A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2020
**
In this superbly articulate cri de coeur, Safina gives us a new way of
looking at the natural world that is radically different.--The
Washington Post**
New York Times bestselling author Carl Safina brings readers
close to three non-human cultures--what they do, why they do it, and how
life is for them.
A New York Times Notable Books of 2020
Some believe that culture is strictly a human phenomenon. But this book
reveals 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 come to understand yourself as an individual within
a particular community that does things in specific ways, that has
traditions. Alongside genes, culture is a second form of inheritance,
passed through generations as pools of learned knowledge. As situations
change, social learning--culture--allows behaviors to adjust much faster
than genes can adapt.
Becoming Wild brings readers into intimate proximity with various
nonhuman individuals in their free-living communities. It presents a
revelatory account of how animals function beyond our usual view. Safina
shows that for non-humans and humans alike, culture comprises the
answers to the question, "How do we live here?" It unites individuals
within a group identity. But cultural groups often seek to avoid, or
even be hostile toward, other factions. By showing that this is true
across species, Safina illuminates why human cultural tensions remain
maddeningly intractable despite the arbitrariness of many of our
differences. Becoming Wild takes readers behind the curtain of life on
Earth, to witness from a new vantage point the most world-saving of
perceptions: how we are all connected.
