I seem to remember being surprised that not a lot of people here agreed with his theories.
Perhaps that was limited to a specific argument or discussion, so I’m looking for a clean sample as it were. I’ve seen his televised series (The Human Animal?), and it sounded reasonable to me at the time (I was in high school and a believer in evolution, but still just a high school kid). I’m considering reading The Naked Ape.
What is your opinion of Dr. Morris’ work?
I haven’t actually read The Naked Ape, but as far as I can tell there’s nothing really controversial in there. Man is an evolved animal with instincts, just like every other species.
I am not a psychologist or anthropologist, but reading his stuff made even my non-academic eyebrows rise. Many of the statements he makes about human behaviour, couched in terms of evolutionary biology, seem facile, not backed up by any research, and speak more about Morris’s quirks than any genuine data. E.g., in Manwatching, to paraphrase, he says that “men find women’s cleavage sexually attractive because it reminds them of the top of the buttocks.” This may or may not be true, but he presents this as “fact” with no citations at all, and absolutely no concession to the many nuances of behaviour on the scale of sexuality, or allowance for the vastly different mores of cultures other than his own.
In the UK at least, many of his pet theories have become mainstream media “beliefs”, with next to nothing backing them up. (Disclaimer: it’s 20 years since I read anything of his, so my memory may be being unfair to him.)
Also, as was said by someone wittier than me, “if Desmond Morris knows so much about human behaviour, why does he have such a bad comb-over?” (He’s finally gone bald gracefully so this jibe no longer applies.)
It’s probably been 20 year since I’ve read the Naked Ape. It was very interesting, but I think you need to remember that Morris was a zoologist, not an anthropologist. Some of his conclusions were a bit excessive. Although, I think his primary detractors were religious based anti evolutionaries.
He has released an updated edition.
Can’t recall when.
Might address major issues.
I think these days, Morris is more heralded as a pioneer in the idea that man could be studied the same way all other evolved animals are, more than for his actual conclusions about human behavior.
Morris actually has the background foer this. He edited a book on primate behavior, and his first two books, The Naked Ape and The Human Zoo are popular books filled with a look at human behavior from the point of view of a primatologist, but without cites and with frequent heavy extrapolating. Unfortunately, he never followed it up with a more carefully argued case. I do believe that he’s right about the “breasts = buttocks mimic” thing (and so do others. Anthropologist Marvin Harris refers to it approvingly in his book our Kind, for instance), but he never made a powerful case – I think even my arguments here on the Board madde a better caase. And when he argues some other points, I think he goes off the deep end.
His other books are similarly frustrating. In his book “Dogwatching” he declares that an observation about dog behavior (made originally by Niko Tinbergen, although you’d never know that from Morris) is incorrect, and leaves it atr that. Why is it incorrect? Has anyone else argued this? All we have is Morris’ fiat. Others have complained about Morris’ lack of references and footnotes as well. Even when he refers to the theories of others, he doesn’t give you enough information to look it up.
He seems to be getting better – he’s giving references these days, but my overall opinion is that he has some really good notions that are maddeningly undocumented.
This is the way I regard Morris as well. It’s important to remember that The Naked Ape was written in 1967. He was asking certain provocative questions about human behavior before just about any other researcher. Others have been able to come up with more plausible/better cited explanations for much of Morris’s conjectures … but it’s hard for me to think that Morris learned nothing between writing the Naked Ape and The Human Animal 27 years later.
On top of that, I second Cal Meacham’s first paragraph.
Another question- why has the movie version of this disapperaed off the face of the Earth?
His books are not scientific treatises. They are pop/coffee table/doctor office books.
Because Playboy Films, which financed it and owns it, wants to keep it that way (They’re also responsible for the first Monty Python movie, And Now for Something Completely Different, which is available), from which I gather that it’s a complete dog. I’ve never seen it.
