Review of Manwatching: A Field Guide to Human Behaviour (1977)
Desmond Morris (writer).
Read in 2024.
Read in Swedish.
Observable human behaviours viewed in context as animal behaviours.
Don’t be distracted by the boring catalogues of individual gestures in the opening chapters of the book. Morris’s true aim is evolutionary psychology. As you would expect from the coffee-table marketing of this book, the quality of the psychological work is poor. The penultimate chapter on feeding behaviour is little more than a stream of untested speculations from an already poor gender-based understanding of hunter-gatherer sociology. Take it all with a grain of salt.
I was introduced to Morris in video form, by a high-school biology teacher. He (Morris) was good at getting people thinking about important things that are so integrated into everyday life as to be completely ignored, especially past high school. There are many observations in this book that will get you thinking if you haven’t encountered them before, including one I remember from the video: Watch what happens when one person in a meeting switches to another position, such as crossing their legs or their arms. Frequently and suddenly, others imitate the gesture. Perhaps this really is, as Morris thinks, a matter of social status. Perhaps physical comfort or simple conformity are more important. Conscious thought is rarely in the mix. With that grain of salt, the book provides a healthy dose of intellectual alienation and perspective.