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Primate Behavior: Field Studies of Monkeys and Apes.
New York, 1965, 8vo t.tela pp. XIV-654 con num. ill. n.t.
- GenresScience
Hardcover
First published June 1, 1965
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 12, 2023
I feel like I should have a stunning and striking opening line to represent a book that took me six days to read (twice as long as my usual read), but I can't seem to find anything witty to say. As I try to write high quality book reviews not only for myself but for the people that turn to them for guidance (although people turning to them for guidance is a complete fantasy, especially for obscurities such as this), I will probably just start the book review without a ham-fisted introduction that sets me along the path with a crooked foot, although now that I think about this first paragraph, that damage has probably already been done.
Anyways, let's talk about the Irevn DeVore-facilitated collection of research papers that sits before us today. This book was released in the mid-60s and concurred with a "council" of scientists who were trying to seriously research primates at a time when most naturalists were not. These papers represent some of the first forays into understanding the world's diverse primate social structures. Hence, it was a fitting place for me to dive into the world of primate psychology for the first time. This was a prudent journey for me since I'm not only a devout science fiction reader but also an aspiring science fiction writer who believes that understanding more about our natural world will help me better write realistic aliens and the like. With all of that being said, did this book really help me in my journey?
*Primate Behavior* has field studies by a bunch of different researchers on a bunch of different species of primates. After an introduction to the circumstances leading to the book's release, we get two papers on African baboons, one by DeVore and one by somebody else. These set the stage for the book's two overarching interests: population dynamics (how animals group themselves, age and sex ratios, reproduction statistics, etc) and dominance structures (not just primate hierarchies). After this are three chapters on macaques, two of which (the rhesus monkey populations in and around some Indian temples and the controlled population on a Caribbean island) might have been my favorite parts of the book. After them, we get a few more chapters about monkeys about langurs, howlers in Middle America, and the lemurs of Madagascar. I was quite excited to read those excerpts because they're so different than the other studies, but it got to be quite confusing since it tackled dozens of species of lemur and dealt largely with their scientific names.
The second large portion of the book collection reports on apes. This entailed a report on gorillas and over one hundred pages on chimpanzees... aye, yi, yi. The second half of the chimp-spree was actually a research paper by Jane Goodall at the beginning of her studies. The "Apes" portion ended with a passage on behavioral comparison of apes. 140 pages of comparative studies followed. On one hand, they're more in-depth and thought-provoking, but on the other, they dragged a lot more and held my interest a lot less. Let's get into why I think that is and how this book really did teach me some unique things.
My whole life, I've loved graphs and charts. I remember being in school and being frustrated with the other little kids who couldn't process visual representation of information as quickly or skillfully as I could. Hence, it feels bizarrely rewarding to absorb so many graphs and charts in this book. There are population maps and tables explaining group dynamics and these funky graphical displays of the myriad forms of monkey dominance and I just loved it. Honestly, I probably liked the graphics more than the texts themselves! When things got too dry I knew I'd have something pretty to look at and re-engage me soon enough. This is probably the root of my biggest problem with the last sequence of the book: there are barely any graphs, and it's just straight small text on big pages. The content was interesting but it was hard to engage me without the graphing cavalry.
That does not mean that this book doesn't have good info; it has a lot. The statistics that make up three-quarters of this book are irrefutable and the extrapolations that the writers make about social structures (like the difference dominance structures) or evolution (like when reproductive seasons fall; maybe babies are born in the dry season so it's the wet season when they require more milk) genuinely inspired me. The last hundred pages, when they started talking about what different trends in lifespan and development age and max intelligence, got very interesting but also, as I mentioned, unengaging. These chapters are worth a review a few months/years down the line to get all of this good comparative information a bit more secured in my head.
This information may all be a bit dated (even though it hasn't been *quite* 60 years...) but I still think that the scientific experience, particularly the scientific method displayed by these scientists on a fringe of an unexplored frontier, holds up to the gales of time. I just wish I could've enjoyed it more... my final score is a 6.5/10, but this is not representative of the scientific mettle of these papers or anything like that. This also serves as a good historical source for the study of animals. All-in-all, despite the long time that it took me to read this book, I'm glad that I did, and next time I write about aliens, they may just be one-upping and ganging up on each other just a little more...
Anyways, let's talk about the Irevn DeVore-facilitated collection of research papers that sits before us today. This book was released in the mid-60s and concurred with a "council" of scientists who were trying to seriously research primates at a time when most naturalists were not. These papers represent some of the first forays into understanding the world's diverse primate social structures. Hence, it was a fitting place for me to dive into the world of primate psychology for the first time. This was a prudent journey for me since I'm not only a devout science fiction reader but also an aspiring science fiction writer who believes that understanding more about our natural world will help me better write realistic aliens and the like. With all of that being said, did this book really help me in my journey?
*Primate Behavior* has field studies by a bunch of different researchers on a bunch of different species of primates. After an introduction to the circumstances leading to the book's release, we get two papers on African baboons, one by DeVore and one by somebody else. These set the stage for the book's two overarching interests: population dynamics (how animals group themselves, age and sex ratios, reproduction statistics, etc) and dominance structures (not just primate hierarchies). After this are three chapters on macaques, two of which (the rhesus monkey populations in and around some Indian temples and the controlled population on a Caribbean island) might have been my favorite parts of the book. After them, we get a few more chapters about monkeys about langurs, howlers in Middle America, and the lemurs of Madagascar. I was quite excited to read those excerpts because they're so different than the other studies, but it got to be quite confusing since it tackled dozens of species of lemur and dealt largely with their scientific names.
The second large portion of the book collection reports on apes. This entailed a report on gorillas and over one hundred pages on chimpanzees... aye, yi, yi. The second half of the chimp-spree was actually a research paper by Jane Goodall at the beginning of her studies. The "Apes" portion ended with a passage on behavioral comparison of apes. 140 pages of comparative studies followed. On one hand, they're more in-depth and thought-provoking, but on the other, they dragged a lot more and held my interest a lot less. Let's get into why I think that is and how this book really did teach me some unique things.
My whole life, I've loved graphs and charts. I remember being in school and being frustrated with the other little kids who couldn't process visual representation of information as quickly or skillfully as I could. Hence, it feels bizarrely rewarding to absorb so many graphs and charts in this book. There are population maps and tables explaining group dynamics and these funky graphical displays of the myriad forms of monkey dominance and I just loved it. Honestly, I probably liked the graphics more than the texts themselves! When things got too dry I knew I'd have something pretty to look at and re-engage me soon enough. This is probably the root of my biggest problem with the last sequence of the book: there are barely any graphs, and it's just straight small text on big pages. The content was interesting but it was hard to engage me without the graphing cavalry.
That does not mean that this book doesn't have good info; it has a lot. The statistics that make up three-quarters of this book are irrefutable and the extrapolations that the writers make about social structures (like the difference dominance structures) or evolution (like when reproductive seasons fall; maybe babies are born in the dry season so it's the wet season when they require more milk) genuinely inspired me. The last hundred pages, when they started talking about what different trends in lifespan and development age and max intelligence, got very interesting but also, as I mentioned, unengaging. These chapters are worth a review a few months/years down the line to get all of this good comparative information a bit more secured in my head.
This information may all be a bit dated (even though it hasn't been *quite* 60 years...) but I still think that the scientific experience, particularly the scientific method displayed by these scientists on a fringe of an unexplored frontier, holds up to the gales of time. I just wish I could've enjoyed it more... my final score is a 6.5/10, but this is not representative of the scientific mettle of these papers or anything like that. This also serves as a good historical source for the study of animals. All-in-all, despite the long time that it took me to read this book, I'm glad that I did, and next time I write about aliens, they may just be one-upping and ganging up on each other just a little more...
August 13, 2009
I just saw this classic sitting on one of my book shelves. This was published in 1965 and represented close to the state of the art in studies of primate behavior. I bought this when I was an undergraduate student at Bradley University and took it with me to graduate school, where I found considerable use for it.
Studies of primate behavior were still relatively new, in terms of sound methodology, when this book came out. It contains some of the early classic studies, such as Jane Goodall's work with the Gombe Stream chimpanzees, Irven DeVore's and K. R. L. Hall's exquisite work on baboons, Phyllis Jay's study of langurs of North India, George Schaller's important work on the Mountain Gorilla, and so on. As the Preface puts it (page vii-viii), "In less than a decade field studies of nonhuman primates have multiplied at an almost unbelievable rate, and today there are well over 50 individuals from at least 9 countries engaged in such studies."
The introductory chapter, written by Sherwood Washburn and David Hamburg, lays out an overview of primate behavior as a subject of study. It includes a discussion of the classification of primates--from old world monkeys to the new world monkeys to the apes as well as the prosimians (primitive primates). Part I of the book features a series of works on monkeys and prosimians; Part II focuses on studies of the apes; Part III compares behavior patterns across primate species (e.g., reproduction in monkeys and apes, social development in monkeys and apes, primate signaling and communication, and implications of primate research.
This book is dated; much research has been carried out since. Nonetheless, I enjoyed reminding myself of some of the very real contributions of this volume. For its place in the history of primate studies, this is still well worth looking at.
Studies of primate behavior were still relatively new, in terms of sound methodology, when this book came out. It contains some of the early classic studies, such as Jane Goodall's work with the Gombe Stream chimpanzees, Irven DeVore's and K. R. L. Hall's exquisite work on baboons, Phyllis Jay's study of langurs of North India, George Schaller's important work on the Mountain Gorilla, and so on. As the Preface puts it (page vii-viii), "In less than a decade field studies of nonhuman primates have multiplied at an almost unbelievable rate, and today there are well over 50 individuals from at least 9 countries engaged in such studies."
The introductory chapter, written by Sherwood Washburn and David Hamburg, lays out an overview of primate behavior as a subject of study. It includes a discussion of the classification of primates--from old world monkeys to the new world monkeys to the apes as well as the prosimians (primitive primates). Part I of the book features a series of works on monkeys and prosimians; Part II focuses on studies of the apes; Part III compares behavior patterns across primate species (e.g., reproduction in monkeys and apes, social development in monkeys and apes, primate signaling and communication, and implications of primate research.
This book is dated; much research has been carried out since. Nonetheless, I enjoyed reminding myself of some of the very real contributions of this volume. For its place in the history of primate studies, this is still well worth looking at.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews