The Third Chimpanzee

The Third Chimpanzee

The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal (1991/2004) is a wide-ranging book by Jared Diamond, professor of geography and physiology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), which applies insights from biology, anthropology, and linguistics to questions such as why one species of big mammal (humans) 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).

It 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.

The original title (1991) was The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee: How Our Animal Heritage Affects the Way We Live (ISBN 978-0-09-174268-3), the current title was adopted with the third edition in 2006. In between, the second edition of 2004 was titled The Rise and Fall of the Third Chimpanzee: Evolution and Human Life.

Diamond has expanded on these themes in subsequent books:

• Guns, Germs and Steel (1997): why Eurasians came to dominate the Americans, part four of the book, (Pulitzer Prize 1998),
• Why Is Sex Fun? (1997): sexual selection, penis size, longevity, (parts 1 and 2)
• Collapse (2005): how civilizations over-exploit the environment and become extinct (part 5)