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“Last year, a U.S. senator doomed his chances of reelection when he referred to a protestor as a ‘macaca,’ a slur sometimes used for dark-skinned people. But ‘macaca’ is also a name for the rhesus macaque monkey, and Maestripieri writes, ‘If politicians knew more about the Machiavellian intelligence of rhesus macaques, they would probably call one another “macaca” all the time, but mean it as a compliment.’ Maestripieri goes on to describe the social lives and competitive society of macaques, who aren’t above using violence and manipulation to get ahead and stay there.”
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Macachiavellian Intelligence
How Rhesus Macaques and Humans Have Conquered the World

Dario Maestripieri

“Maestripieri tells the story with incisive prose, sharp wit and admirable brevity, and the book should appeal to a wide audience from cynical teenagers to economists who believe that the ‘invisible hand’ of competition underlies all human society.”
Alison Jolly, Times Higher Education Supplement

Power. Sex. Status. That’s pretty much what human life boils down to: a vicious, grasping struggle to get ahead and stay there. We look out for number one, claw for every advantage, and aren’t above using—and even betraying—friends and family to get what we want. So just what is it that separates us from the higher primates? Dario Maestripieri would argue that it’s less than you may think, and with Macachiavellian Intelligence he draws readers deep into the social life of the world’s most common monkey, the rhesus macaque, to show just how much we can learn from them about human life.

Writing with a biting, sardonic wit, Maestripieri draws on primatology, evolutionary biology, economics, politics, and literature to present a wry, rational, and wholly surprising view of our humanity as seen through the monkey in the mirror.

Dario Maestripieri is associate professor of comparative human development and evolutionary biology at the University of Chicago.

 

Levi Stahl is available for interviews. For more information, please contact Promo Manager Name at (773) 702-0289 or lstahl@press.uchicago.edu