The Promise of Contemporary Primatology

by Erin P. Riley, Agustín Fuentes (Series Editor)

This book argues for a contemporary primatology that recognizes humans as integral components in the ecologies of primates. This contemporary primatology uses a broadened theoretical lens and methodological toolkit to study primate behavior and ecology in increasingly anthropogenic contexts and seeks points of intersection and spaces for collaborative exchange across the natural sciences, social sciences, and humanities. The book begins by exploring the American tradition of anthropology, providing historical and disciplinary context for the emergence of field primatology and how it became a part of this tradition. It then examines how primatology transformed into a field dominated by evolutionary approaches and highlights how the increasingly anthropogenic environments in which primates live present opportunities to understand primate adaptability at work. In doing so, it explores how an extended evolutionary approach can help explain behavioral variation in these contemporary environments. Focus is then given to the ethnoprimatological approach, a contemporary approach that provides a pluralistic framework, drawing from the natural and social sciences and humanities, needed to study human-primate coexistence in the Anthropocene. Finally, the book considers how such a crossing of disciplines can inform primate conservation in the future. An important interdisciplinary reassessment, this book will be of significant interest to primatologists, biological anthropologists, and scholars of anthropology more generally, as well as evolutionary and conservation biologists.

Genres: Anthropology

186 pages, Hardcover

Published September 13, 2019

Reviews

[Wendelle]

This book advocates that contemporary (and future) primatology should pursue a)ethnoprimatology, or the study of primates within an anthropogenic context, as recognition of human-caused or human-related changes in the population structure, behavior, distribution and survival levels of primates;
b) a deeper integration within the anthropology department, as a more holistic, interdisciplinary, and beneficial way of study, instead of withdrawal and migration of primatology towards the evolutionary biology department.
There are 6 areas where ethnoprimatology can be pursued, namely:
" "the comparative ecology of primates and humans; predation ecology – human as primate predators; symbiotic ecology – other symbiotic relationships between humans and primates; cultural ecology – the cultural relevance of primates; ethnoecology – traditional knowledge about primates; and conservation ecology – the conservation implications of the human-primate
interface""

[Alexa Duchesneau · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think that some of the arguments for how to apply anthropological theory and conservation to primatology couldve been stronger. I also had an issue with some of the primatologists that were most prominently cited. But overall, this was a great book. I particularly loved the history of the four fields approach to anthropology and primatology!

[Laurie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really great argument for broadening primatology and integrating more context and nuance.