Download or read book The Monkey in the Mirror written by Ian Tattersall and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2002 with total page 203 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The fundamental questions of our origins, along with our evolutionary future, find new life in this extraordinary book. In this superb collection of essays, eminent scientist, Ian Tattersall takes up some of the most controversial questions in evolutionary history. He argues that far from being finely engineered organisms, we are in fact improvised beings, owing as much to chance as adaptation. Tattersall leads us around the world and into the far reaches of the past, and reveals the complexities of the science of human evolution.
Download or read book The Monkey as Mirror written by Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 1987 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This tripartite study of the monkey metaphor, the monkey performance, and the 'special status' people traces changes in Japanese culture from the eighth century to the present. During early periods of Japanese history the monkey's nearness to the human-animal boundary made it a revered mediator or an animal deity closest to humans. Later it became a scapegoat mocked for its vain efforts to behave in a human fashion. Modern Japanese have begun to see a new meaning in the monkey--a clown who turns itself into an object of laughter while challenging the basic assumptions of Japanese culture and society.
Download or read book The Myth of Mirror Neurons The Real Neuroscience of Communication and Cognition written by Gregory Hickok and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2014-08-18 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An essential reconsideration of one of the most far-reaching theories in modern neuroscience and psychology. In 1992, a group of neuroscientists from Parma, Italy, reported a new class of brain cells discovered in the motor cortex of the macaque monkey. These cells, later dubbed mirror neurons, responded equally well during the monkey’s own motor actions, such as grabbing an object, and while the monkey watched someone else perform similar motor actions. Researchers speculated that the neurons allowed the monkey to understand others by simulating their actions in its own brain. Mirror neurons soon jumped species and took human neuroscience and psychology by storm. In the late 1990s theorists showed how the cells provided an elegantly simple new way to explain the evolution of language, the development of human empathy, and the neural foundation of autism. In the years that followed, a stream of scientific studies implicated mirror neurons in everything from schizophrenia and drug abuse to sexual orientation and contagious yawning. In The Myth of Mirror Neurons, neuroscientist Gregory Hickok reexamines the mirror neuron story and finds that it is built on a tenuous foundation—a pair of codependent assumptions about mirror neuron activity and human understanding. Drawing on a broad range of observations from work on animal behavior, modern neuroimaging, neurological disorders, and more, Hickok argues that the foundational assumptions fall flat in light of the facts. He then explores alternative explanations of mirror neuron function while illuminating crucial questions about human cognition and brain function: Why do humans imitate so prodigiously? How different are the left and right hemispheres of the brain? Why do we have two visual systems? Do we need to be able to talk to understand speech? What’s going wrong in autism? Can humans read minds? The Myth of Mirror Neurons not only delivers an instructive tale about the course of scientific progress—from discovery to theory to revision—but also provides deep insights into the organization and function of the human brain and the nature of communication and cognition.
Download or read book The Monkey in the Mirror written by Ian Tattersall and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. This book was released on 2016-08-16 with total page 181 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An “absorbing” look at how our species evolved, from the curator of human evolution at the American Museum of Natural History (Kirkus Reviews). What makes us so different from those other animals? How did we get this way? How do we know? And what exactly are we? These questions are what make human evolution a subject of general fascination. Ian Tattersall, one of those rare scientists who is also a graceful writer, addresses them in this delightful book. Tattersall leads the reader around the world and into the far reaches of the past, showing what the science of human evolution is up against—from the sparsity of evidence to the pressures of religious fundamentalism. Looking with dispassion and humor at our origins, Tattersall offers a wholly new definition of what it is to be human. “Unparalleled insight.” —Donald C. Johanson, author of Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind
Download or read book A Mirror for Monkeys written by John Spurling and published by Prelude Books. This book was released on 2021-04-22 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beneath the floorboards of a ruined house, an 18th-century memoir is discovered. It reveals the life story of William Congreve, the acclaimed English playwright. The lost manuscript is penned by his faithful servant, Jeremy, who tells how they lived together through fierce political division and triumphal nationalism in that era of war with France, the aftermath of the Glorious Revolution. Upon his death a monument in Stowe is erected to honour Mr Congreve. Atop a slender pyramid sits a monkey peering into a mirror, a court wit seeing reflected the ironies of polite society folding in on itself as Whigs and Tories feud with scant ground for compromise. Through the prisms of memory and art, award-winning author John Spurling reimagines this tumultuous period and brings to life historical figures Dryden, Vanbrugh, Swift, Pope and Lady Mary Wortley Montagu as never before.
