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Author:
Frans De Waal, Frans Lanting
By University of California Press
 A Fabulous and Important Study, 2008-05-08
De Waal's words and Lanting's photographs are a great combination. The high production values are more than justified by the quality of the text. In bringing bonobos to wider attention this book provides a valuable service. The sound research credentials of de Waal add weight to the analysis and, far from making it a dull book, give it an exciting relevance to wider issues in primatology. Makes you think a lot about humans as well as about bonobos and can, I imagine, start a good few dinner party arguments about gender relations. Much better that than another discussion of house prices.
List Price: £13.95
Our Price: £11.19
Author:
Eugene N. Marais
By Human & Rousseau (Pty) Ltd
extremely interesting theory, 2006-03-10
This book has a short essay on the author's life which is followed by his final (incomplete) book The Soul of the Ape. This is a theory of the origins of consciousness/cognition in humans that is based on his own observations of apes in the wild.
Marais' ideas are very interesting but his theories go far beyond any evidence that he presents. The book is incomplete (because he killed himself before he finished it) and his theories are interesting and still hold merit today but in places flawed.
Nevertheless it is a fascinating insight into the mind of a remarkable man, as well as an unusual reference for anyone also interested in human cognition.
List Price: £16.00
Our Price: £13.02
Author:
DL Cheney
By Chicago University Press
Okavango observations, 2007-11-05
In Sociology 101 we learned about human communities - habitat, communication and eating practices. The advanced course, Soc202 brought us the teachings of Jane Goodall and the habits our social primate cousins, the chimpanzees exhibit - some familiar, others rather alien. Now, in grad studies, Cheney and Seyfarth relate the world of another cousin, baboons. "Baboon metaphysics", to those jolted by the title of this excellent work, derives from an 1838 entry in Charles Darwin's notebook: "he who understands baboon would do more toward metaphysics than Locke". Both the entry date and the reference are significant, as the authors go to some effort to point out.
Although for some the passage has become trite, there are many others who need introduction to and understanding of what it means. Darwin himself had only just realised the implications of natural selection when he penned it. What does it mean to be a primate social species? Cheney and Seyfarth spent many years studying a baboon community in the Okavango Delta of Botswana. Adapting the innovative techniques they had developed in their investigation of vervet monkeys [see "How Monkeys See the World"], they were thus capable of not only merely observing what baboons do, but instigate conditions to assess variations in behaviour. The chief technique is the playback of recordings of individual baboons in selected circumstances. They leave you in no doubt that the research is tricky, fraught with dangers and disappointments, but ultimately rewarding. The work produced a firm foundation for understanding "The Evolution of A Social Mind".
At issue is the motivation and capacity to learn. The authors note that Darwin's challenge to Locke's heritage rested on the latter's idea that experience guided what and how we learned. His idea was that we are born with "blank slate" minds which are formed only by the events we perceive. Even in modern times, they remind us, the notion remained in place through the ideas of the "Behaviourists" following John Watson and B.F. Skinner. Evolutionary roots were unknown or ignored. "Behaviourism" is a method long out of date, now, and research in primates was the major cause of its demise.
Cheney and Seyfarth contest the simplistic view Behaviourism promoted with this intense and revealing study of a primate society under many pressures. The local environment varies widely with weather conditions, and a variety of predators are present - and hungry. The baboons must cope with these factors, and do so with flexibility and innovation. Learning to deal with the challenges around them, baboons that had to relearn each generation how to respond to changes would long ago have gone extinct. Instead, the authors show how baboon society has enabled the passage and reinforcement of behaviours to ensure the best possible chance for survival and continuation.
Baboons have a matrilineal arrangement, which makes status clear to all group members. Interactions are fairly tightly structured, which provides reliability in dealing with other individuals. Given that after predation, infanticide by aspiring alpha males is the greatest threat, those matrilineal arrangements can protect some offspring. The females ally in a variety of forms, and friendship remains a major social buttress. Female friendship with males, rare in other apes, is common with baboons. Yet, these "friendships" aren't the tactile form seen in bonobos or monkeys. Instead, social interactions are primarily vocal. Baboon society is anything simple, and the work of Cheney and Seyfarth goes far in explaining how it works. More importantly, they contrast that society and its intellectual underpinnings with other primates. A revelatory segment of this book uses the collected data to investigate whether baboons have a "theory of mind", a long-debated issue in primate research. The Okavango baboons, at least, seem to have been short-changed in that area. The authors give numerous examples of how a particular behaviour with baboons demonstrates this lack.
