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Mama's Last Hug: Animal Emotions and What They Tell Us about Ourselves Hardcover – March 12, 2019
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A New York Times Bestseller and winner of the PEN / E. O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award
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.
16 pages of black and white illustrations- Print length336 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherW. W. Norton & Company
- Publication dateMarch 12, 2019
- Dimensions6.4 x 1.2 x 9.5 inches
- ISBN-100393635066
- ISBN-13978-0393635065
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Editorial Reviews
Review
― Barbara J. King, NPR
"De Waal’s eye-opening observations argue for better treatment and greater appreciation of animals, even as he ensures that you’ll never look at them―or yourself―the same way again."
― People
"Game-changing....For too long, emotion has been cognitive researchers’ third rail....But nothing could be more essential to understanding how people and animals behave. By examining emotions in both, this book puts these most vivid of mental experiences in evolutionary context, revealing how their richness, power and utility stretch across species and back into deep time....The book succeeds most brilliantly in the stories de Waal relates."
― Sy Montgomery, The New York Times Book Review
"An original thinker, [de Waal] seems to invite us to his front-row seats, sharing the popcorn as he gets us up to speed on the plot of how life works, through deeply affecting stories of primates and other animals, all dramas with great lessons for our own species."
― Vicki Constantine Croke, Boston Globe
"De Waal’s conversational writing is at times moving, often funny and almost always eye-opening....It’s hard to walk away from Mama’s Last Hug without a deeper understanding of our fellow animals and our own emotions."
― Erin Wayman, Science News
"A captivating and big-hearted book, full of compassion and brimming with insights about the lives of animals, including human ones."
― Yuval Noah Harari, New York Times best-selling author of Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
"Before I realized Frans de Waal’s connection to Mama’s actual last hug, I sent the online video link to a large group of scientists saying, ‘I believe it is possible to view this interaction and be changed forever.’ Likewise, I believe that anyone reading this book will be changed forever. De Waal has spent so many decades watching intently and thinking deeply that he sees a planet that is deeper and more beautiful than almost anyone realizes. In these pages, you can acquire and share his beautiful, shockingly insightful view of life on Earth."
― Carl Safina, author of Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel
"I doubt that I've ever read a book as good as Mama's Last Hug, because it presents in irrefutable scientific detail the very important fact that animals do have these emotions as well as the other mental features we once attributed only to people. Not only is the book exceedingly important, it's also fun to read, a real page-turner. I can't say enough good things about it except it's utterly splendid."
― Elizabeth Marshall Thomas
"Frans de Waal is one of the most influential primatologists to ever walk the earth, changing the way we think of human nature by exploring its continuity with other species. He does this again in the wonderful Mama’s Last Hug, an examination of the continuum between emotion in humans and other animals. This subject is rife with groundless speculation, ideology, and badly misplaced folk intuition, and de Waal ably navigates it with deep insight, showing the ways in which our emotional lives are shared with other primates. This is an important book, wise and accessible."
― Robert Sapolsky, author of Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst
"In Mama’s Last Hug, Frans de Waal marshals his wealth of knowledge and experience, toggling expertly between rigorous science and captivating anecdote to explain animal behavior―humans included. While doing so, he rebukes the common conceit that we are necessarily better, or smarter, than our closest relatives."
― Jonathan Balcombe, author of What a Fish Knows
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : W. W. Norton & Company; 1st edition (March 12, 2019)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 336 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0393635066
- ISBN-13 : 978-0393635065
- Item Weight : 1.41 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.4 x 1.2 x 9.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #206,293 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #15 in Primatology
- #19 in Biology of Apes & Monkeys
- #554 in Emotional Mental Health
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
I am a Dutch/American biologist, born in 1948 in Den Bosch, the Netherlands. I have lived in the USA since 1981.
My passion is primate behavior, and the comparison between primate and human behavior. I pursue the first as a scientist and the second as the author of popular science books. For me, there is nothing more logical than to look at human society through the lens of animal behavior. I have a Ph. D. in biology and ethology (the study of animal behavior) from the University of Utrecht.
My first book, "Chimpanzee Politics" (1982), compared the schmoozing and scheming of chimpanzees involved in power struggles with that of human politicians. The book was put on the reading list of congress in Washington. Ever since, I have drawn parallels between primate and human behavior, from aggression to morality and culture.
