Mama's last hug : animal emotions and what they tell us about ourselves / Frans de Waal ; with photographs and drawings by the author.
Record details
- ISBN: 9780393635065
- ISBN: 0393635066
- Physical Description: viii, 326 pages, 12 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 25 cm
- Edition: First edition.
- Publisher: New York : W.W. Norton & Company, [2019]
- Copyright: ©2019
Content descriptions
Bibliography, etc. Note: | Includes bibliographical references (pages 289-304) and index. |
Formatted Contents Note: | Mama's last hug -- Window to the soul -- Body to body -- Emotions that make us human -- Will to power -- Emotional intelligence -- Sentirnce -- Conclusion. |
Search for related items by subject
Subject: | Emotions in animals. Primates > Behavior. Chimpanzees > Behavior. |
Available copies
- 1 of 1 copy available at Louise Public Library.
Holds
- 0 current holds with 1 total copy.
Location | Call Number / Copy Notes | Barcode | Shelving Location | Holdable? | Status | Due Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Louise Public Library | 599.885 WAA (Text) | 36761000114913 | Non-Fiction | Volume hold | Available | - |
- Booklist Reviews : Booklist Reviews 2018 December #1
*Starred Review* Do we share the same emotions as all the other animals with whom we share the planet? De Waal, celebrated primatologist and author (Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?, 2016), answers this question with a resounding yes in a captivating survey of animal and human emotions. Beginning with the farewell hug shared by dying chimpanzee matriarch Mama and biologist Jan van Hooff, who had known each other for more than 40 years, de Waal takes the reader on a survey of the emotions. Laughing and smiling show obvious parallels with our primate cousins, but how many of us know that tickled rats laugh? Though scientists have always thought that sympathy and empathy were used for selfish ends, de Waal provides instances where there is no benefit to the sympathizer. Similarly, the author compares the awareness of inequality across the animal spectrum, shows why a social hierarchy leads to less conflict, examines the role of free will, and finishes with a fascinating look at politics, both human and animal. In de Waal's engaging inquiry, we roam the animal kingdom (with emphasis on his favorite primate research subjects) as he makes his most important point: we animals share the same emotions, just as we share the same organs. Copyright 2018 Booklist Reviews. - BookPage Reviews : BookPage Reviews 2019 March
Mama's Last HugIn 2016, the 80-year-old biologist Jan van Hooff visited his old friend Mama, a dying 59-year-old chimpanzee matriarch. Their videotaped emotional reunion was seen around the world. In Mama's Last Hug, Frans de Waal begins with that endearing goodbye, then dives into his decades of experience studying our fellow hominids.
With wit and scholarly perspicacity, the renowned primatologist and ethologist offers an abundant study of animal and human emotions, urging a kinder, gentler approach to those with whom we share our planet, from apes and rats to plants and single-cell organisms. Citing a wealth of experiments and studies, the genial scientist raises new awareness of our shared evolutionary history and suggests that a strictly behavioral model is no longer accurate or adequate. In fact, de Waal writes, previous theoretical constructs were largely based on assumptions (made by men) about male dominance. The matriarchal society of bonobos offers a conflicting example. These primate hippies make more love than war and are pros at peacemaking. Perhaps we humans are more like themâor should be.
Chief among de Waal's studies are animal emotions: who has them, how they work and why humans should care. De Waal provides examples of a full range of emotions experienced by our fellow hominids like empathy, sympathy, disgust, shame, guilt, fear and forgiveness. He proves that rats enjoy being tickled; chimps and elephants can console, conspire and retaliate; and plants release toxic scents to protect against predatory insects.
We are all animals, de Waal reminds us, and he has provided a rich perspective onâand an urgent invitation to reconsiderâevery aspect of life around us.Â
Copyright 2019 BookPage Reviews. - Choice Reviews : Choice Reviews 2019 October
In this volume, eminent primatologist Frans de Waal explores the topic of emotions in nonhuman animals. As a taking off point, he discusses the implications of the "last hug" between Jan van Hooff and a dying chimpanzee matriarch, from which the book gets its title. De Waal then progresses through a discussion of various areas of comparative psychological inquiry, including laughter, empathy, shame, guilt, politics, warfare, fairness, and free will, drawing connections between humans and nonhumans and separating myth from science. Overall, this is a highly readable, engrossing discussion of some of the cognitiveâand, as the author argues, emotionalâsimilarities and continuities between humans and nonhuman primates, especially our closest relatives, chimpanzees and bonobos. As with all of de Waal's books, this is excellent fodder for an upper-level undergraduate seminar course or a stand-alone read. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels.