Although a detailed treatise, Baboon Metaphysics is a captivating read. The authors write with practised skill and the narrative is clear and not overly laden with academic terms. They are clearly writing for both general and scientific audiences. With photographs portraying events and individuals in the troop, the book is a complete product. Well worth your time and investment. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
List Price: £22.95
Our Price: £17.27
Author:
C van Schaik
By Harvard University Press
Out of isolation, 2006-04-11
About 14 million years ago, an African ape with a penchant for solitude strolled eastwards. Her descendents became the "red apes" of Borneo and Sumatra - the orang utan. Unlike their African cousins, orang utans don't regularly form troops or "gangs". As isolated forest wanderers, they are immensely difficult to study, especially compared to mountain gorillas or chimpanzees. Their isolation has led to more myths than facts about them - until Carel Van Schaik began reporting his findings. This book summarises his work in a stunning presentation of narrative and images. More importantly, it overturns many false ideas of how orang utans fit in the primate lineage. Our lineage.
Spending seven years in a swampy jungle brought van Schaik into intimate contact with orang utans. He discovered novel behaviour and unexpected talents. Among the most surprising revelations was the use of tools. Orang utans are at least as adept as gorillas with tools. There is clear planning in the selection and application of tools. Twigs as tools are made "oversize" before actual use, trimmed to the proper dimension before applying them. There are several fruits requiring special tools for seed retrieval, and photographs show a variety of shapes and lengths. Unlike chimps, however, orang utan tools are manipulated ["lipulated?"] with the mouth more than the hands. Van Schaik and his photographer, Perry van Duijnhoven, depict the tools and their owners with superb images.
With fewer predators to cope with [outside of humans, of course], the Red Ape has followed a different path from its African cousin. Gorillas, too, live on fruits and leaves, but remain ground dwellers. Chimpanzees run in organised troops, while the orang utan's social structure is more flexible. Orang utan young remain with the parents for years, providing many opportunities for parental training. The culture of orang utans must be learned anew with each generation, van Schaik stresses. The intelligence is there to absorb the education, and the habits aren't ingrained. Nest making is symptomatic, with the young building their construction skills over time. Early nests are ramshackle, and during inclement weather, a young ape may shift from his own nest to her mother's for better shelter. Nor is all this behaviour universal. Van Schaik notes the variations among populations he observed.
"Culture", of course, is a term humans wish to retain for their sole use. Van Schaik devotes a chapter to demolishing that restrictive view. He also expands the role of "symbolism", another shibboleth of cultural anthropology. We've restricted the application of "symbolism" to exclude other primates. The structure of orang utan society, he says, demonstrates how symbols are used for identification and communication. This isn't limited to physical artefacts, but may be found in vocalisations and other manifestations of individuality. He explains how training the young imparts cultural and social norms, something humans have limited to their own realm. The five great ape species exhibit vast differences in many aspects, but, van Schaik argues, that only demonstrates that ape intelligence has been utilised appropriately for each species. The intelligence was already there. It was adapted to provide the necessary behaviour for its environment. Ours was adapted most extensively. One aspect of that adaptation is that our species is threatening the existence of the other four. In particular, the Red Apes of Indonesia are being subjected to severe threat.
