Monkeytalk : inside the worlds and minds of primates

Resource Information

The work Monkeytalk : inside the worlds and minds of primates represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Austin Public Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

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Label

Monkeytalk : inside the worlds and minds of primates

Title remainder

inside the worlds and minds of primates

Statement of responsibility

Julia Fischer ; translated by Frederick B. Henry Jr

Creator

• trueFischer, Julia, 1966-

Contributor

• Henry, Frederick B., Jr.

Author

• trueFischer, Julia, 1966-

Translator

• Henry, Frederick B., Jr.

Subject

• trueCognition in animals
• Cognition in animals
• trueLanguage acquisition
• trueLanguage and languages
• trueLearning in animals
• Learning in animals
• truePrimates -- Behavior
• truePrimatology
• SCIENCE -- Cognitive Science
• SCIENCE -- Life Sciences | Zoology | Primatology
• Social behavior in animals
• trueSocial behavior in animals
• Primates -- Behavior
• trueAnimal communication
• trueAnimal intelligence

Language

• eng
• ger
• eng

Summary

Monkey see, monkey do - or does she? Can the behavior of non-human primates, their sociality, their intelligence, their communication - really be chalked up to simple mimicry? Emphatically, absolutely: no. And as famed primatologist Julia Fischer reveals, the human bias inherent in this oft-uttered adage is our loss, for it is only through the study of our primate brethren that we may begin to understand ourselves. An eye-opening blend of storytelling, memoir, and science, Monkeytalk takes us into the field and the world's primate labs to investigate the intricacies of primate social mores through the lens of communication. After first detailing the social interactions of key species from her fieldwork - from baby-wielding male Barbary macaques, who use infants as social accessories in a variety of interactions, to aggression among the chacma baboons of southern Africa and male-male tolerance among the Guinea baboons of Senegal - Fischer explores the role of social living in the rise of primate intelligence and communication, ultimately asking what the ways in which other primates communicate can teach us about the evolution of human language. Funny and fascinating, Fischer's tale roams from a dinner in the field shared with lionesses to insights gleaned from Rico, a border collie with an astonishing vocabulary, but its message is clear: it is humans who are the evolutionary mimics. The primate heritage visible in our species is far more striking than the reverse, and it is the monkeys who deserve to be seen. "The social life of macaques and baboons is a magnificent opera," Fischer writes. "Permit me now to raise the curtain on it."

Member of

• Affengesellschaft

Writing style

• trueRichly detailed

Cataloging source

ICU/DLC

Dewey number

599.8

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

LC call number

QL737.P9

LC item number

F56513 2017

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography