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.
The underlying theme uniting the papers of this volume is the quest for a further understanding of human behavior. The similarities between the behaviors of other primates and humans have captivated us even before a science arose. But what is the justification for making such comparisons? Comparisons, like classifications, can be made on any basis whatever. The aim in making any scientific comparison is the same as doing a classification. That is, one attempts to make the comparison on a "natural" basis. Natural, in this case, means that the comparison reflects processes that occur in nature. The fundamental paradigm for making natural comparisons in biology is based on evolutionary theory. The evolutionary paradigm is inherently one of comparisons between and within species. Conversely, it is impossible to begin to make cross species comparisons without making, implicitly at least, evolutionary arguments. But evolution is a complex construct of theories (Lewis, 1980), and comparisons can be made out of different theoretical bases. F or the sake of this discussion we can combine varieties of sub-theories into two categories: those having to do with descent with modification, and those concerned with the mechanics of evolutionary change--notably natural selection.
The present workshop started with various requests on behalf of several participants: some of us suggested the desirability of having only a free discussion, leaving papers aside: others would have preferred to stick to papers, though enlarging the discussion of each of them to more general topics. Further, intermediate positions were also present. From these different proposals came the hypothesis that a common frame or red line to all of our discussions on behavioural development would be to see what could be done by an interexchange of differing but converging disciplines in favour of children, and in particular of children with psychic handicaps, in terms of preven tion and cure. At the end of three days of prolonged meetings, where each paper was given and extensively discussed, one feels that a number of referral points have emerged. On the one side the plas ticity of behaviour, on the other is reciprocity (between mother and child, father and child and perhaps we should add between mother and father). The third point, which perhaps has been only partially covered, concerns the relationship between these two variables, i. e. in terms of treatment of a child, the potential plasticity of his behaviour can be used to his great advantage if it is related to the historical common needs of the reciprocal relationship, for example, between the child and his parents.
Motor development is an integral part of the developmental process. Understanding the organization of the sensory-motor system and its adaptations in response to environmental factors is a vital part of understanding individual development as a whole. This volume describes and discusses human motor development using longitudinal study methods, and from an interdisciplinary perspective.
Where We Stand Field workers—scientists of animal (including human!) behavior in nature—have long been fascinated by wild chimpanzees. A person who once has studied wild chimpanzees will be eager to observe them again. A person who has studied them twice will make every effort to continue the study, unless prevented from doing so. In short, behavioral primatology is addictive! Many people, among them Jane Goodall, Richard Wrangham, and I, do not regret that they have dedicated their whole lives to the study of wild chimpanzees. This is because the apes’ behavior is always challenging: chimpanzees are cheerful, charming, playful, curious, beautiful, easygoing, generous, tolerant, and trustw- thy most of the time, but also are cautious, cunning, ugly, violent, ferocious, blo- thirsty, greedy, and disloyal at other times. We human beings share both the light and dark sides with our closest living relatives. For decades, we have documented huge across-population variation in behavior, as well as within-population variation. Cultural biology (now called cultural pri- tology), as proposed 60 years ago by Kinji Imanishi, recently has flourished.
