Interesting US book review for Jon Cohen's "Almost A Chimpanzee" which we should see on our UK Amazon in early December. Cohen's take on chimps and humans is entirely complementary to my own and, although there is inevitably significant overlap, it sounds as if its going to be a lively read. The last para of the review is telling - and I approve!
"The impossibility of a humanzee pleases Cohen, of course, who would rather us view chimps as very distant cousins. He tellingly quotes an American zookeeper, who told him, "Chimps are not imperfect human beings. They are perfect chimps."
Are we humans simply remodelled apes? Chimps with a tweak? Is the difference between our genomes so minuscule it justifies the argument that our cognition and behaviour must also differ from chimps by barely a whisker? If “chimps are us” should we grant them human rights? Or is this one of the biggest fallacies in the study of evolution? NOT A CHIMP argues that these similarities have been grossly over-exaggerated - we should keep chimps at arm’s length. Are humans cognitively unique after all?
Wednesday, 20 October 2010
Monday, 18 October 2010
Trouble In The Monkey House
A readable, if slightly confusing, article in the NY Times by Jennifer Schuessler, in which she conflates the downfall of comparative psychologist Marc Hauser, amid accusations of data-rigging, with a review of Sara Gruen's new novel "Ape House", and, much more pertinent to readers of this blog, the new book "Almost A Chimpanzee" by science writer Jon Cohen. Part of it revolves around the contrast between Gruen's starry-eyed interpretation of her meeting with "language competent" bonobos, and Cohen's more realistic account of their limitations as human linguists. Cohen's book is due to be published in the UK in December and, well-written, should prove to be entirely complementary to NOT A CHIMP, and Helene Guldberg's JUST ANOTHER APE? That worm is turning fast!