Ship of Fools: An Anthology of Learned Nonsense About Primitive Society
Language: English
Published by Castalia House, 2018
- Softcover
- Used

Seller: Goodwill of Western and Northern CT, Bridgeport, CT, U.S.A.Goodwill of Western and Northern CT
AbeBooks seller since July 30, 2026
Condition: Used - Good
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All pages and cover are intact including the dust cover, if applicable . Spine may show signs of wear. Pages may include limited notes and highlighting. May include "From the library of" labels. Shrink wrap, dust covers, or boxed set case may be missing. Item may be missing bundled media.
Seller Inventory # WNCTV.9527065550.G
- Title
- Ship of Fools: An Anthology of Learned Nonsense About Primitive Society
- Author
- Hallpike, C R
- Publisher
- Castalia House
- Publication year
- 2018
- Condition
- good
- Binding
- Soft cover
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 9527065550
- ISBN 13
- 9789527065556
Dr. Hallpike spent his first ten years as an anthropologist living with mountain tribes in Ethiopia and Papua New Guinea and writing up his research for publication. He learned that primitive societies are very different from our modern industrialised societies and that it takes a considerable amount study to understand how they work.
But since all Man's ancestors used to live in a similar manner, understanding these societies is essential to understanding the human race itself, especially when speculating about our prehistoric ancestors in East Africa. Unfortunately a wide variety of journalists and science writers, historians, linguists, biologists, and especially evolutionary psychologists erroneously believe they are qualified to write about primitive societies without knowing much about them.
The result is that many of their superficial speculations have about as much scientific credibility as The Flintstones. The various critical studies contained in Ship of Fools: An Anthology of Learned Nonsense about Primitive Society examine some of the most popular of these speculations and evaluate their scientific merit.
Among the learned fools whose works are critiqued are:
Yuval Harari's Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Emma Byrne's Swearing is Good For You
René Girard’s theory of learned behavior
William Arens’s The Man-Eating Myth
Noam Chomsky's theory of universal grammar
"Synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.
Goodwill of Western and Northern CT
Bridgeport, CT, U.S.A.
AbeBooks seller since July 30, 2026
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