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The Hunting Apes: Meat Eating and the Origins of Human Behavior
What makes humans unique? What makes us the most successful animal species inhabiting the Earth today? Most scientists agree that the key to our success is the unusually large size of our brains. Our large brains gave us our exceptional thinking capacity and led to humans' other distinctive characteristics, including advanced communication, tool use, and walking on two legs. Or was it the other way around? Did the challenges faced by early humans push the species toward communication, tool use, and walking and, in doing so, drive the evolutionary engine toward a large brain? In this provocative new book, Craig Stanford presents an intriguing alternative to this puzzling question--an alternative grounded in recent, groundbreaking scientific observation. According to Stanford, what made humans unique was meat. Or, rather, the desire for meat, the eating of meat, the hunting of meat, and the sharing of meat.
Based on new insights into the behavior of chimps and other great apes, our now extinct human ancestors, and existing hunting and gathering societies, Stanford shows the remarkable role that meat has played in these societies. Perhaps because it provides a highly concentrated source of protein--essential for the development and health of the brain--meat is craved by many primates, including humans. This craving has given meat genuine power--the power to cause males to form hunting parties and organize entire cultures around hunting. And it has given men the power to manipulate and control women in these cultures. Stanford argues that the skills developed and required for successful hunting and especially the sharing of meat spurred the explosion of human brain size over the past 200,000 years. He then turns his attention to the ways meat is shared within primate and human societies to argue that this all-important activity has had profound effects on basic social structures that are still felt today.
Sure to spark a lively debate, Stanford's argument takes the form of an extended essay on human origins. The book's small format, helpful illustrations, and moderate tone will appeal to all readers interested in those fundamental questions about what makes us human.
Based on new insights into the behavior of chimps and other great apes, our now extinct human ancestors, and existing hunting and gathering societies, Stanford shows the remarkable role that meat has played in these societies. Perhaps because it provides a highly concentrated source of protein--essential for the development and health of the brain--meat is craved by many primates, including humans. This craving has given meat genuine power--the power to cause males to form hunting parties and organize entire cultures around hunting. And it has given men the power to manipulate and control women in these cultures. Stanford argues that the skills developed and required for successful hunting and especially the sharing of meat spurred the explosion of human brain size over the past 200,000 years. He then turns his attention to the ways meat is shared within primate and human societies to argue that this all-important activity has had profound effects on basic social structures that are still felt today.
Sure to spark a lively debate, Stanford's argument takes the form of an extended essay on human origins. The book's small format, helpful illustrations, and moderate tone will appeal to all readers interested in those fundamental questions about what makes us human.
262 pages, Hardcover
First published February 8, 1999
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About the author
Craig Stanford
27 books11 followersA.k.a. Craig B. Stanford: www.goodreads.com/author/show/2248957...
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
July 13, 2013
I very much enjoyed this book and learned a lot from it about not only the stated topic but also about the role of primatology and anthropology in understanding the evolution of human behavior.
Craig Stanford gives a clear, insightful summary of the thinking on human evolution as it relates to meat-eating, hunting, gender roles, altruism, and selfishness and their possible roles in leading to the evolution the human brain. The strategic use of sharing is especially complex especially as it is interpreted in our current society.
I particularly appreciated his including, in the last chapter, Meat's Patriarchy, a discussion of the gender politics inherent in any discussion of evolved gender roles.
Some quotes from the last two pages:
"We receive conflicting messages in our society about the value of sharing. While a deep cultural value is given to altruistic sharing, we are also socialized to be individualistic. We learn that there are both power incentives and disincentives to share and be selfish. Either can be advantageous depending on the context; altruists can be strategically self-serving in myriad ways, and individuals who are otherwise selfish may see utterly altruistic at times. If these are qualities that served us in our distant ancestry, then perhaps that is why there is so much ambivalence about altruism and selfishness in society today."
"The hunting, scavenging, and sharing of meat were fundamental features of the lives of our ancestors. This does not mean that we biologically driven to do any of these. The way that we deal with one another in society is rooted in social strategies that were molded during a time in our history when getting and using meat was vital. If meat were a currency with a 10,000-generation history in the human family, then the traditions that have developed related to the use of meat are likely to have some evolved basis. By sharing meat we are both altruistic and selfish, as we are in most other arenas of our endeavors. We are not simply compassionate by training and Machiavellian by nature. Nor are we constrained by our past to repeat Machiavellian patterns in the future. A fuller understanding of our ancestral nature is, however, the first step to liberation.
Craig Stanford gives a clear, insightful summary of the thinking on human evolution as it relates to meat-eating, hunting, gender roles, altruism, and selfishness and their possible roles in leading to the evolution the human brain. The strategic use of sharing is especially complex especially as it is interpreted in our current society.
I particularly appreciated his including, in the last chapter, Meat's Patriarchy, a discussion of the gender politics inherent in any discussion of evolved gender roles.
Some quotes from the last two pages:
"We receive conflicting messages in our society about the value of sharing. While a deep cultural value is given to altruistic sharing, we are also socialized to be individualistic. We learn that there are both power incentives and disincentives to share and be selfish. Either can be advantageous depending on the context; altruists can be strategically self-serving in myriad ways, and individuals who are otherwise selfish may see utterly altruistic at times. If these are qualities that served us in our distant ancestry, then perhaps that is why there is so much ambivalence about altruism and selfishness in society today."
"The hunting, scavenging, and sharing of meat were fundamental features of the lives of our ancestors. This does not mean that we biologically driven to do any of these. The way that we deal with one another in society is rooted in social strategies that were molded during a time in our history when getting and using meat was vital. If meat were a currency with a 10,000-generation history in the human family, then the traditions that have developed related to the use of meat are likely to have some evolved basis. By sharing meat we are both altruistic and selfish, as we are in most other arenas of our endeavors. We are not simply compassionate by training and Machiavellian by nature. Nor are we constrained by our past to repeat Machiavellian patterns in the future. A fuller understanding of our ancestral nature is, however, the first step to liberation.
January 28, 2022
Good basic primer on the subject that uses chimpanzee studies and anthropological studies of hunter-gatherer troops as equivalents.
August 14, 2025
A bit repetitive towards the end, but otherwise very interesting and informative
April 15, 2014
I liked this book, because it brought me many new revelations. The book is not a deep read, so any one who wants a deep analysis of the hunting apes, and how some of their behaviours mirror our own, will not find this. Yet, for some one who is new, or relatively new to the subject, this book is quite fascinating.
It is an easy read, and is quite approachable. I like this aspect of the book
I also did not know that chimpanzees eat other monkeys. Wow!
It is an easy read, and is quite approachable. I like this aspect of the book
I also did not know that chimpanzees eat other monkeys. Wow!
October 14, 2009
A decent overview of current thought on the role of meat eating in human evolution, accessible for non-specialists while still addressing complexity. I'd like to see a bit more on the naturalistic fallacy at the end, but well done overall.
June 21, 2011
Stanford has excellent insights on how the activities surrounding food drive behavior.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews