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What it Means to be 98% Chimpanzee: Apes, People, and their Genes, by Jonathan Marks
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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.
- Sales Rank: #707932 in Books
- Published on: 2003-11-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.25" h x .80" w x 6.13" l, 1.09 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 333 pages
From The New England Journal of Medicine
Do not be deceived by the title of this book. It takes just five pages to figure out that for Jonathan Marks, being 98 percent chimpanzee means nothing: despite all similarities, chimps are chimps, and humans are humans. No suspense here. So why should one venture through the 307 remaining pages of this book, if the main message is obvious from the start? I can see two good reasons. First of all, because it is fun. I have been a fan of Marks since his 1982 letter to Nature (295:276) entitled "All in the Book." His style is provocative and often amusing, and his arguments are interesting even when there is room for disagreement (as there sometimes is). The second reason is that the subject of this book is extraordinarily important. Many scientists and physicians deal daily, in one way or another, with human variation and its consequences. However, only seldom do we have the time to reflect on the assumptions underlying many concepts, even apparently simple ones, in this area. Marks does a remarkable job of placing those concepts in the historical and cultural contexts in which they were developed, reviews a large body of results, and examines their implications. To what extent are our intellectual and physical skills determined by our genes, and are we sure we have enough good data to answer that question in the first place? Is there any biologic basis for sexual preferences or for the tendency to commit crimes? What is culture, and can we use that word to refer to the transmission of learned behavior in apes? Chapters 3 and 4, in particular, deal with a crucial issue: the existence of human races. As the author aptly remarks, it is probably as difficult to convince people today that races exist in certain species but not in ours as it was to convince people in the 17th century that the earth rotated around the sun and not vice versa. Still, current genetic data are not ambiguous. Everybody can tell a Nigerian from a Dane, but human diversity is distributed continuously, and the identification of discrete clusters of human genotypes (which one could then legitimately call races) has so far proved to be impossible. It is important to stress this notion, because many, including many scientists, still think that although racial distinctions may not be obvious, some sort of racial classification is useful for practical purposes, such as diagnosis or, in the future, the tailoring of race-specific drugs. Marks's book and two later studies (Wilson JF, et al. "Population Genetic Structure of Variable Drug Response." Nature Genetics 2001;29:265-9; Romualdi C, et al. "Patterns of Human Diversity, within and among Continents, Inferred from Biallelic DNA Polymorphisms." Genome Research 2002;12:602-12) show clearly that even for those practical purposes, what matters is the individual genotype and not the largely arbitrary, and hence potentially misleading, racial labels attached to people. The aspect of this book that I fail to understand is its frontal attack on science as a whole, as well as on specific disciplines -- genetics enjoying particularly harsh treatment in chapters 6 and 11. Does the author really believe that many scientists would subscribe to statements such as the following: "Science has explained many things about the universe. Your life has no meaning"? Is he really convinced that studying the diversity of the human genome is useless because human history "is difficult to extract from genetic differences" anyway, and that the standpoint of science is held by scientists to be superior to all rivals? Personally, I am among those who consider the scientist's viewpoint superior for addressing scientific questions but neither better nor worse than others for addressing questions in the realms of, say, music, ethics, or football (in both the U.S. and the European senses). I wonder why Marks has felt the need to create (and then, predictably, to triumph over) such a grotesque fictitious character as the Evil Geneticist. We know that science has had some shameful moments. Eugenics, for instance, is part of the history of genetics (as well as of the history of anthropology), and it is good to be reminded of its theoretical inconsistencies and horrendous consequences. But it is possible to say that humans do not come in neat racial clusters only because geneticists cared to measure the differences among continental groups and showed that they account for but a small fraction of our global genomic diversity. Sometimes Marks seems to miss the difference between reflecting critically on science and rejecting it en bloc because its "numbers" only confirm what he already knew anyway. He is right in remarking that numerical analyses of data require assumptions and therefore cannot be considered to be objective. He is wrong when he pushes that argument so far as to suggest that quantitative science is just an exercise in arbitrariness. It is not, of course; experiments can be repeated, and wrong conclusions may eventually be modified. Shortly after this book hit the stores, Enard et al. ("Intra- and Interspecific Variation in Primate Gene Expression Patterns." Science 2002;296:340-3) demonstrated that differences in gene expression between humans and chimps are much higher in the brain than in the liver. We have largely the same genes as chimpanzees, and these genes do the same things in much of our bodies, but in the brain, the patterns of gene expression diverge dramatically. That and future similar studies can help us understand our evolutionary relationships a little bit better, although, ultimately, what it means to be human is a fantastically complex question and one that science can only contribute to addressing. Guido Barbujani
Copyright © 2002 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved. The New England Journal of Medicine is a registered trademark of the MMS.
From Booklist
Humans share about 98 percent of our genetic makeup with chimps, which would be impressive, biological anthropologist Marks says, if we could figure out what it means. We also share about half our genes with fish and about a third with daffodils, but almost no one argues that anything can be learned from fish and flowers about human behavior or that fish and flowers should have human rights. Both are advocated for chimps and the other great apes, from what, Marks demonstrates, are pretty spongy grounds, since we know hardly anything about how genes form bodies. We are also told that genes for homosexuality have been found, but, as Marks shows, the studies said to have found them aren't genetic studies, can't be replicated, are faultily grounded, and characteristically approach homosexuality as if it were a disease. Furthermore, scientists who should know better waste their time, our money, and lots of goodwill on research shaped by racialism and other forms of what Marks calls folk heredity, which may be culturally interesting but is scientifically worthless. Don't think, however, that Marks wants science segregated from culture, as his withering refutations of some of the most highly touted research of recent years might imply. He wants science to be humbler and more sociable, more connected to the rest of society. With plenty of entertaining sarcasm as well as scientific argument and moral indignation, Marks blasts the pretensions of grandiose geneticists pretty thoroughly out of the water. This may be the science book to read this year. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
"A real treasure trove of thoughtful, progressive scientific thought."--"The Nation"
Most helpful customer reviews
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
Engaging read, useful tools, some loopholes, awkward style
By mountain viewer
If you're interested in what can and cannot be learned from the new advances in genetics technology--particularly the applications of that technology to the social sciences, history, psychology, political theory, and so on--then 98% Chimp won't disappoint. Marks is clearly conversant with the details of this rapidly advancing field as well as with the wildly unscientific claims made by many of its practitioners--to say nothing of those made by the technocratic/futurist know-nothings in the media or politics who make hay with research findings--and his outrage about how all this is being conveyed to/understood by the public is infectious. The topic is such that some of Marks' specific case studies are already outdated (published in 2002, revised in 2003, and at the time I'm writing this review, in 2008, the field has already changed quite a bit), but the underlying fallacies that he identifies are just as present and as pernicious as ever. The book is most valuable in providing sympathetic readers with the detailed tools necessary for arguing against genetic fundamentalists, socio-biologists and other extremists. It may not convince those on the other side, but if it doesn't give them at least some second thoughts then they aren't really paying attention.
That said, Marks doesn't always seal his arguments in an air-tight manner. I'm essentially 100% in agreement with him. But I kept imagining using his book to debate an intelligent, determined science fundamentalist, and I found on virtually every page an overly facile generalization, a straw-man argument, or an attempt to dodge thornier issues, all of which would be jumped on by an attentive opponent. In most cases I could see how to close the loophole myself, but I shouldn't have to work that hard to do what I take to be the author's job.
Lastly, I found Marks' style really distracting. The constant shifts in register are obviously intended to mark moves in and out of his "sarcastic voice," but listening to an author sneer all the time, even when you agree with him, is a bit unsettling. Especially when the author is writing about such an important subject and one where his opponents are likely to already be on the defensive.
And the short paragraphs.
Don't even get me started on the short paragraphs.
Or the loose structure, in which dozens of such short paragraphs could be moved virtually anywhere else in a given chapter without affecting the meaning.
It often feels as if Marks simply grouped his notecards together and hit "print."
I kept wondering how California's editors let this pass unrevised.
It will do little to instill good writing habits in you or your students.
You get the point.
So all-in-all a useful book, if not quite the slam-dunk this topic desperately needs.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Well argued, well written.
By Alejandro A. Reyes
I thoroughly appreciate a book that can give me an excellent introduction to subject matter that I find fascinating. There's that, but then there's also the well-documented research, the depth of social thought and criticism, the occasionally entertaining style of expression and the ability to have me see things differently on certain subjects like the cultural context science operates within and social assertions more biologists have been making. He does go a bit overboard at times, which clearly shows his own deeply held views, but all in all I found it to be an excellent read. I've been conducting biological and anthropological research within the context of evolution for my own book project and this book provided me with some great insights, as well as other great resources to look up for continued study. I give it five stars largely for its depth of thought. My college mentor in the study of Religion (who studied with Joseph Campbell back in the 60s) always graded us on our depth of thinking when we submitted papers. It was our job to analyze the presumptions, implications and ramifications of arguments being made by different thinkers. Marks does a great job of pointing out those presumptions on the part of anthropologists from the late 19th century to the mid-20th century and of biologists today.
