Manwatching; A Field Guide To Human Behavior

New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc, 1977. Presumed First U. S. Edition, First printing. Hardcover. Good/Good. The format is approximately 8.75 inches by 11.25 inches. 320 pages. Illustrations (470 photographs, 290 in color and some 250 drawings, prints and diagrams). Reference. Index. The DJ has edge wear, small tears, scratches. and minor soiling. This is a large and heavy book and if sent outside of the U.S. will require additional shipping charges. Desmond John Morris FLS (born 24 January 1928) is an English zoologist, ethnologist and surrealist painter, as well as a popular author in human sociobiology. He is known for his 1967 book The Naked Ape, and for his television programs such as Zoo Time. In 1951 he began a doctorate at the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, in animal behavior. In 1954, he earned a Doctor of Philosophy for his work on the reproductive behavior of the ten-spined stickleback. Morris stayed at Oxford, researching the reproductive behavior of birds. In 1956 he moved to London as Head of the Granada TV and Film Unit for the Zoological Society of London, and studied the picture-making abilities of apes. The work included creating programs for film and television on animal behavior and other zoology topics. Morris's books include The Naked Ape: A Zoologist's Study of the Human Animal, published in 1967. The book sold well enough for Morris to move to Malta in 1968 to write a sequel and other books. In 1973 he returned to Oxford to work for the ethnologist Niko Tinbergen. From 1973 to 1981, Morris was a Research Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford. In 1979 he undertook a television series for Thames TV, The Human Race, followed in 1982 by Manwatching. Manwatching is the culmination of a career of watching people - their behavior and habits, their personalities and their quirks. Desmond Morris shows us how people, consciously and unconsciously, signal their attitudes, desires and innermost feelings with their bodies and actions, often more powerfully than with their words. A catalogue of human actions, postures, gestures, facial expressions, clothing, and adornments includes explanations of their underlying causes and meanings. Items from the Table of Contents: Actions. Inborn actions: actions we do not have to learn -- Discovered actions: actions we discover for ourselves -- Absorbed actions: actions we acquire unknowingly from our companions -- Trained actions: actions we have to be taught -- Mixed actions: actions acquired in several ways -- Gestures. Incidental gestures: mechanical actions with secondary messages -- Expressive gestures: biological gestures of the kind we share with other animals -- Mimic gestures: gestures which transmit signals by imitation -- Schematic gestures: imitations that become abbreviated or abridged -- Symbolic gestures: gestures which represent moods and ideas -- Technical gestures: gestures used by specialist minorities -- Coded gestures: sign-language based on a formal system -- Gesture variants: personal or local variations on gestural themes -- Multimessage gestures: gestures that have many meanings -- Gesture alternatives: different gestures that transmit the same signal -- Hybrid gestures: signals made up of two original gestures -- Compound gestures: actions made up of a number of distinct elements -- Relic gestures: gestures that have survived long after their primary contexts have vanished -- Regional signals: the way signals change from country to country and district to district -- Baton signals: actions that emphasize the rhythm of words -- Guide signs: pointing and beckoning, how we show the way -- Yes/no signals: ways in which we signal agreement and acceptance, or denial and refusal -- Gaze behavior: staring eyes and glancing eyes, the way we look at one another -- Salutation displays: hello and goodbye, greetings and farewells. Postural echo: the way friends unconsciously act in unison -- Tie-signs: signals that display personal bonds to others -- Body-contact tie-signs: the way companions touch each other in public -- Auto-contact: self-intimacies, why and how we touch ourselves -- Nonverbal leakage: clues that give us away without our knowing --Contradictory signals: giving two conflicting signals at the same time -- Shortfall signals: when we under-react despite ourselves -- Overkill signals: when we over-react -- Status displays: ways in which we signal our position in the social peck order -- Territorial behavior: the defence of a limited area -- Barrier signals: body-defence actions in social situations -- Protective behavior: reactions to dangers, both real and imaginary -- Submissive behavior: how we appease our critics or attackers -- Religious displays: actions performed to placate imagined deities -- Altruistic behavior: how do we help others at our own expense? -- Fighting behavior: pulling punches and throwing punches, the biology of human combat -- Triumph displays: how winners celebrate and losers react -- Cut-off: actions that block in-coming visual signals when we are under stress -- Autonomic signals: actions and other changes resulting from body-stress -- Pupil signals: pupil dilations and constrictions indicating changes of mood -- Intention movements: get-ready actions that signal future intentions -- Displacement activities: agitated fill-in actions performed during periods of acute tension -- Redirected activities: actions diverted on to a bystander.