Customer Reviews

Infant Chimpanzee and Human Child: A Classic 1935 Comparative Study of Ape Emotions and Intelligence (Series in Affective Science)

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Nadezhda Ladygina-Kohts (1890-1963) did her research "as a relatively isolated pioneer in Stalinist Moscow." In this book she compared her observations beginning in 1913 of an infant chimpanzee (named "Joni") in her laboratory for 2-1/2 years with her later observations of her own infant son Roody (born in 1929). This edition also has an introduction by R. Allen and Beatrice Gardner (authors of books such as Teaching Sign Language to Chimpanzees).

Of course, our modern "humanitarian" impulses are shocked by passages such as the following: "One time, after (Joni) had bitten a boy, the chimpanzee was punished by whipping; he was beaten so harshly that the whip literally swished in the air. Nevertheless, he remained motionless and did not even show any intent to flee; he only curved his lips and scratched himself at the most painful spots sometimes."

She reports on Joni's use of tools: long sticks (to "scare cockroaches from the cracks in his cage"), nails (for digging in the ground), etc.

She notes significantly, "Joni imitates a dog's barking very well, but I have not noticed, in a 2-1/2 year period, any attempts on his part to reproduce or imitate even a semblance of intelligible human sounds."

She also makes the interesting statement, "Paradoxical as it might sound, I have to admit that, in my heart, both of them, Joni and Roody, take up an almost equal space."