--L. Swedell, CUNY Queens College
Larissa Swedell
CUNY Queens College
Larissa Swedell Choice Reviews 57:02 October 2019 Copyright 2019 American Library Association. - Kirkus Reviews : Kirkus Reviews 2018 December #2
Once again, the eminent primatologist takes readers deep into the world of animals to show us that we humans are not the unique creatures we like to think we are.In his latest highly illuminating exploration of the inner lives of animals, de Waal (Psychology/Emory Univ.), the director of the Living Links Center at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center, provides a companion piece to his prizewinning Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? (2016), which revealed the sophistication of animals' brains. Here, it is their emotions that take center stage. One of our keenest observers of emotional expressions, body language, and social dynamics, the author demonstrates that pride, shame, guilt, revenge, gratefulness, forgiveness, hope, and disgust all exist in other animals, not just humans. A dying chimpanzee matriarch's farewell to her longtime caretaker provides the title of the book, but this is just the first of many stories about the immenseâand unique 212;emotional capacities of animals. "I don't expect to ever again encounter an ape personality as expressive and inspiring as Mama's," he writes. De Waal is impatient with scholars who assert that language lies at the heart of emotions, that feelings cannot be expressed without language. Sometimes he names names; sometimes he simply dismisses their ideas as nonsense. Most of the author's observations involve the spontaneous behavior of chimpanzees, bonobos, and other primates, but readers will also be rewarded with tales of birds, dogs, horses, elephants, and rats. As he has shown in nearly all of his books, de Waal is a skilled storyteller, and his love for animals always shines through. His examples of the actions of certain humansâe.g., Donald Trump, Sean Spicerâlend color to his argument, and the simple drawings that illustrate behaviors and facial expressions are exceptionally clear and effective. De Waal turns his years of research into a delightful and il l uminating read for nonscientists, a book that will surely make readers want to grab someone's arm and exclaim, "Listen to this!" Copyright Kirkus 2018 Kirkus/BPI Communications. All rights reserved. - Library Journal Reviews : LJ Reviews 2019 January #1
Ethologist and zoologist de Waal (Emory Univ.;
Copyright 2018 Library Journal.Are We Smart Enough To Know How Smart Animals Are? ) uses his discoveries from a lifetime of studying primates to explore similarities in human and animal emotions, with a particular interest in reconciliation and conflict resolution. He argues that behaviorismâa focus on observable behaviorâhas led to the idea that animals only react to outside stimuli. He discusses the effects of this view on human-animal relations. Building on previous studies, the author advocates for the existence of a more complex emotional life in animals. He criticizes the theory that humans and animals act first in their own selfish interest; rather, he sees social connectivity as an essential component of both human and animal societies. He concludes with a plea to rethink the way humans treat animals, especially those we raise for our own use. Applying wide-ranging examples, from primates to schools of fish, he skillfully illustrates that emotions are an essential part of intellect for all species.VERDICT Recommended for readers with an interest in the crossroads of animal and human life.âCaren Nichter, Univ. of Tennessee at Martin - Publishers Weekly Reviews : PW Reviews 2018 December #2
In this illuminatingâand remarkably movingâtreatise on animal empathy, Emory University primatologist de Waal (
Copyright 2018 Publishers Weekly.Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? ) delivers some of his most damaging, and joyous, blows yet to human exceptionalism. Drawing on his own extensive experiences, de Waal recounts example after example of animals displaying humanlike emotions and "emotional intelligence." Parrots, jays, mice, and apes can "time travel," or project themselves into future events based on an awareness of the past, while monkeys and various bird species can delay gratification. This all makes sense, he argues, since "animals just can't afford to blindly run after their impulses." On a less lofty plane, chimps have been observed being cruel for fun, and rats can laugh (albeit ultrasonically). De Waal reflects that much has changed during his career. His proposal that animals can reconcile with each other after conflicts met with skepticism during the 1970s, but is now widely accepted. One remaining mysteryâwhether animals have "free will"âcan't be answered, he argues, until humans know if they themselves actually possess that trait. Making clear that "instead of tiptoeing around" emotions, researchers must now "squarely face the degree to which all animals are driven by them," de Waal's masterful work of evolutionary psychology will leave both fellow academics and intellectually curious layreaders with much food for thought.(Mar.)