Download or read book Objects in Mirror are Closer Than They Appear written by Katharine Weber and published by Broadway Books. This book was released on 2011 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Harriet Rose, 26, is an American photographer just winning recognition for her work. A travel fellowship brings her to visit her best friend and former roommate, Anne Gordon, in Switzerland. In an ongoing letter to her boyfriend, Harriet reports on strange developments in Anne's life, most notably her affair with a much older married man, which seems to be leading to a disastrous conclusion. Before she can rescue Anne, events take a series of unexpected turns, and Harriet must reexamine her own life and past, and come to terms with the difficulties and possibilities of human relationships. Already excerpted in The New Yorker, Katharine Weber's witty first novel of attraction and deception, a tale with the sensibility of a Margaret Atwood, pulses with cultural references and word games that echo Nabokov.
Download or read book The Monkey as Mirror written by Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-12-08 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This tripartite study of the monkey metaphor, the monkey performance, and the 'special status' people traces changes in Japanese culture from the eighth century to the present. During early periods of Japanese history the monkey's nearness to the human-animal boundary made it a revered mediator or an animal deity closest to humans. Later it became a scapegoat mocked for its vain efforts to behave in a human fashion. Modern Japanese have begun to see a new meaning in the monkey--a clown who turns itself into an object of laughter while challenging the basic assumptions of Japanese culture and society.
Download or read book Monkey Sonatas written by Orson Scott Card and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 1993-03-15 with total page 363 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A collection of science fiction and fantasy tales by the acclaimed author offers readers ten excursions into the realm of the fantastic and the mythic. Orson Scott Card's Monkey Sonatas: Fables and Fantasies is part of the Maps in a Mirrors series of the author's extraordinary range of collected fiction. Introduction Unaccompanied Sonata A Cross-Country Trip to Kill Richard Nixon The Porcelain Salamander Middle Woman The Bully and the Beast The Princess and the Bear Sandmagic The Best Day A Plague of Butterflies The Monkeys Thought ‘Twas All in Fun Afterword At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Download or read book The Great Apes written by Michael Leach and published by Sterling Publishing Company Incorporated. This book was released on 1997 with total page 176 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This illustrated guide covers the world's great apes - gorillas, chimpanzees and orang-utans - in an accessible way, highlighting similarities to human behaviour and increasing threats to their lifestyles and habitats. The book's highly visual presentation shows apes in a wide variety of activities, and the conservation of these mammals is strongly emphasized. The author's own photographs from Africa and Indonesia are used.
Download or read book Mirrors in the Brain written by Giacomo Rizzolatti and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2008 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When we witness a great actor, musician, or sportsperson performing, we share something of their experience. It become clear just how this sharing of experience is realised within the human brain. This text provides an accessible overview of mirror neurons, written by the man who first discovered them.
Download or read book Self Awareness in Animals and Humans written by Sue Taylor Parker and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1994-05-27 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a collection of original articles on self-awareness in monkeys, apes, humans and other species. This book focuses on controversies about how to measure self-awareness, which species are capable of self-awareness and which are not, and why. The focus of the chapters is both comparative and developmental.
Download or read book The Mirror Neuron System written by Christian Keysers and published by Psychology Press. This book was released on 2016-06 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mirror neurons are premotor neurons, originally discovered in the macaque brain , that discharge both during execution of goal-directed actions and during the observation of similar actions executed by another individual. They therefore ¿mirror¿ others¿ actions on the observer's motor repertoire. In the last decade an impressive amount of work has been devoted to the study of their properties and to investigate if they are present also in our species. Neuroimaging and electrophysiological techniques have shown that a mirror-neuron system does exist in the human brain as well. Among ¿mirror¿ human areas, Broca¿s area (the frontal area for speech production) is almost constantly activated by action observation. This suggests a possible evolutionary link between action understanding and verbal communication. In the most recent years, mirror-like phenomena have been demonstrated also for domains others than the pure motor one. Examples of that are the somatosensory and the emotional systems, possibly providing a neurophysiological basis to phenomena such as embodiment and empathy. This special issue collects some of the most representative works on the mirror-neuron system to give a panoramic view on current research and to stimulate new experiments in this exciting field.
