Table Of Content"Ambitious . . . compelling . . . concerned with the tension
between our biology and our culture . .. in power, sex,
status, and war games."—The New York Times
ANTHROPOLOGY/BIOLOGY
"There is really no need to escape [our cities}....But there is a need to
transform the urban environment into something more appropriate for its
long-suffering inhabitants."
—Desmond Morris, from his new Preface
oes city life change the way we act? What accounts for the increasing
prevalence of violence and anxiety in our world? In this new edition of his
controversial 1969 bestseller, The Human Zoo, renowned zoologist
Desmond Morris argues that many of the social instabilities we face are
largely a product of the artificial, impersonal confines of our urban
js. Indeed, our behavior often startlingly resembles that of captive animals,
and our "developed" and "urbane" environment seems not so much a concrete jungle as
it does a human zoo.
Animals do not normally exhibit stress, random violence, and erratic behavior—until they
are confined. Similarly, the human propensity toward antisocial and sociopathic behavior
is intensified in today's cities. Morris argues that we are biologically still tribal and ill-
equipped to thrive in the impersonal urban sprawl. As important and meaningful today as
it was a quarter-century ago, The Human Zoo sounds an urgent warning and provides
startling insight into our increasingly complex lives.
Desmond Morris is the author of more than thirty books, including The Naked Ape,
Intimate Behaviour, and The Human Animal. He lives in Oxford, England.
our accepted culture, but against the wider vistas of our biological
heritage."
—The Chicago Tribune
fSRN 978-1 -"56836-104-8
Cover design: Marc |. Cohen
5 1 5 0 0>
Photographs: (Top) James Balog/
Tony Stone Images. (Bottom) © Color Day
Prod. 1993/The Image Bank.
Printed in the United States of America
KODANSHA INTERNATIONAL 9"781568"361048"
New York « Tokyo » London
DESMOND MORRIS
THE HUMAN
ZOO
A Zoologist's Classic Study of the Urban Animal
With a New Preface by the Author
KODANSHA INTERNATIONAL
New York • Tokyo • London
Contents
PREFACE
IX
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
xiii
INTRODUCTION
7
ONE TRIBES AND SUPER-TRIBES
Kodansha America, LLC
IL
575 Lexington Avenue, New York, New York 10022, U.S.A.
TWO STATUS AND SUPER-STATUS
Kodansha International Ltd. 41
17-14 Otowa i-chome, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 112, Japan
THREE SEX AND SUPER-SEX
79
Published in 1996 by Kodansha America, Inc.
by arrangement with Random House, United Kingdom
FOUR IN-GROUPS AND OUT-GROUPS
124
Originally published in 1969 by Random House, United Kingdom.
First published in the United States in 1969 by McGraw-Hill. FIVE IMPRINTING AND MAL-IMPRINTING
156
This is a Kodansha Globe book.
SIX THE STIMULUS STRUGGLE
182
Copyright © 1969, 1996 by Desmond Morris.
All rights reserved. SEVEN THE CHILDLIKE ADULT
226
ISBN-I3: 978-1-56836-104-8
APPENDIX: LITERATURE
249
LC 95-81946
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Printed in the United States of America 253
091011 RRD/H 109876
Preface
MORE than a quarter of a century has passed since The
Human Zoo was first published. During that time the world
population has nearly doubled—from three billion to six
billion. This dramatic rise is continuing at ever-increasing
speed. The result is that the Human Zoo—the city—is
growing ever more crowded. Sadly this means that the
problems I addressed when writing this text are even
more pressing today. The message is more urgent, and for
this reason I am delighted that the book is now being
republished.
During the intervening years I have had the chance to
look more closely at conditions in some of the most ex-
treme examples of the Human Zoo. When the BBC decided
to make a television program based on this book, the film-
ing brought me face-to-face with the ultimate expressions
of the urban dilemma. In the slums of Bombay—the largest
slums in the world—I saw how human territories could be
condensed to a degree that makes even old-fashioned zoo
cages seem spacious. In Tokyo this miniaturization is taken
to the limit in the amazing capsule hotels, where visitors
are cocooned in tiny cells that look like air-conditioned
coffins with cable TV.
