Overview

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, Safina offers a fresh understanding of what is constantly going on beyond humanity.

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9781665261807

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Reviews

Carl Safina starts off by bringing listeners along on a drenching trip to watch-and listen to-sperm whales off the coast of Dominica in the Caribbean. Listeners can feel his exasperation with the wetness and his growing understanding of the language hidden in the whales' clicks and squeaks.-- AudioFile Bracing and enlightening...Safina's writing on the watery depths and its denizens is sublime...[challenging] us to be more acutely aware of species whose social lives have much to teach us. -- Science Engaging and eye-opening...Safina's enthusiasm for the animal kingdom is contagious, and his clear writing makes his wide-reaching subject both approachable and tangible. -- Shelf Awarness (starred review) In this superbly articulate cri de coeur, Safina gives us a new way of looking at the natural world that is radically different. -- Washington Post Make[s] a convincing argument that animals learn from one another and pass down culture in a way that will feel very familiar to us. -- New York Times Book Review Reveals majestic, closely knit communities....Few readers will doubt that these magnificent creatures need urgent attention. -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) This revelatory work sheds as much light on what it means to be human as it does on the nature of other species. -- Publishers Weekly

"Carl Safina starts off by bringing listeners along on a drenching trip to watch-and listen to-sperm whales off the coast of Dominica in the Caribbean. Listeners can feel his exasperation with the wetness and his growing understanding of the language hidden in the whales' clicks and squeaks.-- ""AudioFile"" ""Bracing and enlightening...Safina's writing on the watery depths and its denizens is sublime...[challenging] us to be more acutely aware of species whose social lives have much to teach us."" -- ""Science"" ""Engaging and eye-opening...Safina's enthusiasm for the animal kingdom is contagious, and his clear writing makes his wide-reaching subject both approachable and tangible."" -- ""Shelf Awarness (starred review)"" ""In this superbly articulate cri de coeur, Safina gives us a new way of looking at the natural world that is radically different."" -- ""Washington Post"" ""Make[s] a convincing argument that animals learn from one another and pass down culture in a way that will feel very familiar to us."" -- ""New York Times Book Review"" ""Reveals majestic, closely knit communities....Few readers will doubt that these magnificent creatures need urgent attention."" -- ""Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"" ""This revelatory work sheds as much light on what it means to be human as it does on the nature of other species."" -- ""Publishers Weekly"""

Author Information

Carl Safina is a biologist and ecologist whose work has been recognized with MacArthur, Pew, and Guggenheim Fellowships, and his writing has won Orion, Lannan, and National Academies literary awards and the John Burroughs, James Beard, and George Rabb medals. He is the inaugural holder of the endowed chair for nature and humanity at Stony Brook University, where he co-chairs the steering committee of the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science and is founding president of the not-for-profit Safina Center. He has a PhD in ecology from Rutgers University. He hosted the ten-part PBS series Saving the Ocean with Carl Safina. His books include Beyond Words, Song for the Blue Ocean, and The Eye of the Albatross. Carl Safina is a biologist and ecologist whose work has been recognized with MacArthur, Pew, and Guggenheim Fellowships, and his writing has won Orion, Lannan, and National Academies literary awards and the John Burroughs, James Beard, and George Rabb medals. He is the inaugural holder of the endowed chair for nature and humanity at Stony Brook University, where he co-chairs the steering committee of the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science and is founding president of the not-for-profit Safina Center. He has a PhD in ecology from Rutgers University. He hosted the ten-part PBS series Saving the Ocean with Carl Safina. His books include Beyond Words, Song for the Blue Ocean, and The Eye of the Albatross.

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