Made for Each Other: The Biology of the Human-Animal Bond
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Book Overview
Nothing turns a baby's head more quickly than the sight or sound of an animal. This fascination is driven by the ancient chemical forces that first drew humans and animals together. It is also the same biology that transformed wolves into dogs and skittish horses into valiant comrades that would carry us into battle. Made for Each Other is the first book to explain how this chemistry of attraction and attachment flows through--and between--all mammals to create the profound emotional bonds humans and animals still feel today. Drawing on recent discoveries from neuroscience, evolutionary biology, behavioral psychology, archeology, as well as her own investigations, Meg Daley Olmert explains why the brain chemistry humans and animals trigger in each other also has a profound effect on our mental and physical well being. This lively and original investigation asks what happens when the bond is severed. If thousands of years of caring for animals infused us with a biology that shaped our hearts and minds, do we dare turn our back on it? Daley Olmert makes a compelling and scientific case for what our hearts have always known, that we were, and always will be, made for each other.
Format:Hardcover
Language:English
ISBN:0306817365
ISBN13:9780306817366
Release Date:February 2009
Publisher:Da Capo Press
Length:291 Pages
Weight:1.14 lbs.
Dimensions:1.1" x 6.4" x 9.0"
Customer Reviews
5 ratings
A MISSING LINK
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 15 years ago
Meg Olmert's wise and witty account of human/animal bonding proves, once and for all, that the dog at your feet or the cat on your lap is a key link to our civility. In a word, Made for Each Other is a triumph. Drew Sparks Calistoga, CA
Gripping!
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 15 years ago
Meg Daley Olmert's book is by turns fascinating, funny, dazzling, thought-provoking. She's a wizard at combining scientific information with personal anecdotes with speculative history, and the book not only makes you feel smarter when you're done, but more human and more appreciative of the animal beings in your life. I've been touting this book to everyone I know who's a dog lover and who loves to read intelligent prose aimed at an intelligent audience. If you loved The Hidden Life of Dogs this is a must, taking that book's observations into new, exciting realms.
A Unique Combination of Science and Charm
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 15 years ago
It's not often that we find a book that combines hard science with readability and charm. Meg Daley Olmert deftly manages both in a book which teaches us the importance of the links that bind all living creatures. As we have participated in the evolution (and extinction) of animals, so have they participated in ours. The illustrations add to the charm. For example, one shows a dwelling made of mammoth tusks and bones. Canine paw prints lead into it.
A great gift idea!
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 15 years ago
This book is a must read for animal lovers everywhere. It's helpful and interesting to know why we love our pets ... and our kids .... so much! I read it on my kindle and so was able to easily highlight interesting items, and found myself doing that often. Since becoming a kindle reader, that's how I judge how important I've found my latest read.
important, fascinating and vivid
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 15 years ago
MADE FOR EACH OTHER is the most fascinating and important book I've read in a long time. Meg Olmert's thesis--that our natural bond with our fellow animals has a basis in our brain chemistry--explains a great deal, not only about our relationship with pets, livestock and wildlife but also about human evolution. The book is a fun, fast read, too, studded with gems of facts: the Egyptians seem to have tamed hyenas and giraffes. Plants recognize other plants that are related to them, and refrain from competing with relatives. When foxes are bred for docility of temperament, within a few generations their markings begin to look like those of border collies. Wow! I learned a great deal from this book, and much of it was very good news indeed: that our very biochemistry weds us, and our happiness, to the rest of animate creation. --Sy Montgomery author of The Good Good Pig and other books
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