This is one of the favorite books I’ve ever read. Some of the data has been updated so far, but the logic and focus on realism are superb. By this I mean that there was an attempt to truly see reality as it is, while more modern books tends to project an ideal to the past, or lessons learned for an improved future. While he has some degree of this, it’s the direction of the projection that grounds it to realism: The modern writer of human evolution wants humanity to fit into their utopian ideal, usually with a disregard to violence at a minimum. Ardrey argues that based on our understanding of biology and anthropology most of our ideals aren’t capable of being realized and this has to do with the fact that we have misunderstood biology in general and humans specifically.
The book goes over a concept called “the killer ape theory” where it states that humans evolved above other primates due to it’s violent tendencies that drove them to hunting and war. These activities require highly complex cognitive skills, which those who engaged in it became ever more capable as generations past. This displacing more peaceful community or subspecies of hominids that didn’t engage in high levels of aggression and this were not pressure to develop complex cognitive skills. These skills translating into many of our human features like language and also bonding with our group. In fact, it’s a theory in biology that morality and bonding developed as a necessity to team up and defend oneself from the elements, famine or other aggressive groups looking to take away valued territory and resource for themselves.
The writing style from the author is beautiful, and his background as a dramatist was able to make what can be a dry subject come into life. His other works are equally well written and insightful