Melanie Virtue

Great book but maybe less suited to an audiobook

Revisado: 05-05-19

As a student of human evolution, I found this book fascinating. The basic premise is that humans have domesticated themselves over the last 300,000 years or so, reducing our reactive aggression (losing one's temper), while increasing our proactive aggression (planning a raid), something which was greatly enhanced by the advent of language. He makes a stark comparison between humans and chimpanzees - if you put 300 chimps in a plane, you'd have many dead at the end of their journey, while humans are capable of sitting calmly next to strangers for hours.

The subject is complex and the points are well argued. I don't think it was quite as easy a read as his earlier book Catching Fire, or Demonic Males, but equally intriguing.

Even just reading about the process of domestication in other species, like foxes, was interesting. It creates unintended side effects such as white patches on one's extremities (white socks on horses, cows etc) and floppy ears (many dogs, rabbits). I found myself disappointed that if we humans are indeed (self) domesticated, then why don't we humans have either?

Having listened to the audiobook I found myself wishing I'd bought the paper version. Either the narrator was too fast, or the topic is too dense to just listen to once and fully grasp. I kept wanting to rewind.

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