Frans B.M. de Waal (born 1948, the Netherlands) was trained as a zoologist and ethologist in the European tradition at three Dutch universities (Nijmegen, Groningen, Utrecht), resulting in a Ph.D. in biology from the University of Utrecht, in 1977. His dissertation research concerned aggressive behavior and alliance formation in macaques. In 1975, a six- year project was initiated on the world's largest captive colony of chimpanzees at the Arnhem Zoo. Apart from a large number of scientific papers, this work found its way to the general public with Chimpanzee Politics (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1982). 
Author/Artist: Frans B. M. de Waal
ISBN: 0465041760
Publisher: Basic Books
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
To watch apes dressed in human clothing and mimicking human manners--an old standby in films and television shows--can make some human viewers uncomfortable, writes the noted primatologist Frans de Waal. Somehow, by doing so, the apes are crossing some line in the sand, a line that speaks to issues of culture, which humans alone are presumed to have. But culture, in de Waal's estimation, does not mean using an oyster fork properly or attending smart gallery openings. Instead, it "means that knowledge and habits are acquired from others--often, but not always, the older generation." Culture implies communication and social organization, and in this, he notes, humans by no means have a monopoly. A sushi chef learns by acquiring knowledge and habits from more accomplished masters, but so do chimpanzees learn to wash bananas in jungle streams, and so do birds learn to break open mollusks on the rocks below them.
Closely examining anthropocentric theories of culture, de Waal counterposes the notion of anthropodenial, "the a priori rejection of shared characteristics between humans and animals when in fact they may exist." He takes issue with "selfish gene" theories of behavior, arguing spiritedly that there are better models for explaining why animals--and humans--do what they do. And, against Aristotle, he argues that humans are not the only political animals, if by politics we mean a social process "determining who gets what, when, and how." What animals and humans clearly share, he concludes, are societies in which stability is an impossibility--an observation that may disappoint utopians, but one that helps explain some of the world's peculiarities.
Perhaps no human alive knows more about the great apes than does Frans de Waal. With this book, he ably shows that he knows a great deal about humans, too. Students of biology, culture, and communication will find much food for thought in his pages. --Gregory McNamee --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Scientific American
Science, and the tried-and-true scientific method, is supposed to be free of bias. But as primatologist Frans de Waal explains in The Ape and the Sushi Master, science, like all human endeavors, is warped by cultural ideology. Nowhere is this more in evidence than in the field of animal behavior and particularly in discussions of whether animals have culture. "We cannot discuss animal culture without seriously reflecting on our own culture and the possible blind spots it creates," de Waal writes. He approaches this conundrum by taking us with him on a journey around the world, to watch primates and to talk with other scientists, engaging the reader in a conversation about where our biases come from and how they have influenced the history of animal behavior. De Waal is the director of the Living Links Center for the study of ape and human behavior at Emory University; he has written extensively about his findings in both scientific journals and the popular press. But unlike his previous popular books on chimpanzee politics and reconciliation in primates, this time de Waal is not so much presenting a theory and providing data as stepping back from the entire field of animal behavior to take a broader look. The Ape and the Sushi Master is a philosopher's tale--and one that could have a major impact on the future study of animal behavior. It questions the very way behaviorists go about their work and in the process undermines some comfortably held theories. In the West, for example, behaviorists embrace the idea that individuals act exclusively in self-serving ways in order to pass on their genes. But de Waal, a Dutch-born zoologist who has lived in the U.S. for two decades and has traveled extensively, has enough cultural distance to see that this view is intimately connected to the Western, especially American, ideology of individualism. Natural selection, he points out, can also produce cooperative behaviors, acts of kindness, and gentle creatures. And de Waal has the experience--27 years of observing apes in captivity--to question the accepted notion that only humans learn. The book's title refers to the way sushi-making skills are passed down from master to apprentice: like the apprentice, young apes also watch their elders and imitate their behavior. De Waal begins by laying out the reasons that we Westerners have such an uncomfortable relationship with animals, especially primates. By historical and religious tradition, Europeans and Americans embrace the idea that humans are different from--better than--all other animals, establishing a dualism between us and them. "Whenever their abilities are said to approach ours, the reaction is often furious," de Waal points out. This kind of dualism also means that Western scientists fear anthropomorphism and revere a disconnection from their subjects; we assume one must maintain separation to gather valid data. But de Waal feels that similarities, especially those among closely related species such as apes and humans, are profound and useful. Therefore, he finds that anthropomorphism is "not only inevitable, it is a powerful tool." Eastern cultures fare better in their observations of animals because they don't buy the Western dualism of humans versus animals. "It can hardly be coincidental," de Waal reasons, "that the push for cultural studies on animals initially came ... from primatologists untrained in the sharp dualisms of the West." Long ago the Japanese, for example, were not afraid of topics that Western scientists are just now taking seriously: "Thus, the Japanese did not hesitate to give each animal a name or to assume that each had a different identity and personality. Neither did they feel a need to avoid topics such as animal mental life and culture." The issue of