7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Well-organized, with fascinating anecdotes, July 24, 2001
This review is from: Beauty and the Beasts: Woman, Ape, and Evolution (Hardcover)
The great apes share more than 98 percent of our DNA and in the last 40 years women have come to dominate the study of our closest relatives. Today 62 percent of primatologists are women. British primatologist Jahme's anecdotal overview of primate research focuses on the women who have shaped the field since Jane Goodall ("The Chimpanzees of Gombe," "Reason for Hope") established her chimp site at Gombe in 1958. Though women have made most of the startling discoveries about wild primate behavior, it was a man, Louis Leakey, who got it all started. Believing that the study of apes would enhance our knowledge of human evolution and convinced that women were more patient and observant than men, and therefore more suited to fieldwork, Leakey encouraged Jane Goodall's interest in wildlife and steered her to chimps. Inspired by Goodall's work, Leakey's other two "trimates", Dian Fossey ("Gorillas in the Mist") and Biruté Galdikas ("Reflections of Eden") achieved similarly impressive results studying gorillas and orangutans.
Jahme strikes a good balance between the work and the women, relating the dangers and controversies along with the triumphs. Jane Goodall left Gombe for two years after she was nearly abducted by terrorists in 1975 (four other workers were taken and later ransomed) and she has been criticized for influencing chimp behavior by using feeding stations (a practice she also now condemns). Dian Fossey was only in the Congo a few months when she was kidnapped and repeatedly raped by soldiers in 1967. She was the last white person to escape the Eastern Congo and all she wanted to do was get back to her gorillas, which she did, establishing a base on the Rwandan side of the mountain. Over the years her reputation for eccentricity grew as she risked her life and battled poachers and eco-tourism in an effort to save her beloved gorillas from extinction. Fossey was murdered in December 1985 and Jahme believes her sacrifice saved the gorillas, at least for now. Birute Galdikas has all but sacrificed her scientific reputation in her passion to save the rain forests and the orangutans of Borneo.
But Jahme moves far beyond the three leading ladies of primate study. She discusses Sarah Hrdy's discovery of the link between female promiscuity and male infanticide, Jo Thompson's study of the female-bonded bonobos, Sue Savage-Rumbaugh's work with apes and language, Thelma Rowell's successful challenge of male dominance theories among baboons, Barbara Smuts' work with chimps, dolphins and baboons. Just to name a few.
She explores how understanding of primate behavior has helped shape our understanding of human evolution and how field observation overturned the traditional male approaches and assumptions, until science came to embrace the idea that animals have emotions and are capable of love, murder and tool use. She profiles the women who rehabilitate captive chimps into the wild, sacrificing years of their lives in an effort that, more often than not, seems to end in death and heartbreak. She explores the lives of captive chimps in showbusiness, in American Sign Language programs, in zoos and laboratories. Captive apes, we learn, love to watch TV. A universally favorite movie is "Quest for Fire." Jiggs, star of the early Tarzan movies, and at 68, the oldest chimp in captivity, prefers his own performances above all.
The book's scope is tremendously ambitious and Jahme manages to interview almost everyone she mentions. It's a massive feat of organization, so well done it seems almost seamless. There is so much fascinating source material that the choice of what to leave out must have been daunting. In each chapter she presents biographical and research anecdotes that best illustrate the work and the people conducting it.
Her decision to include details of the personal and sexual lives of these prominent field researchers serves to underscore points of commonality with their animal subjects and to illustrate a pattern - an inability or unwillingness to commit to human relationships. With few exceptions, these women put non-human primates first.
While Jahme's prose is less than scintillating (nothing a good editor couldn't have fixed), her writing is clear, accessible and entertaining. It's an excellent introduction to the community of primate research and may spark interest in a broad audience. Her extensive (partial) bibliography will steer interested readers to more in-depth studies, particularly the many fascinating books of the field researchers Jahme profiles.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Women who love primates, September 12, 2000
This is a fascinating book and a must read for anyone interested in primates, primatology, evolution of man, the history of this area of science, the development of language, and the conservation of primates. Jahme discusses the major female primatologists (Goodall, Fossey, and Galdikas) as well as many lesser known, but equally important, women (and some men) in the field. Women seem to be better suited to studying primates in the wild, over long periods of time, in physically demanding and isolated environments than men are. They are attracted to this challenging field partially because of their innate maternal instincts. I gave this book a 4 because there are several factual mistakes, and many grammatical errors. These interfere with the flow of thought and makes one wonder if there are other factual errors that are not immediately apparent. This author needs a good editor, not just for the grammar but to verify facts. Still, it's fascinating for the layperson or anyone with a smattering of a background. Humans and chimpanzees share 98.5 of their DNA; this fact alone should make the subject of primatology and evolution important to every one of us.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beauty & The Beasts, October 10, 2000
Jahme relates the great surge in the past 50 years in the study of primates by the great encouragement of noted anthropologist Louis Leakey inspiring Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey and Birute Galdikas and other women to live among chimps, baboons, gorillas, bonobos and orangutans, and study their daily behavior.
She describes the women, their personal lives, their discoveries of primate behavior, the utility of those discoveries for the study of man. Jahme is aware that when one tries to tame a wild creature, that creature's behavior can change. It is a well written book with references to other books on similar subjects. Its general conclusion is that our primates are very close to us.
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