Ebook: The professor in the cage: why men fight and why we like to watch

The Riddle of the Duel -- Monkey Dance -- Tough Men -- Slaying Goliath -- Survival of the Sportiest -- War Games -- Bloodlust -- What a Fight Means -- Slaying David.;-- The Professor in the Cage But the surging popularity of MMA, far from being new, is just one more example of our species' insatiable interest not just in violence but in the rituals that keep violence contained. From duels to football to the roughhousing of children, humans are masters of what Gottschall calls the monkey dance: a dizzying variety of rule-bound contests that establish hierarchies while minimizing risk and social disorder. In short, Gottschall entered the cage to learn about the violence in men, but learned instead how men keep violence in check. Gottschall endures extremes of pain, occasional humiliation, and the incredulity of his wife to take us into the heart of fighting culture--culminating, after almost two years of grueling training, in his own cage fight. Gottschall's unsparing personal journey crystallizes in his epiphany, and ours, that taming male violence through ritualized combat has been a hidden key to the success of the human race. Without the restraining codes of the monkey dance, the world would be a much more chaotic and dangerous place.