List Price: £7.99
Our Price: £3.31
Author:
Jane Goodall
By Phoenix
Seeing Ourselves Through Studying Chimpanzees, 2004-05-13
This book clearly deserves more than five stars.Through a Window is the popular version of the first 30 years of Dr. Jane Goodall's pioneering primate research at the Gombe reserve in Africa. Arriving in Africa as a young woman who found she did not like office work, she looked for something to do. The legendary Dr. Louis Leakey became interested in the idea of doing parallel research on chimpanzees in the wild to shed light on the development of early man. He persuaded Dr. Goodall to trek into Gombe, and helped her raise money and respectability for the project. From the beginning, he knew it had to go on for at least 10 years. Overcoming great deprivations and dangers, Dr. Goodall turned this into one of the most important animal observation studies ever. In this book, you will get the highlights of what has been learned from that research. The book emphasizes the closeness between humans and chimpanzees. The two species have 99 percent genetic similarity. Each can catch diseases that no other species can. In fact, Gombe was overwhelmed by a polio epidemic that affected the chimpanzees and the humans in the 1960s. As you walk through the forest with Dr. Goodall, you will find behaviors that are very similar to what humans do. Is it any wonder that she supposes that chimpanzees feel many of the same emotions that humans do? The only major difference she finds is that chimpanzees never torture each other or other animals like humans do. You will follow along with families of chimpanzees over three generations, and find out about what works well and what doesn't for them. There are even chapters about memorable individuals who had a large impact on the chimpanzee community. Before Dr. Goodall did her work, people thought of chimpanzees as being insensate animals. She soon observed that they made and used tools, ate meat, and cooperated with one another in very sophisticated ways both for hunting and child rearing. They have very complicated social rituals designed to keep everyone in place, but feeling friendly towards one another. As Dr. Goodall says, there are some chimpanzees she has liked more than some people and vice versa, because each one is so different. Having developed a better understanding of and sympathy for chimpanzees, Dr. Goodall then turns her attention to making the case for more preserves for wild living (and observation), eliminating the trade in chimpanzees (which lead to much death, suffering, and disaster for chimpanzees and humans), eliminating and improving the way research chimpanzees are "tortured" and "mistreated," and improving zoo conditions. Chimpanzees are very social creatures and are highly intelligent. She likens the treatment of chimpanzes by animal researchers, trainers, and zoos to modern day concentration camps. I must admit that she more than convinced me. Clearly, much can and must be done to improve the lot of chimpanzees. If we cannot treat our nearest animal relative well, what does that say about us? Who are the brutes? The book's title is a reference to the limited perspective we can get by only studying behavior. We do not know what goes on in a chimpanzee's mind. Perhaps someday we will because experiments are showing that chimpanzees rapidly learn to use sign language. You will laugh a lot about the problems that Dr. Goodall has had in convincing scientists that chimpanzees are advanced and sensitive. It's as though psychologically our self-image depends a lot on making animals "dumber" than they are. Since I will probably never get to see chimpanzees in the wild, I was delighted that this very interesting book was available to me. It will make you feel like you are on a long hike chatting with Dr. Goodall (but minus the danger and deprivation). You will also come away vastly impressed by the dedication of Dr. Goodall and her colleagues at Gombe. They have done a marvelous piece of work here that will continue to pay important knowledge dividends in future years. After you finish enjoying this superb book, I suggest you think about where else you assume that a person or animal is "dumb." For example, children have quite sophisticated ability to understand emotional situations at a young age, but cannot speak about them well. So adults often "talk down" to them, making the child lose respect for the adult. Why not assume that everyone and every creature has vast reservoirs of understanding that you do not have? Then, you will start noticing what you can learn from them. The many ways that chimpanzees give solace and reassurance would improve the quality of life for almsot any human, for example. Live more beautifully by grasping all of nature's intelligence, wherever it is!
List Price: £20.95
Our Price: £13.94
Author:
F De Waal
By University of California Press
A Fabulous and Important Study, 2008-05-08
De Waal's words and Lanting's photographs are a great combination. The high production values are more than justified by the quality of the text. In bringing bonobos to wider attention this book provides a valuable service. The sound research credentials of de Waal add weight to the analysis and, far from making it a dull book, give it an exciting relevance to wider issues in primatology. Makes you think a lot about humans as well as about bonobos and can, I imagine, start a good few dinner party arguments about gender relations. Much better that than another discussion of house prices.
List Price: £14.50
Our Price: £8.50
Author:
D Maestripieri
By Chicago University Press
 How the study of Macaque behavior helps us to understand ourselves, 2008-03-16
Dario Maestripieri, who is an associate professor of comparative human development and evolutionary biology at the University of Chicago, has chosen here to write a popular account and analysis of his experiences with rhesus macaque monkeys. Macaques are the long-faced monkeys typically seen stealing food around Hindu temples in TV travelogues about India. Professor Maestripieri's decision results in a book that is easy to read, albeit a bit on the flippant side.