Gender differences are a logical subject for a primatologist since the gender debate always turns around. the interaction between nature and nurture. Despite attempts to separate gender from biology, as if it were purely a human construct, the reason we have a gender duality is that our species has two sexes to begin with. I agree that the sexual binary is a mere approximation (even at the biological level, it has exceptions and intermediates), but still, the way the sexes differ in other primates tells us something about ourselves.
My latest book "Different: Gender Through the Eyes of a Primatologist" (Norton, 2022) compares sex differences in three closely related species: humans, chimpanzees, and bonobos. It tries to dispel the idea that only humans have genders and that only we have gender diversity. Other primates, too, adopt sex-typical behavior from watching others, hence have genders. They show the same array of gender expressions celebrated under the LGBTQ flag. My book pays attention to non-conforming individuals as well as homosexual behavior among the primates.
Since childhood, I have been an animal lover, and in fact -- even though my career has focused on primate behavior -- I am interested in all sorts of animals, including fish and birds, but also elephants and dolphins. My book on animal intelligence -- "Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?" (Norton, 2016) -- reflects this broader interest, as it covers a wide range of species.
My wife, Catherine, and I live in a forested area near Smoke Rise, in Georgia, a state we love. I retired from my position at Emory University in 2019, right before the Covid crisis. I am still involved in primate studies, mainly at sanctuaries for great apes in Africa, but mostly devote my time to reading, writing, and touring to give lectures.
I am a member of the National Academy of Sciences as well as of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 2007, Time declared me one of The Worlds’ 100 Most Influential People Today.
My books have been translated into over twenty languages, appeared on the New York Times bestseller list, and received awards, such as:
• The 2020 PEN / E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award for "Mama’s Last Hug"
• The 1989 Los Angeles Times Book Award for "Peacemaking among Primates"
More on my background on the following website:
https://www.emory.edu/LIVING_LINKS/bonobo_atheist/author1.shtml
My public Facebook page with 750K followers announces upcoming lectures:
https://www.facebook.com/franspublic/
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One quibble about de Waal. He is strongly partisan politically, so partisan that it does not trouble him to take digs at conservative politicians like Margaret Thatcher in this book. He concludes his research supports his disagreement with, for instance, free markets. While the parallels he draws are well worth consideration, it appears that he may not understand subjects outside his field as thoroughly and in as nuanced a way as his own.
The overt bias unfortunately makes his conclusions more suspect. It was unnecessary to insert partisan views into a wonderful book, and I was sorry to see him do it. Another book dedicated to that specific argument would have been more intellectually honest in my view.
I see nothing wrong with likening the wearing of vivid lipstick by human females to the development of the bright red rear end by the female primate as she moves to entice a male to her love chamber. In fact, I find it rather amusing. Is there any other reason to smear the sticky condiment on a mouth that doesn’t really need further enhancement? DeWaal might linger a little too long on the subject, but his premise is spot on. And, it’s his book.
Shame and embarrassment are not unique to humans. All animals express the same emotions although they are displayed in quite different forms. The author explores the similarities and the differences using expressive writing techniques. Although the differences are, for the most part, vastly different in their expression, some have remarkable similarity. As an example, the human characteristic of covering the face or turning the head away from observers when embarrassed is remarkably similar to the reaction of apes when something unusual or unexpected occurs.
Sexual proclivities of apes are rampantly on display while those of humans are discretely hidden from view. It seems monkey love follows the dictate that if it feels good, then just do it. That’s not the norm in the people I associate with. Neither is the habit of grooming each other, something the apes associate with family and friends having a good time. We like to have snacks together, but not from each other’s hair.
This book is amazing both in its writing and in its concept. Not only are animal emotions depicted in both scientific and amusing ways, the reader will always find something revolutionary in the way the author explains them. I urge you to read this book, keeping in mind that some things we humans do would probably cause blushes on the faces of our relatives, the primates, if they were capable of blushing.
The elephant in the room here is Donald Trump. I agree with some reviewers that the author’s rant against the President is off base and not on subject. But, again, it’s his book and, as some readers have commented, they chose to scrap his effort in disgust. If nothing else, his lesson on emotions has been well applied.
Schuyler T Wallace
Author of TIN LIZARD TALES
Top reviews from other countries
At the same time she opened my eyes to the possibility that we (Homo Sapiens ) could have the same compassion and love for each other and other species going forward. I live in hope!