Visions of Caliban: On Chimpanzees and People [Paperback]

Jane Goodall (Author), Dale Peterson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 9, 1994

We share 99% of our genes with chimpanzees, and our relations with them epitomize both our kinship with and our alienation from the rest of the natural world. In this groundbreaking book, a brilliant writer and a great scientist paint an extraordinary portrait of chimps, humans, and our complex lives together since the 1600s, when Shakespeare created Caliban, neither man nor beast but "honored with a human shape". 8-page photo insert.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

For the last 35 years British biologist Jane Goodall has been living among African chimpanzees, recording their behavior and explaining it in a number of fine books. With literature professor Dale Peterson, Goodall here looks at the place of chimpanzees in the popular imagination, from Shakespeare's play The Tempest (whence the book's title) to David Letterman's monkey-cam, while Goodall recaps her work among chimps and decries their probably unhappy future. As she tells us in chilling detail, the chimpanzees' rain forest habitat is on the decline due to consumption of fuel wood as well as industrial logging, and chimps are thus threatened with extinction. The authors even wonder whether, given the relentless destruction of the chimpanzees' home, the poor creatures might not be better off in zoos. Peterson's and Goodall's point-counterpoint makes for fascinating, if somber, reading.

From Publishers Weekly

In an unusual collaboration, historian Peterson ( The Deluge and the Ark ) and anthropologist Goodall ( In the Shadow of Man ) explore human-chimpanzee relationships, beginning with a look at the interaction of the primitive chimpanzee-like figure of Caliban and the powerful Prospero in Shakespeare's The Tempest . Peterson reports on the current conservation situation; he gives a chilling account of the illicit international trade, and of the animals used as pets and in the entertainment business. It is an ugly story. Goodall discusses ethical issues associated with our treatment of chimpanzees in captivity, focusing on biomedical laboratories. She advocates legislation to prohibit private ownership of great apes, to prevent their use in entertainment and to phase them out of medical research. Both authors draw on personal observation and experience to make a powerful statement for humane treatment of these close-to-human creatures.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 367 pages
• Publisher: Mariner Books (June 9, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0395701007
• ISBN-13: 978-0395701003
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.5 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,427,325 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A heart-wrenching and powerful book everyone should read, September 9, 1999

By 

John Beam (Phillipsburg, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: VISIONS CALIBAN CL (Hardcover)

Certainly the most influencial book I've ever read - it led to my pursuing a degree, becoming a vegan, and an animal rights activist. And a better person. The tales of misery endured by these brethren of our are a very difficult read for those who have the capacity to care selflessly about all life, but gives the reader a very genuine sencse of what they suffer at the hands of humans who would do anything to make money and enhance their careers. Visions of Caliban is a very sobering experience, and it's very difficult at points to read beyond a couple of pages, because the reality of what these horribly unfortunate beings is truly sadenning. If everyone read this book, chimpanzee research would come to a very sudden conclusion. Read this Book!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Read this book before its too late., July 9, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Visions of Caliban: On Chimpanzees and People (Paperback)

No more discussion about the abuses of chimpanzees in abstract terms. Peterson goes out to find what specifically happens to specific chimpanzees and tracks their lives usually to their grim end. Dr. Goodall, the world's foremost expert on free chimapanzees contrasts Peterson with her insightful understanding which over thirty years of intimate knowledge of these great apes has given her. Sharing more than 98% of our genes with the chimpanzee and all of the cognitive and emotional similarities that go along with that, we need to rethink how we treat our closest living relative.

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Uncomfortable truths, June 27, 2005

By 

Mick McAllister - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Visions of Caliban: On Chimpanzees and People (Paperback)

This brilliant, understated book exposes a terrible injustice in the United States, corporate medicine's aggressive attempts to undermine the Endangered Species Act and CITES for their personal gain. Like so many embattled exploiters, they have responded to criticism and revelations with mud-slinging campaigns and lies, such as NIMH's estimate that they needed 200-300 chimpanezees a year to continue research vital to human health. At the same time, NIMH had access to more than 100 chimps, and was only able to find uses for 25 of them.

Peterson and Goodall have taken the productive path: honesty without invective or confrontation. This has allowed Jane Goodall to accomplish small but significant changes, but they are far too small and far too trivial. It would be nice if Dr. Robert Gallo would agree to be locked into a 5x5x7 cage, with a grate at the bottom so he would not find himself smeared with all his feces, but nothing to protect him from the blowflies his stench would draw. Welcome to medical research, Bobbo.

Human beings have a history of declaring those it would exploit to be "lesser creations": Jews, Negros, Indians, Gypsies, the harmless primates we have nearly exterminated. When the "lesser creations" are human, they can speak out to protest, and they are heard. Someone else must speak for the chimpanzees mutilated in research labs, the orangutans brutalized to entertain Las Vegas drunks, the gorillas slaughtered so their children can be confined in zoos.

The next time you see *The Tempest,* imagine Caliban turning on Prospero, with his complacent human superiority, and speaking the extraordinary and powerful words of Shylock: "Hath not a beast eyes? Pricked do we not bleed?" Animals are bleeding to make your mascara safe. Read this book, look long at the orphaned chimp huddled in one of the photos, and then look in the mirror.