Reaching into Thought: The Minds of the Great Apes

by Anne E. Russon (Editor)

In this book, field and laboratory researchers show that the Great Apes are capable of thinking at symbolic levels, traditionally considered uniquely human. They show these high-level abilities in both social and ecological domains, including tool use, imitation, pretense, self-awareness, deception, consolation, teaching and proto-culture itself. Here, contributors emphasize the mechanisms involved in building these abilities--especially the lengthy developmental and "enculturation" processes--suggesting changes to current views on how primate and human intelligence have evolved. Researchers and professionals in the fields of primatology, animal behavior, anthropology, linguistics, and cognitive psychology will find much useful information in this book.

Paperback

First published July 26, 1996

Reviews

[Andrea]

This is a great collection of work. Really good reviews of various topics, and does a good job of addressing some 'enculturation' differences between differentially reared apes. Also not a bad read, not too hard for someone that is a lay person interested in apes to get through.

[Catherine Smith]

when i read this book i was not too impressed. it was fairly good and had good information but it was more so the type of information i expected to find. like the stereotypical facts about apes being so intelligent and very similar to humans not only w certain actions but with their way of life. the only thing that actually did surprise me was a case study of an ape using a tool to help get something from a tree. it is not common (especially since i have read through many many animal books about various animals ) for an animal to do something that people see as so simple as using a tool... or thinking to use a tool to make things easier for themselves.