The idea is to compare for a general readership the behavior of rhesus macaques and humans: how we are the same and how we are different. Many similar and very valuable studies have been done with apes, so it is refreshing to read about the lives of our more distant primate cousins for a change. Whether Maestripieri and his editors at the University of Chicago Press should have taken a less colloquial approach is a good question. I was not put off by Maestripieri's style, but I was disappointed in the causal way he seemed to read the minds and intentions of the monkeys. If some of Maestripieri's surmises about what macaques may be thinking (and why) comes back to haunt him, it won't be a big surprise. Anthropological interpretations of animal behavior are notorious for leading field biologists astray. However Maestripieri is clearly an expert on primate behavior (author of over 125 scientific publications and editor of the text, Primate Psychology 2005) and so his interpretations are to be respected.
Nonetheless I would like to take issue with one of them. Maestripieri sees macaque females as using a reproductive strategy that favors having sex with the alpha male of the troop while secretly going off into the bushes with subordinate males. This way, Maestripieri reasons, she gets the best genes from the alpha male while taking out an insurance policy on her soon to be born infant in case something happens to the dominate male. Since macaque males, like lions and some other animals, have a tendency to kill infants from females with whom they have not mated, this seems a wise strategy. Macaque females typically mate with the alpha male when they are most fertile and with the lesser males when they are not fertile. It is interesting to note that macaque males, like their human counterparts, are not entirely sure about when the female is ovulating. Consequently sex becomes, as Maestripieri puts it, a political business for females. He adds that macaque females mate with different males, especially males from outside the troop, just in case the alpha male may be either sterile or too closely related genetically. Again this is good reproductive insurance.
All this is understandable and insightful. However to imagine that human females employ a very similar strategy, as Maestripieri implies, is too simplistic. What human females do FIRST is form a monogamous, long-lasting relationship with the best male available so that their children can have a secure situation in which to develop. Since human offspring are so much more vulnerable for so much longer than macaque offspring, and because human males are usually more nurturing than macaque males, this is a wise strategy. At this point the female, who is "in love" with her choice, doesn't fool around (usually!). However, after some time (the "seven year itch"?) the human female begins to think about upgrading the genetic input and becomes vulnerable to advances from men she perceives as alpha males. Or she may just move on to another male. The difference is that humans practice serial monogamy while rhesus monkeys are not really monogamous at all.
The real question about the value of this book is, do parallels with rhesus macaque behavior lend insight into human psychology? I think the answer is a clear yes. Indeed Maestripieri's central thesis is that the Machiavellian behavior of the macaques in which they selfishly strive for power and control in their relationships with one another is all too similar to the way humans behave. I think he makes this point very well. However there is one very big difference between macaque society and human society: rhesus macaque society is matriarchal while human societies are almost universally patriarchal. This makes a big difference, the main effect being that males in rhesus macaque societies are less important and less involved than they are in human societies. A lesser effect stems from the fact that it is the males in macaque society that leave their family while traditionally in humans it is females who typically go to live with their in-laws.
This brings up the subject of nepotism, to which Maestripieri devotes a chapter (Chapter 3 "Nepotism and Politics"). He begins with some pertinent observations on Machiavelli and contemporary Italian society, noting how nepotism is the key to academic advancement. I was surprised to read that Italian professors often keep a position open for doctoral candidates just in case a relative needs one! (p. 18) Maestripieri follows this with some observations on incest and dispersal, leading to the salient point that it is impossible to understand macaque behavior and their dominance structure without knowing who is related to whom. This apples to human society as well, of course, but is something we more or less take for granted. In macaque society the observer has to watch the females to discern relationships. In human society we also have last names. Interesting. (I guess I should also note that we now have DNA tests for both macaques and humans with the well-known interesting result that the biological father may not be who we think he is.)
Despite the almost jocular tone of the book at times and the lack of scientific rigor in some of Maestripieri's conclusions, I would recommend this book for professionals as well as laypersons because of Maestripieri's perceptive insights into primate behavior gained from many years of study and many years in the field. These insights help us to understand ourselves.
List Price: £42.99
Our Price: £36.65
Author:
John G. Fleagle
By Academic Press
Really really really useful, 2005-05-13
In almost two years of biological anthropology, I don't think I've written a single primate essay without using this book. It's an extremely helpful reference which covers every known primate species, living or dead. There are also very helpful chapters devoted to topics such as foraging, dentition, and socioecology. It's easy to read, and easy to find the information you're looking for. A very good gift for someone who's just starting to study this area - they're guaranteed to get a lot of use out of it!
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