Behavior: Ethology: That Animal That Is Man

WHAT is man? To this age-old question, the social sciences are now proposing some extraordinarily complicated new answers. First and foremost, man is an animal—but he is neither the end product of evolution nor much more than a mediocre biological success. The body he inhabits is primitive, at least 50,000 years out of date. Basically, he is one of the world's most aggressive beasts, who, the scientists say, fundamentally enjoys torturing and killing other animals, including his fellow man in the sport known as war.

He considers himself more or less monogamous. But, according...