{"id":1977,"date":"2009-08-28T16:24:43","date_gmt":"2009-08-28T23:24:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/index.php\/2009\/08\/demonic-males-apes-and-the-origins-of-human-violence\/"},"modified":"2009-08-28T16:27:05","modified_gmt":"2009-08-28T23:27:05","slug":"demonic-males-apes-and-the-origins-of-human-violence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/2009\/08\/28\/demonic-males-apes-and-the-origins-of-human-violence\/","title":{"rendered":"Demonic Males, Apes and the Origins of Human Violence"},"content":{"rendered":"

from International Crime Authors Reality Check<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/p>\n

Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?<\/a><\/h2>\n

Those three questions formed the title of\u00a0Paul Gauguin<\/a>\u2019s 1897 painting, which he finished while living on a South Pacific Island. It is Gauguin\u2019s vision of paradise. That vision of Eden shaped the attitudes and beliefs of many generations. Ever since there have been painters, writers, explorers, adventurers, there have been individuals seeking to discover an earthly paradise. There is a deep longing to believe that given the right circumstances, we are kind, compassionate, forsake violence, jealous, hatred and rivalry.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But deep long doesn\u2019t make such a belief true. At best, we are left with false hope in a belief that occupies the realm of the supernatural, fantasy, and folktale.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Woher_kommen_wir_Wer_sind_wir_Wohin_gehen_wir\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In\u00a0Demonic Males, Apes and the Origins of Human Violence<\/a>. Richard Wrangham and Dale Peterson examine the legacy of Gauguin,\u00a0Herman Melville<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Margaret Mead<\/a>\u00a0who inspired many generations to believe that despite our common history of warfare and violence, there were societies which escaped such terrors.<\/p>\n

Gauguin would likely be locked up in the modern world for his preoccupation with preadolescent girls. Young eves populated in idealized Garden of Eden. Animals and humans co-existed in peace and tranquility. He lived a life isolated from others, living out his days in a stone hut on Marquesas Islands. His life\u2019s work revolved many paintings that featured nubile young women.<\/p>\n

In contrast, Melville and Mead made a temporary voyage of discovery during their youth to the same general area of Gauguin, and then returned to their homeland to write their accounts. In Melville\u2019s case the book was\u00a0Typee<\/a>\u00a0and in Mead\u2019s case it was\u00a0Coming of Age in Samoa; a Psychological Study of Primitive Youth for Western Civilisation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Both Melville and Mead\u2019s works fudge the cultural details to suit in the case of Meville an adventure story (passed off as non-fiction)\u2014making him an early example of contemporary authors like James Frey….\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

[ click to read full piece at InternationalCrimeAuthors.com<\/a> ]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

from International Crime Authors Reality Check Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going? Those three questions formed the title of\u00a0Paul Gauguin\u2019s 1897 painting, which he finished while living on a South Pacific Island. It is Gauguin\u2019s vision of paradise. That vision of Eden shaped the attitudes and beliefs of many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1977","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-literary-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1977\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bigjimindustries.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}