The Social Life of Monkeys and Apes.

Abstract

Monkey society is based on dominance. The strongest monkey gets the most food, the strongest male gets the most wives. Monkeys apparently can learn, but the vast majority of their behavior is instinctive. The author, through many kinds of observations of apes and of monkeys both in captivity and wild, comes to the conclusion that the difference between the apes and man is the difference between physiology and culture. The work is extraordinarily interesting and reveals a basis for much human behavior that may be apelike but seems reasonable. The volume concludes with an excellent bibliography of more than 100 references, an index of monkey types, and an index of authors and subjects.