Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would Be Human

published	February 26th 2008 by Bantam
binding	Hardcover
isbn	0553803832 (isbn13: 9780553803839)
ebook
pages	384
description	Could an adorable chimpanzee raised from infancy by a human family bridge the gap between species—and change the way we think about the boundari...more [close] Could an adorable chimpanzee raised from infancy by a human family bridge the gap between species—and change the way we think about the boundaries between the animal and human worlds? Here is the strange and moving account of an experiment intended to answer just those questions, and the astonishing biography of the chimp who was chosen to see it through. Dubbed Project Nim, the experiment was the brainchild of Herbert S. Terrace, a psychologist at Columbia University. His goal was to teach a chimpanzee American Sign Language in order to refute Noam Chomsky’s assertion that language is an exclusively human trait. Nim Chimpsky, the baby chimp at the center of this ambitious, potentially groundbreaking study, was “adopted” by one of Dr. Terrace’s graduate students and brought home to live with her and her large family in their elegant brownstone on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. At first Nim’s progress in learning ASL and adapting to his new environment exceeded all expectations. His charm, mischievous sense of humor, and keen, sometimes shrewdly manipulative understanding of human nature endeared him to everyone he met, and even led to guest appearances on Sesame Street, where he was meant to model good behavior for toddlers. But no one had thought through the long-term consequences of raising a chimp in the human world, and when funding for the study ran out, Nim’s problems began. Over the next two decades, exiled from the people he loved, Nim was rotated in and out of various facilities. It would be a long time before this chimp who had been brought up to identify with his human caretakers had another opportunity to blow out the candles on a cake celebrating his birthday. No matter where he was sent, however, Nim’s hard-earned ability to converse with humans would prove to be his salvation, protecting him from the fate of many of his peers. Drawing on interviews with the people who lived with Nim, diapered him, dressed him, taught him, and loved him, Elizabeth Hess weaves an unforgettable tale of an extraordinary and charismatic creature. His story will move and entertain at the same time that it challenges us to ask what it means to be human, and what we owe to the animals who so enrich our lives. [close]
date added	11-01-07 edit book

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Vesela rated it:

06/21/08

Read in June, 2008

recommends it for: those interested in langauge and/or animal research

Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would Be Human is a discomforting and absorbing biography of a research animal. In 1973, Columbia University psychologist Dr. Herbert Terrance set out to prove the renowned MIT linguistics professor Noam Chompsky wrong about language acquisition. Chomsky asserts that language, as defined by the innate ability for one to understand grammatical structure and to produce creatively new sentence structures, is an exclusively human trait. Terrance, on the other hand, bel...more Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would Be Human is a discomforting and absorbing biography of a research animal. In 1973, Columbia University psychologist Dr. Herbert Terrance set out to prove the renowned MIT linguistics professor Noam Chompsky wrong about language acquisition. Chomsky asserts that language, as defined by the innate ability for one to understand grammatical structure and to produce creatively new sentence structures, is an exclusively human trait. Terrance, on the other hand, believed that language was a behavior that could be learned via reinforcement. To achieve these aims, he planned to raise the chimp as a human and to have his human family teach him language using American Sign Language (ASL). In the end, the ambitious Professor Terrance would recant and side with Chomksy.

I first learned about Project Nim in an undergraduate level linguistics course. Intrigued by the idea of interspecies communication, I never forgot about the study and was delighted to find Elizabeth Hess’s thorough account of Nim’s life and a short history of primate language studies. In the book, we learn about the personal lives of the many research scientists, students, and volunteers responsible for Nim’s care and learning. At first I was surprised by the detailed drama of these people, but later realized how important it is to know qualitatively about Nim’s ‘habitat.’ These people and their conditions provide a context for the language study and it became very clear how difficult it was to maintain any controls over the project.

I was astonished by the lack of planning and loose methodology with Project Nim. Graduate student caregivers came and went. This itinerant nature of his ‘family’ caused Nim to become moody and violent. Professor Terrace did not bother to hire staffers who were fluent in ASL; thus, signing was loose and nuanced. Mid-study when an ASL teacher was brought on board, she asked why the chimp was not raised by a deaf couple who would sign effortlessly and continuously. Inconsistency was detrimental to the study.

Despite all the media attention Project Nim attracted, Terrance was unable to continue to secure funding for the tremulous project; and while his last two graduate students were passionate about continuing, it was doubtful either would stay for the long haul. Project Nim was finished. Terrance returned Nim from whence he came, the Institute for Primate Studies (IPS) in Norman, Oklahoma. The remainder of the book relates how IPS failed, too, and how Nim and his peers were sold to a medical research laboratory. A public campaign to save Nim the Precocious ensued.

Hess has written an important book that challenges us to rethink our assumptions about animal research. If you read this book, prepare your heart as you will be charmed by this extraordinary animal, and prepare your mind to explore the gray area between language and communication.
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Susan rated it:

09/02/08

Read in August, 2008

recommends it for: no one

Don't bother with this book, I was very disappointed in what I read. From the very beginning she mixes up what is fact and what is not, for example when talking about the genetic similarities between chimps and humans, she states "In 2006 Harvard geneticist David Reich discovered evidence that we share a common ancestor, the product of sexual relations between humans and chimpanzees."(pg. 9) This is speculation, but she is stating it as fact. It is also total crap. There has never be...more Don't bother with this book, I was very disappointed in what I read. From the very beginning she mixes up what is fact and what is not, for example when talking about the genetic similarities between chimps and humans, she states "In 2006 Harvard geneticist David Reich discovered evidence that we share a common ancestor, the product of sexual relations between humans and chimpanzees."(pg. 9) This is speculation, but she is stating it as fact. It is also total crap. There has never been any cross breeding between humans and chimpanzees, it is not genetically possible. There has, however, been possible cross-breeding between different species of early man (eg. homo sapiens & homo neandertalensis). Maybe she was simply mixed up? We evolved from common ancestors, that is why we're so similar. And to believe that (and write in a book!) we're the result of an ape-man mating tells me that she is completely uneducated in the process of evolution. And her reference for this "fact"? An article from the New York Times. She also goes out of her way to bash Roger Fouts repeatedly, even straying from the story for pages at a time to do so. She has never, to my knowledge, met or even talked to him. She repeatedly praises William Lemmon, a man well known for his cruelty to chimps and other animals. I could not figure out why she was making him out to be a hero and Fouts to be a jerk, but then in the back I found that many of her photos and references came from Lemmons son. It is obvious from the beginning that she has no background in biology, genetics, animal husbandry, or chimpanzees. And if I were just a random person reading this book, I wouldn't know how much of what she is claiming is actually untrue -I would have taken it as fact (as it is presented as such). This upsets me greatly because her false ideas and views are now in the hands of many people (the book was promoted in magazines including Cosmopolitan as a "must read"). I have been studying and working with animals including chimpanzees for over 11 years, and this is the first time I have read a book about primates where I have had to mark multiple pages to research on my own because I knew the statements made could not possibly be true. She should have used the classic line "story based on real events" rather than non-fiction, for this would excuse her mess of a story. She has written the book based on accounts from people, and we all know everyone sees and remembers events differently from others who have experienced the same event- especially 40 years later. Please, if you have read this book, read others that are based less gossip and more on research, like "Through A Window" by Jane Goodall, and "Next of Kin" by Roger Fouts. ...less

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