In Los Angeles, I was taken deep into gangland to study
how tribal rivalries have reasserted themselves. In the most
extensive city on earth (now half the size of Belgium), many
ix
PREFACE
X PREFACE XI
small tribal territories have been established, each confined
But the picture in the rest of the world is rather different.
to a fixed, carefully labeled locality. Here the primeval
In Africa, for example, the doubling time is a mere 24
tribal nature of our species has dramatically resurfaced in
years. Where this will put the African continent a century
the midst of the decaying center of the urban sprawl. The
from now is not hard to guess. Unless special precautions
ancient cave paintings and rock art of prehistoric times have
are taken, we will need a new definition for the word
been replaced by modern graffiti; the tribal spears by au- chaos.
tomatic handguns; the ritual skin scarification by modern
tattoos; the feathered headdresses by stylized T-shirts. All
When I was working on the book in the late 19605, I had
the tribal trappings and group loyalties have reappeared as
just completed a decade as a zoo curator. Studying the
the vast network of the city is carved up, once again, into
stresses and strains of animals confined to small cages gave
clearly identifiable local communities. For some this is seen
me the idea for suggesting a parallel between the animal
as the destruction of the city centers, but for those living
zoo and the human city. I saw the captive zoo inmates as
there it is a matter of survival—a refusal to be turned into
telling metaphors for the tense citizens I encountered in
faceless human termites in a huge, teeming human termite- everyday life.
hill. Bearing this in mind, it is interesting that a minor re-
The character of the human animal is such that we will
bellion has been gaining momentum since that time. An
always fight against the loss of our tribal identity. Some
antizoo movement has appeared and grown stronger year
cities encourage this struggle. They foster imaginative local
by year. More and more people think it is wrong to keep
variations. Those that fail to do so will soon find that their
wild animals in captivity. Zoo attendances have fallen to
bland, inhuman scale will be disrupted and dismantled. The
their lowest levels for many years. This is partly due to a
plain truth is that, if this is not done constructively, it will
greater awareness of the needs of the animals concerned,
be done destructively. There is a special message in the
but I strongly suspect that it is also symbolic of a growing,
gangland graffiti that city planners fail to see: acres of gray
if unspoken concern about the conditions of those other
concrete do not a village make. zoo inmates —the citizens of the Human Zoo. If we are so
The dilemma of the Human Zoo is not a problem that
passionate about wanting to see the lions and elephants go
is going to go away. The latest figures for the "doubling
free, perhaps it is because, in our hearts, we too want to
time" (the time it takes for a human population to double
escape from the cages we have built for ourselves inside
its numbers) tell a terrifying tale. Because the doubling our ever-swelling cities.
time for western Europe is a satisfying 700 years (and a
There is really no need to escape—as you will see when
comfortable 100 years for the United States), we some-
times feel that the threat of overpopulation is fading away.
PREFACE
Xll
reading this book. But there is a need to transform the
urban environment into something more appropriate for
its long-suffering inhabitants. If this succeeds we will then Acknowledgments
be able to retain the heady excitements of the city while
still enjoying community life on a scale the human brain
can comprehend.
Oxford, England
As WITH its predecessor, The Naked Ape, this book is
September 1995
intended for a general audience and authorities have there-
fore not been quoted in the text. However, many original
books and papers have been referred to during the assembly
of this volume and it would be wrong to present it without
acknowledging their valuable assistance. On pages 249-51
I have included a chapter-by-chapter appendix relating the
topics discussed to the major authorities concerned. This
appendix can be used to trace the detailed references given
in the selected bibliography.
I would also like to express my debt and my gratitude
to the many colleagues and friends who have helped me,
in discussions, correspondence and many other ways. Their
contributions have varied. In some instances, they have
been of direct assistance in connection with a specific point
in the present text, but in other cases they have been stim-
ulating in a more indirect way, often over a period of years,
influencing my general thinking and helping me to clarify
my views. With a subject as broad as The Human Zoo, it
is impossible to name them all, but they include, in par-
ticular, the following: Dr Anthony Ambrose, Mr Robert
Ardrey, Mr David Attenborough, Mr Kenneth Bayes, Pro-
fessor Misha Black, Dr David Blest, Dr N. G. Blurton-
Jones, Mr James Bomford, Dr John Bowlby, Mr Richard
Carrington, Sir Hugh Casson, Dr Michael Chance, Dr
Xlll
XIV ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Richard Coss, Dr Christopher Evans, Professor Robin Fox,
Professor J. H. Fremlin, Mr Oliver Graham-Jones, Dr Fae THE HUMAN ZOO
Hall, Professor Harry Harlow, Mrs Mary Haynes, Pro-
fessor Heini Hediger, Professor Robert Hinde, Dr Jan van
Hooff, Dr Francis Huxley, Sir Julian Huxley, Professor
Janey Ironside, Miss Devra Kleiman, Dr Adriaan Kort-
landt, Baroness Jane van Lawick-Goodall, Dr Paul Ley-
hausen, Mrs Caroline Loizos, Professor Konrad Lorenz,
Dr Malcolm Lyall-Watson, Dr Gilbert Manley, Dr Isaac
Marks, Mr Tom Maschler, Dr L. Harrison Matthews, Lady
Medway, Mrs Ramona Morris, Dr Martin Moynihan, Dr
John Napier, Mrs Caroline Nicolson, Mr Philip Oakes, Dr
Kenneth Oakley, Mr Victor Pasmore, Sir Roland Penrose,
Sir Herbert Read, Dr Frances Reynolds, Dr Vernon Rey-
nolds, Mrs Claire Russell, Dr W. M. S. Russell, Professor
Arthur Smailes, Mr Peter Shepheard, Dr John Sparks, Dr
Anthony Storr, Mr Frank Taylor, Dr Lionel Tiger, Pro-
fessor Niko Tinbergen, Dr Nevil Tronchin-James, Mr
Ronald Webster, Dr Wolfgang Wickler, Miss Pat Williams,
Dr G. M. Woddis and Professor John Yudkin.
