Chimpanzee Politics Quotes

“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

“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

“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

“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