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University of California Press

What It Means to Be 98% Chimpanzee

Apes, People, and Their Genes
by Jonathan Marks (Author)
Paperback eBook
Price: $31.95 / £27.00
Publication Date: Nov 2003
Edition: 1st Edition
Title Details:
Rights: World
Pages: 336
ISBN: 9780520930766
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About the Book

Marks presents the field of molecular anthropology—a synthesis of the holistic approach of anthropology with the reductive approach of molecular genetics—as a way of improving our understanding of the science of human evolution. This iconoclastic, witty, and extremely readable book illuminates the deep background of our place in nature and asks us to think critically about what science is, and what passes for it, in modern society.

About the Author

Jonathan Marks teaches at the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. He is the author of Human Biodiversity: Genes, Race, and History (1995) and coauthor, with Edward Staski, of Evolutionary Anthropology (1992).

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Preface to the Paperback Edition

Introduction

ONE
MOLECULAR ANTHROPOLOGY

TWO
THE APE IN YOU

THREE
HOW PEOPLE DIFFER FROM ONE ANOTHER

FOUR
THE MEANING OF HUMAN VARIATION

FIVE
BEHAVIORAL GENETICS

SIX
FOLK HEREDITY

SEVEN
HUMAN NATURE

EIGHT
HUMAN RIGHTS ... FOR APES?

NINE
A HUMAN GENE MUSEUM?

TEN
IDENTITY AND DESCENT

ELEVEN
IS BLOOD REALLY SO DAMN THICK?

TWELVE
SCIENCE, RELIGION, AND WORLDVIEW

Notes and Sources
Index

Reviews

“A welcome contribution at a time when so much nonsense is accepted about sociobiology, the ‘science’ of racism and colonialism.”
— Intl Socialist Review
“Marks gives an incisive and witty masterclass...”
— The Guardian
“The style is chatty and informal, the chapters well-organized, and the documentation and referencing very useful. The author is evidently in full scholarly command of his material.”
— Royal Anthropological Inst Journal (Man)
"In this clever, entertaining, and thoughtful book, Marks lays out some important limitations of science in general and genetics in particular. Using terms that everybody can understand, he demolishes the pretensions of scientists who try to use genetics to answer questions about the kinship of nations, the rights of animals, the racial identity of Kennewick Man, the hereditary Jewish priesthood, and the existence of God. Marks has a lot of fun with all this, and so will his readers."—Matt Cartmill, author of A View to Death in the Morning: Hunting and Nature through History