culture, in particular, as de Waal explains, has had a much more rocky history in the West. For decades, anthropologists and others have come up with various traits that separate humans from chimpanzees in an effort to define what is uniquely human. But chimpanzees keep nudging into our territory: tool use, complex social relationships, empathy and sympathy, sophisticated communication--they seem to have bits of it all. And now it seems they have culture, the last bastion of separation. In a recent analysis of seven long-term chimpanzee sites, researchers were able to identify 39 behaviors that were learned from others. If culture can be defined as behavior that is socially transmitted, chimpanzees, and other animals, are cultural beings, de Waal argues. "What is the least common denominator of all things called cultural?" he asks. "In my view, this can only be the nongenetic spreading of habits and information. The rest is nothing else than embellishment." Cultural anthropologists might not like it, but the chimps are playing on our side now. De Waal ends with a section on how we see ourselves. And we emerge as an unpleasantly self-important species. We pretend that a struggle for social power, which is a common behavior pattern among other primates, is "self-esteem" and therefore that it is found only in humans. We assume that humans are the only ones whose behavior is influenced by learning and experience and that we are the only ones who are altruistic, caring beings--such kindness exhibited by other animals is misguided pathology. De Waal takes a different tack: "Instead of being tied to how we are unlike any animal, human identity should be built around how we are animals that have taken certain capacities a significant step farther. We and other animals are both similar and different, and the former is the only sensible framework within which to flesh out the latter." Sensible, yes, but ideology dies hard. As de Waal so convincingly explains, we would have to navigate an identity crisis on the way to enlightenment, and this might be too scary for those invested in the supremacy of humankind. But for those ready for some self-scrutiny, and a less biased view of culture and learning in our fellow creatures, this book will be a revelation. In a sense, de Waal is our animal-behavior sushi master; look over his shoulder and learn what the animals tell us about ourselves.
MEREDITH SMALL is a writer and professor of anthropology at Cornell University. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
--John Gribbin, Washington Post Book World [3/11/01]
"[A]bsorbing and entertaining. . ." --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Booklist
De Waal has spent his 30-year career observing animals, especially macaques, chimpanzees, and bonobos, for signs that they, like humans, have cultures. He is convinced that they do and has written four previous books based firmly on his specific research. Now he summarizes and argues that, because other animals, particularly other primates, create cultures--that is, add to their behavioral repertoires by nongenetic transmission (learning through innovation, demonstration, and imitation)--they are the same kinds of creatures as humans in all respects. This proposition is no reduction of humanity but instead a reunification of man with nature and a reassertion of the overarching concept of creation that Aristotle, Aquinas, and Darwin share and that such figures as Calvin, Hobbes, Thomas Henry Huxley, Freud, Levi-Strauss, and Richard Dawson deny when they hold that culture is uniquely human. Moreover, as de Waal posits in the third and final section of this book, morality, as indicated by altruistic behavior, is part of the natural-cultural package humans and other species have in common, for it is as natural and necessary for survival as selfishness, aggression, and the other behavioral modalities that survival-of-the-fittest hardliners emphasize. Perhaps the ancient idea of natural moral law is factually correct! The most stylish of de Waal's books, this is also unquestionably the most important. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Book News, Inc.
Waal (primate behavior, Emory U.) blends autobiographical stories, research findings, and speculation relating to the life of apes. Suggesting that apes can learn culture and are not confined to genetic instinct, he explores the details of social transmission. He also examines how human culture affects the way we look at other animals.Book News, Inc.®, Portland, OR --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
--Los Angeles Times
"De Waal is one of our clearest science writers."
--Kirkus Reviews
"An extremely well-written, highly provocative discussion of the origins and meaning of culture."
--Toronto Globe & Mail
"Clear, elegant prose.... Read de Waal for history and theory, a good grounding in the basics."
--Library Journal [2/15/01]
" . ..de Waal shows not only how we see animals but also how we see ourselves. . . " --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Los Angeles Time Book Review, 1/14/01
"De Waal is one of our clearest science writers.. . " --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Book Description
Arguing that apes have created their own distinctive culture, eminent primatologist Frans de Waal challenges our most basic assumptions about who we are and how we differ from other animals.
What if apes had their own culture rather than an imposed human version? What if they reacted to situations with behavior learned through observation of their elders (culture) rather than with pure genetically coded instinct (nature)? In answering these questions, eminent primatologist Frans de Waal corrects our arrogant assumption that humans are the only creatures to have made the leap from the natural to the cultural domain.
The book's title derives from an analogy de Waal draws between the way behavior is transmitted in ape society and the way sushi-making skills are passed down from sushi master to apprentice. Like the apprentice, young apes watch their group mates at close range, absorbing the methods and lessons of each of their elders' actions. Responses long thought to be instinctive are actually learned behavior, de Waal argues, and constitute ape culture.
A delightful mix of intriguing anecdote, rigorous clinical study, adventurous field work, and fascinating speculation, The Ape and the Sushi Master shows that apes are not human caricatures but members of our extended family with their own resourcefulness and dignity.
