 192:
interferes with the efficient runni
Page 193 and 194:
point of view, are fully justified
Page 195 and 196:
small objects (chimpanzee, monkey,
Page 197 and 198:
The unexpected discovery here is th
Page 199 and 200:
on its back. It must be stressed he
Page 201 and 202:
This cannot be explained solely on
Page 203 and 204:
spiders being nasty, hairy things.
Page 205 and 206:
symbolically, scientifically or aes
Page 207 and 208:
tendencies; that if we have to beco
Page 209 and 210:
Heart-beat response: Salk, 1966. Gr
Page 211 and 212:
BIBLIOGRAPHY AMBROSE, J. A., `The s
Page 213 and 214:
MILES, W. R., 'Chimpanzee behaviour
Page 215:
Mimikry der Primaten'. Die Naturwis
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THE NAKED APE

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