Becoming Wild

How Animal Cultures Raise Families, Create Beauty, and Achieve Peace

De: Carl Safina

Narrado por: Carl Safina

Some people insist that culture is strictly a human feat. What are they afraid of? This book looks into three cultures of other-than-human beings in some of Earth's remaining wild places. It shows how if you're a sperm whale, a scarlet macaw, or a chimpanzee, you too experience your life with the understanding that you are an individual in a particular community.

You too are who you are not by genes alone; your culture is a second form of inheritance. You receive it from thousands of individuals, from pools of knowledge passing through generations like an eternal torch. You too may raise young, know beauty, or struggle to negotiate a peace. And your culture, too, changes and evolves. The light of knowledge needs adjusting as situations change, so a capacity for learning, especially social learning, allows behaviors to adjust, to change much faster than genes alone could adapt.

Becoming Wild offers a glimpse into cultures among non-human animals through looks at the lives of individuals in different present-day animal societies. By showing how others teach and learn, Carl Safina offers a fresh understanding of what is constantly going on beyond humanity.

©2020 Carl Safina (P)2020 Tantor

Oh, Boy! Another Carl Safina book!

I just cannot get enough of thus guy! The whole world should have access to his thoughts and ideas: maybe, just maybe- then some dimwit humans would get the idea that everything on the planet has value in itself, not just for the buying or selling. His stories are always totally engrossing, and always leave me wanting more: more knowledge, more experiences, more understanding. He just is great... and unlike some authors who narrate their own books, he is also a great narrator. Kudos, Mr Safina!

Well researched insight into animal cultures!

Mostly enjoyable, although at times I felt like the points were made over and over again to the point of my own exhaustion with the subject.

Beautiful prose when he is descriptive.

Food for thought

Original ideas and questions formed from animal observations of sperm whales, scarlet macaws and chimpanzees.

Good but Rambling

Interesting topic, but much of the book feels like a retiree telling you about his recent trip, mixing genuine information with unscientific personal musings. There's an undefended assumption that non-human animals have cultures and social lives similar to humans. Questions are asked without any answers. Hard science is mixed with woo-woo statements, like "beauty exists to make us happy to be alive" (which reverses the ordinary order of operations for evolution). Overall, this is pretty good, but I struggled to get through the rambling discussions. Not sure I will finish.

Beyond words, literally

This is a remarkable book and one that everyone should read. I have always been involved with Animals, and I always knew that animals deserved enriched lives, but this book brings a paradigm shift in the way we perceive animals.

"Who are you?" That is the question we should be asking creatures with whom we stingily share our planet.

There are a few painful passages when Safina points out the truth about human selfishness. But by sharing research and facts about the way these animals interact with the world, I hope that all but the most selfish with rethink the world in which we live. A note the selfish: Creatures on this world enrich our lives too. And without them, our existence will be bland and unrewarding.

Finally, I would say that this book seems like a translator, from the language and culture of non-human creatures, to humans.

Simply amazing.