Museum of Science, Boston

Lecture [Return to listing page]

With Richard Wrangham, Ruth Moore Professor of Biological Anthropology, Harvard University, and co-author, Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence. This presentation is part of the ongoing Science on Screen Series.

Director David Fincher's big-screen adaptation of the novel by Chuck Palahniuk was one of the most talked about films of the 1990s for its controversial takes on violence, manhood, and consumer culture. Brad Pitt and Edward Norton star as two frustrated 30-somethings who form an underground club where young men channel primal aggression into brutal, bare-knuckled brawls that leave them feeling exhilarated and alive. The concept catches on, with secret fight clubs forming in other cities until a sensuous eccentric (Helena Bonham Carter) gets in the way, igniting an out-of-control spiral toward oblivion.

According to biological anthropologist and primatologist Richard Wrangham, violent social behavior is common among our closest male primate relatives and deeply rooted in male human genes. Dr. Wrangham has spent decades studying chimpanzee cultures in the wild and comparing those cultures to our own. In his book Demonic Males: Apes and the Origins of Human Violence, he describes how male chimps jockey for status and power, fight one another for access to females, carry out border raids, and beat and kill members of rival groups. Join us as Dr. Wrangham discusses why men like to fight, what makes human violence unique, and why we are wired to relish certain kinds of aggression more than others.

Tickets: Museum of Science members and students: $7.75; general admission: $9.75; Coolidge Corner Theatre members: free. Tickets are available in advance at coolidge.org or at the theater box office, 290 Harvard Street, Brookline.

With Science on Screen, the Coolidge Corner Theatre shows a feature film or documentary with a basis in science, combined with exciting remarks by noted scientists and others in related fields. The Science on Screen series is co-presented by the Museum of Science, Boston and New Scientist magazine.