Creation or imitation? An essay on primatological experiments with chimpanzees, capuchin monkeys, human children... and scientists
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.11606/issn.2316-9133.v34i1pe232441Keywords:
primatology, anthropology of science, laboratoryAbstract
This essay in the anthropology of science explores conceptions of imitation in non-human primates through an analysis of ten publications from 1990 to 2005, inspired by the provocative question: “Do monkeys ape?”. Most of the articles are literature reviews in primatology, assessing whether monkeys, chimpanzees, and human children possess the capacity to imitate. By examining the psychological experiments conducted in these studies, I aim to shed new light and shadows on the debate, highlighting how key categories of Western thought – such as subject and object, action and consequence, culture and nature – are embedded in these primatological investigations.
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