| |
Join us for a lecture with world-renowned primatologist Dr. Frans de Waal, author of such books as Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex Among Apes, Peacemaking Among Primates, and Bonobos: The Forgotten Ape. His latest book, Our Inner Ape, looks at human behavior through the eyes of a primatologist, using the behavior of chimps and bonobos as metaphors for how we act. Is there both a chimpanzee and bonobo inside us? The evening promises to be engaging, entertaining, and candid. No charge, but please RSVP at mnzoo.org starting in March.
Presented through a partnership of the Minnesota Zoo and Gustavus Adolphus College.
About Frans de Waal
Gustavus Adolphus College 2008 Rydell Professor
Frans B.M. de Waal, a zoologist and ethologist specializing in primate behavior and psychology who was a featured speaker at the 1995 Nobel Conference, will be in Minnesota as the 2008 Drs. Robert E. and Susan T. Rydell Professor at Gustavus Adolphus College.
De Waal is the C.H. Chandler Professor of Primate Behavior at Emory University in Atlanta, Ga., and director of Living Links Center, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, also in Atlanta. He will co-teach a neuroscience course with Jan Wotton, assistant professor of psychology, during the spring semester and present a public lecture on Thursday, April 3 at 7:00 p.m. in Wallenberg Auditorium of the Nobel Hall of Science while he is in residence during the first two weeks of April. He is also scheduled to present a lecture at the Minnesota Zoo on Tuesday evening, April 8 at 7:00 p.m. Both presentations are open to the public at no charge.
The Rydell Professorship at Gustavus Adolphus College is a scholar-in-residence program designed to bring Nobel laureates, Nobel Conference presenters, and similarly distinguished scholars and scientists to the campus as catalysts for enhanced learning and teaching. It was established in 1993 by the late Dr.Robert Rydell and his wife, Dr. Susan Rydell, of Minnetonka, Minn., “to give students the opportunity to learn from and interact with leading scholars.” De Waal is the 11th scholar to serve as a Rydell Professor at Gustavus.
More about Our Inner Ape
Human Nature as Seen by a Primatologist
Frans de Waal
When people do evil things, such as when they commit genocides in Bosnia or Rwanda, we call them “animals.” If people act altruistically, such as when they save another’s life or give to the poor, we attribute this to our noble human morality. We call them “humane.”
Both sides of human nature, however, are tied to our biology. This theme of the duality of human nature, hovering between beast and angel, is brought home in Our Inner Ape by looking at our two closest primate relatives, the chimpanzee and the bonobo. The chimpanzee has a reputation as murderous and power-hungry, whereas the bonobo, the hippie of the primate world, prefers to “make love - not war.” Both apes are equally close to us, but comparisons with chimpanzees have thus far dominated the media as well as the literature. This is because until recently little was known about the bonobo. The bonobo’s female dominance, cooperative nature, and use of sex to restore peace challenges male-biased theories that equate humanity’s violence with progress.
Apart from these themes, the lecture will include the latest findings from the Living Links Center on communication, cooperation, a sense of fairness, animal empathy, and animal culture.
Book:
OUR INNER APE: A Leading Primatologists Explains Why We Are Who We Are. Riverhead (Riverhead/Penguin, 2005).
www.ourinnerape.com
www.emory.edu/LIVING_LINKS/
 
|