This volume attempts an ontogenetically oriented understanding of the behavioral development of free-living infant chimpanzees. The focus of the investigation is on the organization underlying developing behavior. The study serves as a model for achieving an integrated view about early development and motor behaviors from separate cases. The monograph is beautifully illustrated to depict postural and other behavioral expressions studied.
Long-term ecological research studies are rare and invaluable resources, particularly when they are as thoroughly documented as the Mahale Mountain Chimpanzee Project in Tanzania. Directed by Toshisada Nishida from 1965 until 2011, the project continues to yield new and fascinating findings about our closest neighbour species. In a fitting tribute to Nishida's contribution to science, this book brings together fifty years of research into one encyclopaedic volume. Alongside previously unpublished data, the editors include new translations of Japanese writings throughout the book to bring previously inaccessible work to non-Japanese speakers. The history and ecology of the site, chimpanzee behaviour and biology, and ecological management are all addressed through firsthand accounts by Mahale researchers. The authors highlight long-term changes in behaviour, where possible, and draw comparisons with other chimpanzee sites across Africa to provide an integrative view of chimpanzee research today.
From an evolutionary perspective, understanding chimpanzees offers a way of understanding the basis of human nature. This book on cognitive development in chimpanzees is the first of its kind to focus on infants reared by their own mothers within a natural setting, illustrating various aspects of chimpanzee cognition and the developmental changes accompanying them. The subjects are chimpanzees of three generations inhabiting an enriched environment, as well as a wild community in West Africa. There is a foreword by Jane Goodall and 26 color photos of chimpanzees in the laboratory and in the field in West Africa are included.
Recent discoveries about wild chimpanzees have dramatically reshaped our understanding of these great apes and their kinship with humans. We now know that chimpanzees not only have genomes similar to our own but also plot political coups, wage wars over territory, pass on cultural traditions to younger generations, and ruthlessly strategize for resources, including sexual partners. In The New Chimpanzee, Craig Stanford challenges us to let apes guide our inquiry into what it means to be human. With wit and lucidity, Stanford explains what the past two decades of chimpanzee field research has taught us about the origins of human social behavior, the nature of aggression and communication, and the divergence of humans and apes from a common ancestor. Drawing on his extensive observations of chimpanzee behavior and social dynamics, Stanford adds to our knowledge of chimpanzees’ political intelligence, sexual power plays, violent ambition, cultural diversity, and adaptability. The New Chimpanzee portrays a complex and even more humanlike ape than the one Jane Goodall popularized more than a half century ago. It also sounds an urgent call for the protection of our nearest relatives at a moment when their survival is at risk.
Scientists have long theorized that abstract, symbolic thinking evolved to help humans negotiate such classically male activities as hunting, tool making, and warfare, and eventually developed into spoken language. In Finding Our Tongues, Dean Falk overturns this established idea, offering a daring new theory that springs from a simple observation: parents all over the world, in all cultures, talk to infants by using baby talk or ''Motherese.'' Falk shows how Motherese developed as a way of reassuring babies when mothers had to put them down in order to do work. The melodic vocalizations of early Motherese not only provided the basis of language but also contributed to the growth of music and art. Combining cutting-edge neuroscience with classic anthropology, Falk offers a potent challenge to conventional wisdom about the emergence of human language.
This volume brings together leading experts in comparative and evolutionary psychology. Top scholars summarize the histories and possible futures of their disciplines, and the contribution of each to illuminating the evolutionary forces that give rise to unique abilities in distantly and closely related species.
Understanding the chimpanzee mind is akin to opening a window onto human consciousness. Many of our complex cognitive processes have origins that can be seen in the way that chimpanzees think, learn, and behave. The Mind of the Chimpanzee brings together scores of prominent scientists from around the world to share the most recent research into what goes on inside the mind of our closest living relative. Intertwining a range of topics—including imitation, tool use, face recognition, culture, cooperation, and reconciliation—with critical commentaries on conservation and welfare, the collection aims to understand how chimpanzees learn, think, and feel, so that researchers can not only gain insight into the origins of human cognition, but also crystallize collective efforts to protect wild chimpanzee populations and ensure appropriate care in captive settings. With a breadth of material on cognition and culture from the lab and the field, The Mind of the Chimpanzee is a first-rate synthesis of contemporary studies of these fascinating mammals that will appeal to all those interested in animal minds and what we can learn from them.
Chapters by distinguished investigators in clinical psychology, psychiatry, and child development, many of whose work led to the new developmental model of psychopathology, provide a unique review of current research on vulnerability and resistance to disorder.
Language Origin: A Multidisciplinary Approach presents a synthesis of viewpoints and data on linguistic, psychological, anatomical and behavioral studies on living species of Primates and provides a comparative framework for the evaluation of paleoanthropological studies. This double endeavor makes it possible to direct new research on the nature and evolution of human language and cognition. The book is directed to students of linguistics, biology, anthropoloy, anatomy, physiology, neurology, psychology, archeology, paleontology, and other related fields. A better understanding of speech pathology may stem from a better understanding of the relationship of human communication to the evolution of our species. The book is conceived as a timely contribution to such knowledge since it allows, for the first time, a systematic assessment of the origins of human language from a comprehensive array of scientific viewpoints.