I hasten to add that the inclusion of a name in this list
does not imply that the person concerned necessarily agrees
with my views as expressed in this book.
Introduction
WHEN the pressures of modern living become heavy, the
harassed city-dweller often refers to his teeming world as a
concrete jungle. This is a colourful way of describing the
pattern of life in a dense urban community, but it is also
grossly inaccurate, as anyone who has studied a real jungle
will confirm.
Under normal conditions, in their natural habitats, wild
animals do not mutilate themselves, masturbate, attack their
offspring, develop stomach ulcers, become fetishists, suffer
from obesity, form homosexual pair-bonds, or commit
murder. Among human city-dwellers, needless to say, all
of these things occur. Does this, then, reveal a basic differ-
ence between the human species and other animals? At first
glance it seems to do so. But this is deceptive. Other animals
do behave in these ways under certain circumstances, namely
when they are confined in the unnatural conditions of
captivity. The zoo animal in a cage exhibits all these
abnormalities that we know so well from our human
companions. Clearly, then, the city is not a concrete jungle,
it is a human zoo.
The comparison we must make is not between the city-
dweller and the wild animal, but between the city-dweller
and the captive animal. The modern human animal is no
longer living in conditions natural for his species. Trapped,
not by a zoo collector, but by his own brainy brilliance,
he has set himself up in a huge, restless menagerie where he
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
is in constant danger of cracking under the strain.
If I seem to be saying 'Go back, you are heading for
Despite the pressures, however, the benefits are great.
disaster,' let me assure you that I am not. We have, in our
The zoo world, like a gigantic parent, protects its inmates:
relentless social progress, gloriously unleashed our powerful
food, drink, shelter, hygiene and medical care are provided;
inventive, exploratory urges. They are a basic part of our
the basic problems of survival are reduced to a minimum.
biological inheritance. There is nothing artificial or un-
There is time to spare. How this time is used in a non-human
natural about them. They provide us with our great
zoo varies, of course, from species to species. Some animals
strength as well as our great weaknesses. What I am trying
quietly relax and doze in the sun; others find prolonged in-
to show is the increasing price we have to pay for indulging
activity increasingly difficult to accept. If you are an inmate
them and the ingenious ways in which we contrive to meet
of a human zoo, you inevitably belong to this second
that price, no matter how steep it becomes. The stakes are
category. Having an essentially exploratory, inventive
rising higher all the time, the game becoming more risky,
brain, you will not be able to relax for very long. You will
the casualties more startling, the pace more breathless. But
be driven on and on to more and more elaborate activities.
despite the hazards it is the most exciting game the world
You will investigate, organize and create and, in the end, you
has ever seen. It is foolish to suggest that anyone should
will have plunged yourself deeper still into an even more
blow a whistle and try to stop it. Nevertheless, there are
captive zoo world. With each new complexity, you will
different ways of playing it, and if we can understand better
find yourself one step farther away from your natural tribal
the true nature of the players it should be possible to make
state, the state in which your ancestors existed for a million
the game even more rewarding, without at the same time
years.
becoming more dangerous and, ultimately, disastrous for
The story of modern man is the story of his struggle to
the whole species.
deal with the consequences of this difficult advance. The
picture is confused and confusing, partly because of its very
complexity and partly because we are involved in it in a
dual role, being, at the same time, both spectators and
participants. Perhaps it will become clearer if we view it
from the zoologist's standpoint, and this is what I shall
attempt to do in the pages that follow. In most cases I have
deliberately selected examples which will be familiar to
Western readers. This does not mean, however, that I in-
tend my conclusions to relate only to Western cultures.
On the contrary, there is every indication that the under-
lying principles apply equally to city-dwellers throughout
the world.
