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The Dark Side of Man: Tracing the Origins of Male Violence. Michael P. Ghiglieri. Reading, MA: Perseus Books, 1999. 323 pp.
R. BRIAN FERGUSON
Rutgers University-Newark
The Dark Side of Man, by Michael P. Ghiglieri, is the latest in a long line of books telling us how rotten we are, especially men. Part 1, "Roots," presents one view of gender differences in an evolutionary perspective. Part 2 consists of chapters on rape, murder, war, and genocide. Ghiglieri, who observed chimpanzees at Kibale Forest in Uganda, has read widely and writes engagingly. The picture he paints is grim. Humanity's bad karma is attributed to a male psyche evolved to triumph in the great contest to leave behind more genes. Men have an instinct for mass rape in wartime (p. 92)-"a massive reproductive victory" (p. 214). Ordinary rape is a "standard male reproductive strategy" (emphasis in original) for men lacking resources to attract mates (p. 105)-as long as the rape can produce conception, otherwise the rapist is mentally ill (p.100). Violent career criminals are trying to accumulate the resources to make women want to have their children (p. 125). We have an instinct for genocide, because that eliminates genetic competitors (p. 215 ), etc.
The book contains major misinformation. Regarding homicide, Ghiglieri asserts that "[i]n men, one chemical, testosterone, triggers these decisions to kill" (p. 50). This claim would not survive the most superficial scan of current literature on the topic. Ghiglieri states "men rape in every culture on earth, and do so frequently" (p. 106), citing the Yanomamo. But an HRAF survey by Minturn et...