I also think that his call for an anthropology of science (an ethnology of scientists) is brilliant. I was originally studying to be a professor of Philosophy before I turned to the study of Comparative Religion/Mythology and the philosophy and history of science was one of my greatest interests. He provides a fairly detailed historical outline of the scientific thought on evolution, apes, anthropology and genetics. Very eye-opening to see how scientific thinkers came to the conclusions that they did. The cultural context is a powerful influential force laden with presumption. It gives us some background to then look at how far science has come with regard to the influence of the culture they are born into. We are humans and we are going to bring some kind of presumption to the table.
I think it deserves the reviews/synopsis above written by Guido Barbujani of the Massachusetts Medical Society and Ray Olson of the American Library Association.
8 of 11 people found the following review helpful.
human nature, demarcation problem and culture meet genes
By R. M. Williams
First a couple of structural observations before i look at the content.
It has the organization and transitional structure between chapters of independent essays written for other venues and later shaped into a book. I do not know this for a fact, but the absence of a strong theme which ties the chapters together into a coherent structured book is a hint at it's origin. This lack of coherency as a whole is the main reason i rated it a 4 and not a 5.
Second, i bought the book based on reviews and word of mouth recommendations that were wrong about the themes of the book. I thought it was going to be about what makes chimps and humans different. What it is, is an introduction to anthropologic genetics, behavioral genetics, simply the relationship of genetics to human nature. What i thought was the topic of the book is in fact the issue of chapter 11, titled "is blood so really damn thick?". However it is opposed to sociobiology(evolutionary psychology) in a very consistent manner , so don't confuse the two.
In fact, i was mildly disappointed at this organization and what i thought was a misleading advertising, so much so that i put down the book in chapter 4 and it sank to the bottom of the to-be-read pile for several weeks. This was in addition to what seemed like an eternity spent talking about race. Sadly so because the 6th chapter "folk heredity" is very good on explaining several interesting and illuminating genetic principles:taxonomism, racism, hereditarianism, essentialism(i would have started with chapter 6 if i had known). Simply put i gave up too quickly, don't you make the same mistake. Likewise, since the chapters are not sequential in any particular learning curve way, you can jump and skip around in a manner usually reserved for not-technical non-scientific works, pick and choose what interests you, i expect that you will finish the book as i did, interested and stimulated in my thinking about these important issues.
So after this, what is the common threads that bring the author to create this book? One, is the demarcation problem in science(the author does not however use this philosophic term), that is the question of what is science versus what is not science and two what separates good science from poor. In the author's own words: "We now recognize the need to define the boundaries of science in order to distinguish the authoritative voice of scientists speaking as scientists from the voice of scientists speaking as citizens."pg 94 He uses the term folk heredity, folk science, folk beliefs consistently to separate the science from the common sense general understanding of people. Using folk heredity as others would the term pseudoscience or unscientific common sense.
Along with the demarcation problem he is primarily concerned with the effects of science, with the humanistic concerns for people and how that is subverted or ignored by people claiming to be doing science. This is the topic of chapter 9 "a human gene museum?" where he tackles several sacred cows in science related to the human genome project and in chapter 10 "identity and descent" he tackles kennewick man and the controversy there. This principle is simply that science has as it's ultimate goal the betterment of human lives, and if the means to get there, the technics of science begin to subvert these humanistic goals then scientists better reexamine what they are doing and/or how they are doing it.
The third theme that binds the essays together is the relationship of the anthropology to the genetics in the science of anthropological genetics. To this end several of the beginning chapters, culminating with chapter 6 "folk heredity"(which i feel is the best chapter in the book) deal with the issue of race and genetics. The take home message is pretty simple, race is a cultural abstraction, a societal construction that has no basis in genetics. The variability of characteristics is larger within then it is between these racial groupings. but it takes several chapters to convince the reader that this long held, cherished view of human diversity is in fact not genetic but cultural, not nature but nuture.
Something else that solidifies and holds together the book is the author's passion for science. He protects it when it is under unjustified attack from outside, or being subverted from the inside and criticizes it when it doesn't live up to the high ideals that it proposes. this coupled with the interesting way he writes is reason enough to get the book and read a few of the chapters. He is consistent, plain speaking, mildly addictive, and with a surprise on every page with who he agrees with and who he doesn't. Well worth the time to get to understand an interesting and passionate man who writes about current scientific events with an eye to principles and humanistic goals that is refreshing and important, and unfortunately uncommon in the field.
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