Books by Subject
Books by Subject
Primates
Reviews
Amazon.com
As a young woman, Jane Goodall was best known for her groundbreaking fieldwork
with the chimpanzees of Gombe, Africa. Goodall's work has always been controversial,
mostly because she broke the mold of research scientist by developing meaningful
relationships with her "specimens" and honoring their lives as she would other
humans.
Now at the age of 60, she continues to break the mold of scientist by revealing
how her research and worldwide conservation institutes spring from her childhood callings
and adult spiritual convictions. Reason for Hope is a smoothly written memoir that
does not shy away from facing the realities of environmental destruction, animal abuse,
and genocide. But Goodall shares her antidote to the poison of despair with specific
examples of why she has not lost faith. For instance, she shares her spiritual epiphany
during a visit to Auschwitz; her bravery in the face of chimpanzee imprisonment in medical
laboratories; and devotes a whole chapter to individuals, corporations, and countries that
are doing the right thing. But most of all Goodall provides a beautifully written plea for
why everyone can and must find a reason for hope. --Gail Hudson
Click here to
learn more or purchase from Amazon.com
The Hunting Apes : Meat Eating and the Origins of Human Behavior
Stanford studied the great apes, especially chimpanzees, and came to the conclusion that among primates, meat is a valuable commodity both nutritionally and socially. Although many other foods are nutritionally desirable, meat is unique in its social desirability, and for males, it represents power:
Underlying the nutritional aspect of getting meat, part of the social fabric of the community is revealed in the dominance displays, the tolerated theft, and the bartered meat for sexual access. The end of the hunt is often only the beginning of a whole other arena of social interaction.
In Stanford's view, females play a crucial role in keeping groups together and cementing individual relationships. Meat plays an important role in the way males fit in to a society, and the ability of males to get meat readily may very well explain their societal dominance. These conclusions are not liable to be nearly so controversial as the way Stanford gathered his data--he drew broad parallels between chimps and modern hunter-gatherer societies. Stanford also admits that a lack of fossil evidence supporting his meat/brain link is problematic. The Hunting Apes is an interesting look at what is likely the worthwhile center of a discredited evolutionary theory. --Therese Littleton
Click here to learn more or purchase from Amazon.com
Bonobo: The forgotten Ape
By Frans De Waal & Frans Lanting
Reviews
Amazon.com
For Frans de Waal, man is not the only moral entity, as he made clear in his
last book--Good Natured: The Origins of Right and Wrong in Humans and Other Animals.
The author has long been intrigued by chimpanzee politics and mores, and now he has turned
his human heart and scientific mind to a species science has tended to celebrate solely
for its sex drive. Bonobos may look like chimps, but they are actually even closer to
us--far more upright, physically, for a start. Furthermore, where chimpanzees hunt, fight,
and politic like mad, bonobos are peaceful, often ambisexual, and matriarchal. (Of course,
hyenas are matriarchal too, but that's another story ...) De Waal's collaborator, Frans
Lanting, has been photographing these gentle creatures for some years and augments the
primatologist's explorations and interviews with hundreds of superb color shots. The
penultimate picture is of bonobos crossing a road while schoolchildren stand watching, a
short distance away. If, as the truism goes, all books about animal behavior are
ultimately about us, this exploration of the bonobo may be a step in the right direction.
Hardcover
University of California Press, May 1997
ISBN: 0520205359
Click here to learn more or purchase from Amazon.com
Primate Males : Causes and Consequences of Variation in Group CompositionPaperback (May
2000)
Cambridge Univ Pr (Pap Txt);
ISBN: 0521658462 ; Dimensions (in inches): 0.79 x 9.74 x 7.51
Other Editions: Hardcover
Click here to purchase from Amazon.com
Primates in the Classroom: An Evolutionary Perspective on Children's Education
By J. Gary Bernhard
Paperback
University of Massachusetts Press, April 1988
ISBN: 0870236113
Click here to learn more or purchase from Amazon.com
Primate Societies
By Barbara B. Smuts (Editor)
Paperback
University of Chicago Press, May 1987
ISBN: 0226767167
Book
Description
Primate Societies is a synthesis of the most current information
on primate socioecology and its theoretical and empirical significance, spanning
the disciplines of behavioral biology, ecology, anthropology, and psychology. It
is a very rich source of ideas about other taxa.
Click here to learn more or purchase from Amazon.com
Reviews
Editorial
Reviews
Book
Description
When it first appeared in the mid-1980s, this book transcended the
traditional ethological focus on sexual interactions by analyzing male-female
relationships outside the context of mating in a troop of wild baboons. Barbara
Smuts used long-term friendships between males and females, documented over
a two-year period, to show how social interactions between members of friendly
pairs differed from those of other troop mates. Her findings, now enhanced with
data from another fifteen years of field studies, suggest that the evolution
of male reproductive strategies in baboons can only be understood by considering
the relationship between sex and friendship: female baboons prefer to mate with
males who have previously engaged in friendly interaction with them and their
offspring. Smuts suggests that female choice may promote male investment in
other species, and she explores the relevance of her findings for the evolution
of male-female relationships in humans.
Click
here to learn more or purchase from Amazon.com