Apes and Sushi Masters: Cultural Reflections of a Primatologist

Author: (USA) Will / Ling Huai / Jiang Jun
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: "Frans de Waal is one of today's great ethologists and, coincidentally, a skilled storyteller. In this book, de Waal explores, like a philosopher, the similarities between humans and other animals. In the process, he takes us on a broad and highly insightful journey across different cultures, races, and various ethologists. Reading this book is truly a pleasure." This book challenges the fundamental assumptions about "who we are" and "what makes us different from other animals." The outstanding primatologist Frans de Waal, through delightful autobiographical anecdotes, rigorous investigation, and reflection, guides us to consider the possibility of apes having their own culture. We believe that only humans possess rich culture and can finely and diversely distinguish our behavior from that of animals. But what if the behavior of apes in response to their environment is learned through observing their elders (culture), rather than being derived from pure genetic instincts (nature)? What would happen then? This idea shakes the belief that has been held for centuries about what makes humans special. It also questions the recent tendency to view other animals as slaves of genetic programs. If animals, like humans, learn from one another, they would be closer to humans. De Waal corrects the assumption that humans are the only intelligent life capable of completing the leap from nature to culture. The title of this book comes from an analogy he made: comparing the transmission of behavior in ape societies to an apprentice carefully observing a sushi master at work. De Waal explores the details of social transmission and, at the same time, grasps a larger issue: how our own culture influences our perception of other animals, and how our understanding of animals affects our self-reflection. Here, he examines the influence of European ethology and Japanese primatology on the study of animal behavior. The issue of animal culture is deeply cultural, and it is no coincidence that the drive to advance the study of animal culture comes from the East, where there is little tendency to exclude humans from nature. Apes stand before us as a mirror, and in it, they are not clumsy imitators of humans but members of our extended family, possessing their own wisdom and dignity. Since 1975, when Carl Linnaeus bravely grouped us with monkeys and apes, we have recognized that we are not unique. Biologically, we have never been alone, and in this book, the author presents an equally startling claim—culturally, humans are not unique either.