The Primate Myth

Why the Latest Science Leads Us to a New Theory of Human Nature

Jonathan Leaf

• Publisher: Bombardier Books
• Year: 2025
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• eBook ISBN:
  9798895650783
• Subtopic: Evolution
• Index: Biological Sciences

Challenging everything we thought we knew, this book takes a revolutionary look at how humans are far less like other primates than we’ve been led to believe—and uncovers what truly sets us apart.

Humans are primates, much like chimps—or so we’ve been continually told. Yet recent discoveries show that our species has a different brain design, function, and chemistry; different eating, sleeping, mating, and rearing patterns; a different metabolism; and a different physiology than apes. Nor is our behavior much like theirs, and we don’t even have the feet made for climbing trees that define the primate order.

Could it be that conceiving of ourselves as primates isn’t helping us understand what it is to be human? By examining the latest research in neuroscience and genetics, we are propelled toward a radically different conception of our nature. In this way, we can begin to grasp the distinctively human dimensions of war, murder, suicide, and homosexuality, along with our fascinations with subjects like sports, politics, and fashion. Here is the path by which to understand our species’ essential problems and uncover the answers for how we should live our lives.

Table of contents

• Copyright
• Contents
• Chapter 1: The Primate Myth
• Chapter 2: How Evolution Changed the Human Brain
• Chapter 3: Why We Fight Wars
• Chapter 4: How We Barely Survived as Hunters, or What Manatees Tell Us About Us
• Chapter 5: Why We Are Different from Most Carnivores
• Chapter 6: How Speech Caused the Second Great Wave of Human Evolution—and Why It Might Explain Preferential Homosexuality and the Way We Raise Our Children
• Chapter 7: Hormones, Humans, Honest Signaling, Birds, Octopuses, and Chimps
• Chapter 8: Do You Think Humans Are Sexy? Here’s Why You Do
• Chapter 9: Why People Commit Murders, Start Wars, and Build Pyramids
• Chapter 10: Man, the Unthinking Animal
• Chapter 11: Why We Can Run Marathons but Not Outrun Bears
• Chapter 12: Sense, Sensibility, and Spoken Language
• Chapter 13: Causes of Suicide
• Chapter 14: Why Primatologists Monkey Around
• Chapter 15: Main Lessons of Evolution—Including How and Why We Have Misunderstood the Causes of War and Peace
• Endnotes and Sources
• Acknowledgments
• About the Author