Адамның эволюциясы және болашағы: Үшінші шимпанзе

the EP by Martin L. Gore1991 book by Jared Diamond

The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal is a 1991 book by academic and popular science author Jared Diamond, in which the author explores concepts relating to the animal origins of human behavior. The book follows a series of articles published by Diamond, a physiologist, examining the evidence and its interpretation in earlier treatments of the related species, including cultural characteristics or features often regarded as particularly unique to humans. The book was released in the United Kingdom in 1991 by Radius under the title The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee: How Our Animal Heritage Affects the Way We Live and in the United States in 1992 by HarperCollins under the title The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal. In 2014, Diamond published an adapted version for young people with Seven Stories Press titled, The Third Chimpanzee for Young People. Diamond explores the question of how Homo sapiens came to dominate its closest relatives, such as chimpanzees, and why one group of humans (Eurasians) came to dominate others (indigenous peoples of the Americas, for example). In answering these questions, Diamond (a professor in the fields of physiology and geography) applies a variety of biological and anthropological arguments to reject traditional hegemonic views that the dominant peoples came from "superior" genetic stock and argues instead that those peoples who came to dominate others did so because of advantages found in their local environment which allowed them to develop larger populations, wider immunities to disease, and superior technologies for agriculture and warfare. The Third Chimpanzee also examines how asymmetry in male and female mating behaviour is resolved through differing social structures across cultures, and how first contact between unequal civilizations almost always results in genocide. The book ends by noting that technological progress may cause environmental degradation on a scale leading to extinction.

Despite the broad canvas, the book manages to link together a coherent argument, much of which was novel at the time of publication. Borrowing insights from fields ranging from the humanities (history, linguistics, anthropology), to evolutionary biology, The Third Chimpanzee compiles a portrait of humanity's success and also its potential for disaster. The book is divided into five parts. Part one deals with the similarity between humans and chimpanzees.

The title of the book refers to how similar taxonomically chimps and humans are, as their genes differ by just 1.6%, whereas chimps and gorillas differ by 2.3% (p. 19). Thus the chimp's closest relatives are not the other apes with which it is classed, but the human (see Homininae). In fact, the chimpanzee human difference is smaller than some within species distances: e. g. even closely related birds such as the red eyed and white eyed vireos differ by 2.9%. Going by genetic differences, humans should be treated as a third species of chimpanzee (after the common chimpanzee and the bonobo). The question of why some civilisations conquered others is the main theme of Diamond's later book Guns, Germs and Steel: A short history of everybody for the last 13,000 years (1997).

Here the argument is that civilizations sometimes get caught up in internal superiority contests, and deplete the environment to such an extent that they may never recover. Examples include Easter Island and the ruins of Petra, both of which were the result of deforestation resulting in desertification, according to Diamond. The question of why some civilizations collapse and others survive is the main theme of Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (2005).

The Third Chimpanzee was the recipient of the Royal Society Prize for Science Books and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in 1992.

A contemporary review of the work by Frans de Waal was published by the New York Times (March, 1992), who praises the wit and breadth of the author's approach to the subject matter. He notes there is an emphasis on linguistic diversity by the author, and endorses the virtue of his inclusion and comparison of historic or far fetched speculation on origins in hominids.