Download or read book Maps in a Mirror written by Orson Scott Card and published by Tor Books. This book was released on 2009-11-30 with total page 686 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Maps in a Mirror brings together nearly all of Orson Scott Card's short fiction written between 1977 and 1990. For those readers who have followed this remarkable talent since the beginning, here are all those amazing stories gathered together in one place, with some extra surprises as well. For the hundreds of thousands who are newly come to Card, here is chance to experience the wonder of a writer so versatile that he can handle everything from traditional narrative poetry to modern experimental fiction with equal ease and grace. The brilliant story-telling of the Alvin Maker books is no accident; the breathless excitement evoked by the Ender books is not a once-in-a-lifetime experience. In this enormous volume are forty-six stories, plus ten long, intensely personal essays, unique to this volume. In them the author reveals some of his reasons and motivations for writing, with a good deal of autobiography into the bargain. "One of the genre's most convincing storytellers. An important volume."--Library Journal At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Download or read book Macachiavellian Intelligence written by Dario Maestripieri and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2008-09-15 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Judged by population size and distribution, homo sapiens are clearly the most successful primates. A close second, however, would be rhesus macaques, who have adapted to—and thrived in—such diverse environments as mountain forests, dry grasslands, and urban sprawl. Scientists have spent countless hours studying these opportunistic monkeys, but rhesus macaques have long been overshadowed in the public eye by the great apes, who, because of their greater intelligence, are naturally assumed to have more to teach us, both about other primates and about humans as well. Dario Maestripieri thinks it is high time we shelve that misperception, and with Macachiavellian Intelligence he gives rhesus macaques their rightful turn in the spotlight. The product of more than twenty years studying these fascinating creatures, Macachiavellian Intelligence caricatures a society that is as much human as monkey, with hierarchies and power struggles that would impress Machiavelli himself. High-status macaques, for instance, maintain their rank through deft uses of violence and manipulation, while altruism is almost unknown and relationships are perpetually subject to the cruel laws of the market. Throughout this eye-opening account, Maestripieri weds his thorough knowledge of macaque behavior to his abiding fascination with human society and motivations. The result is a book unlike any other, one that draws on economics as much as evolutionary biology, politics as much as primatology. Rife with unexpected connections and peppered with fascinating anecdotes, Macachiavellian Intelligence has as much to teach us about humans as it does about macaques, presenting a wry, rational, and wholly surprising view of our humanity as seen through the monkey in the mirror.
Download or read book My First I See You written by Eric Carle and published by Little Simon. This book was released on 2018-07-10 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From beloved author-illustrator Eric Carle comes this brand-new interactive board book that features sweet text and shiny mirrors throughout—sure to endlessly entertain little ones! I see you in the butterfly who flutters and soars. I see you in the lion who purrs sweetly, then roars. Who’s in that mirror? It’s you! From a silly monkey to a shining sun, little ones will love seeing themselves in these clever mirrors! With Eric Carle’s classic and colorful artwork and sweet text that rhymes, this book is a perfect addition to every Eric Carle collection!
Download or read book Mama s Last Hug Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us about Ourselves written by Frans de Waal and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2019-03-12 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times best-selling author and primatologist Frans de Waal explores the fascinating world of animal and human emotions. Frans de Waal has spent four decades at the forefront of animal research. Following up on the best-selling Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?, which investigated animal intelligence, Mama’s Last Hug delivers a fascinating exploration of the rich emotional lives of animals. Mama’s Last Hug begins with the death of Mama, a chimpanzee matriarch who formed a deep bond with biologist Jan van Hooff. When Mama was dying, van Hooff took the unusual step of visiting her in her night cage for a last hug. Their goodbyes were filmed and went viral. Millions of people were deeply moved by the way Mama embraced the professor, welcoming him with a big smile while reassuring him by patting his neck, in a gesture often considered typically human but that is in fact common to all primates. This story and others like it form the core of de Waal’s argument, showing that humans are not the only species with the capacity for love, hate, fear, shame, guilt, joy, disgust, and empathy. De Waal discusses facial expressions, the emotions behind human politics, the illusion of free will, animal sentience, and, of course, Mama’s life and death. The message is one of continuity between us and other species, such as the radical proposal that emotions are like organs: we don’t have a single organ that other animals don’t have, and the same is true for our emotions. Mama’s Last Hug opens our hearts and minds to the many ways in which humans and other animals are connected, transforming how we view the living world around us.
Download or read book Infant Chimpanzee and Human Child A Classic 1935 Comparative Study of Ape Emotions and Intelligence written by the late N. N. Ladygina-Kohts and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2002-02-18 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edition presents the first complete English translation of N.N. Ladygina-Kohts' journal chronicling her pioneering work with the chimpanzee, Joni. The journal entries describe and compare the instincts, emotions, play, and habits of her son Rudy and Joni as each develops. First published in Moscow in 1935 as a memoir in the Darwin Museum Series, this edition has 120 photographs, 46 drawings and an introduction by Allen and Beatrix Gardner of the Center for Advanced Study at the University of Nevada, as well as a Foreword and an Afterword by Lisa A. Parr, Signe Preuschoft, and Frans B. M. de Waal of the Living Links Center at Emory University.
