Beauty And The Beasts: Ape, Woman and Evolution: Woman, Ape and Evolution - Hardcover

Jahme, Carole

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1860494757 ISBN 13: 9781860494758

Publisher: Virago, 2000

Synopsis

WHAT MOTIVATES THEM? What drives perfectly sane middle-class women away from husbands and home and a nice steady career job to study unruly primates in damp, dangerous, uncomfortable, unforgiving environments? When Louis Leakey first sent Jane Goodall out to the Gombe reserve in Tanzania to study the chimpanzees, he could little have suspected a craze which would eventually see a field of science in which women outnumber men. Followed by Dian Fossey and Birute Galdikas, Leakey's instinct that women would make better field scientists than men was both controversial and provocative. Beauty and the Beasts is the first book to take an overview of the numerous women who have followed Leakey's trimates into the world of primatalogy and to ask the question: was Louis Leakey right? From the discovery of tool use, to mother-infant bonds, the purposes of infanticide to the reasons for the female orgasm, women have made giant steps in our knowledge of these animals and also ourselves. But their methodology has often been criticised for being over-emotional, a warping of the maternal bond, unscientific, perversely sexual and, in certain cases, plain mad. Yet women continue to find out more about ape behaviour than their male counterparts and our knowledge of ourselves continues to be strengthened by their work. Carole Jahme examines both the stereotypical candidate white, amateur, attractive, middle-class, childless and her university-trained counterpart. In erudite and entertaining prose she explores the significance of their scientific discoveries and the prejudices encountered by these pioneering women.

About this title

Review

Women have played a large and crucial part in "primatology"--the science of the great apes. Most people, for instance, will have heard of Dian Fossey, whose life and death amid the apes of central Africa was the inspiration for the film Gorillas in the Mist. Others will know of Jane Goodall, and her unflinching studies into the cruelty, violence and pathos of chimpanzee social life.

But as this refreshing and accessible book points out, there's lots more names that should be added to the proud roster of "ape women". Scientists such as Shirley McGrill, Mary Leakey and Birute Galdikas have all braved the hazards of the field (such as disease, civil war and rape by orang-utans), to come back with eye-witness accounts of simian behaviour. Disciplines as diverse as sexology and virology have benefited from their research.

Quite why women should be so adept at primatology is a moot point, and one that Jahme addresses. Is it typically female patience, empathy, tolerance and intuition? Or just the best scientists doing the best work? Either way, Jahme's intriguing text is a fitting monument to half a century of dauntless and exacting scientific endeavour.--Sean Thomas

Review

That rare thing, a book in which journalism and scholarship unite in a riveting insight into a new branch of knowledge... (BEATRIX CAMPBELL, SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY )

Jahme's book is extensively researched and extends well beyond Leakey's trimates into the new generaltions of primatologists ... these women who have done so much to raise awareness of the desperate plight of our nearest non-human relatives are real heroin (FINANCIAL TIMES )

Interweaves the study of monkeys and apes with the personalities who carry out this research. There is much of interest in this book for both the non-scientist and the specialist...Jahme is to be commended. (THES )

Women have played a large and crucial part in "primatology"--the science of the great apes. Most people, for instance, will have heard of Dian Fossey, whose life and death amid the apes of central Africa was the inspiration for the film Gorillas in the M (But as this refreshing and accessible book points out, there's lots more names that should be added to the proud roster of "ape women". Scientists such as Shirley McGrill, Mary Leakey and Birute Galdikas have all braved the hazards of the field (such as d )

Edition details

• Publisher: Virago
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 1860494757
• ISBN 13: 9781860494758
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 416