Chimpanzee Politics Quotes

“Harold Laswell's famous definition of politics as a social process determining "who gets what, when, and how," there can be little doubt that chimpanzees engage in it. Since in both humans and their closest relatives the process involves bluff, coalitions, and isolation tactics, a common terminology is warranted.”
― Frans de Waal, Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex among Apes

“This book [...] demonstrates something we had already suspected on the grounds of the close connection between apes and man: that the social organization of chimpanzees is almost too human to be true.”
― Frans de Waal, Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex among Apes

“The influence of the recent past is always overestimated. When we are asked to name the greatest human inventions we tend to think of the telephone, the electric light bulb and the silicon chip rather than the wheel, the plough and the taming of fire.”
― Frans De Waal, Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex among Apes

“When Aristotle referred to man as a political animal he could not know just how near the mark he was. Our political activity seems to be a part of an evolutionary heritage we share with our close relatives. If someone had said this to me before I started working at Arnhem, I would have rejected such an idea as just too neat an analogy. What my work at Arnhem has taught me, however, is that the roots of politics are older than humanity. Nor would it be correct to accuse me of having, either consciously or unconsciously, projected human patterns onto chimpanzee behavior. The reverse is nearer the truth; my knowledge
and experience of chimpanzee behavior have led me to look at humans in another light.”
― Frans de Waal, Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex among Apes

“Вероятно, если судить по её плохим зубам и слабому здоровью, Франье - уже пожилая обезьяна. Она по натуре крайне неуверенна и робка. Она первой поднимает тревогу громким лаем, когда что-то пугает её, например, когда она сталкивается с большим пауком или когда среди сотен лиц посетителей она внезапно узнаёт ветеринара.”
― Frans de Waal, Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex among Apes