R.H.A. Corbey

The acheulean handaxe: More like a bird's song than a beatles' tune?

The goal of this paper is to provoke debate about the nature of an iconic artifact—the Acheulean handaxe. Specifically, we want to initiate a conversation about whether or not they are cultural objects. The vast majority of archeologists assume that the behaviors involved in the production of handaxes were acquired by social learning and that handaxes are therefore cultural. We will argue that this assumption is not warranted on the basis of the available evidence and that an alternative hypothesis should be given serious consideration. This alternative hypothesis is that the form of Acheulean handaxes was at least partly under genetic control.

The Politics of Species: Reshaping our Relationships with Other Animals

Whether we acknowledge, realize, or engage in discourses of speciesism and human exceptionalism, primatologists are no strangers to these topics. All primatologists are familiar with the early struggles of Jane Goodall, as she labored to have the chimpanzees that science saw as research subjects to be labeled as “it,” as sentient beings to be addressed as “he,” “she,” or “who.” Politics of Species: Reshaping our Relationships with Other Animals is a unique volume that begs the reader (scientist or not) to move beyond deeply rooted epistemologies that direct the way we view the natural world and our place within it. As we enter the Anthropocene, where the actions of Homo sapiens have become a geologic force, we can no longer ignore our speciesist tendencies, making Politics of Species a challenging but necessary read. Edited by Raymond Corbey (philosopher and anthropologist) and Annette Lanjouw (primatologist and Vice President, Strategic Initiatives and the Great Ape Program for the Arcus Foundation), Politics of Species is the result of an interdisciplinary roundtable held in New York in August 2011. The goal of this dialogue was to bring together the voices of researchers and activists from across disciplines (including but not limited to primatology, philosophy, ethology, neuroscience, and law) to tease apart the historical and philosophical roots of the human–animal binary in Western tradition. In combining these varied viewpoints on how humans interact with their environment and the organisms within it, contributors hoped to develop transdisciplinary approaches aimed at moving beyond human–animal dichotomies toward a “respectful co-existence” with “other animals.” In the introductory chapter Corbey and Lanjouw identify the exploitation and “othering” of animals as a “profoundly political process,” whereby people engage, exercise, and legitimize power (p. 1). They argue for the extension of this definition to Int J Primatol (2015) 36:197–201 DOI 10.1007/s10764-014-9808-y

The Politics of Species: Moving beyond speciesism

Whether we acknowledge, realize, or engage in discourses of speciesism and human exceptionalism, primatologists are no strangers to these topics. All primatologists are familiar with the early struggles of Jane Goodall, as she labored to have the chimpanzees that science saw as research subjects to be labeled as “it,” as sentient beings to be addressed as “he,” “she,” or “who.” Politics of Species: Reshaping our Relationships with Other Animals is a unique volume that begs the reader (scientist or not) to move beyond deeply rooted epistemologies that direct the way we view the natural world and our place within it. As we enter the Anthropocene, where the actions of Homo sapiens have become a geologic force, we can no longer ignore our speciesist tendencies, making Politics of Species a challenging but necessary read. Edited by Raymond Corbey (philosopher and anthropologist) and Annette Lanjouw (primatologist and Vice President, Strategic Initiatives and the Great Ape Program for the Arcus Foundation), Politics of Species is the result of an interdisciplinary roundtable held in New York in August 2011. The goal of this dialogue was to bring together the voices of researchers and activists from across disciplines (including but not limited to primatology, philosophy, ethology, neuroscience, and law) to tease apart the historical and philosophical roots of the human–animal binary in Western tradition. In combining these varied viewpoints on how humans interact with their environment and the organisms within it, contributors hoped to develop transdisciplinary approaches aimed at moving beyond human–animal dichotomies toward a “respectful co-existence” with “other animals.” In the introductory chapter Corbey and Lanjouw identify the exploitation and “othering” of animals as a “profoundly political process,” whereby people engage, exercise, and legitimize power (p. 1). They argue for the extension of this definition to Int J Primatol (2015) 36:197–201 DOI 10.1007/s10764-014-9808-y

The Politics of Species: Index

Whether we acknowledge, realize, or engage in discourses of speciesism and human exceptionalism, primatologists are no strangers to these topics. All primatologists are familiar with the early struggles of Jane Goodall, as she labored to have the chimpanzees that science saw as research subjects to be labeled as “it,” as sentient beings to be addressed as “he,” “she,” or “who.” Politics of Species: Reshaping our Relationships with Other Animals is a unique volume that begs the reader (scientist or not) to move beyond deeply rooted epistemologies that direct the way we view the natural world and our place within it. As we enter the Anthropocene, where the actions of Homo sapiens have become a geologic force, we can no longer ignore our speciesist tendencies, making Politics of Species a challenging but necessary read. Edited by Raymond Corbey (philosopher and anthropologist) and Annette Lanjouw (primatologist and Vice President, Strategic Initiatives and the Great Ape Program for the Arcus Foundation), Politics of Species is the result of an interdisciplinary roundtable held in New York in August 2011. The goal of this dialogue was to bring together the voices of researchers and activists from across disciplines (including but not limited to primatology, philosophy, ethology, neuroscience, and law) to tease apart the historical and philosophical roots of the human–animal binary in Western tradition. In combining these varied viewpoints on how humans interact with their environment and the organisms within it, contributors hoped to develop transdisciplinary approaches aimed at moving beyond human–animal dichotomies toward a “respectful co-existence” with “other animals.” In the introductory chapter Corbey and Lanjouw identify the exploitation and “othering” of animals as a “profoundly political process,” whereby people engage, exercise, and legitimize power (p. 1). They argue for the extension of this definition to Int J Primatol (2015) 36:197–201 DOI 10.1007/s10764-014-9808-y

The Politics of Species: Contributors

Whether we acknowledge, realize, or engage in discourses of speciesism and human exceptionalism, primatologists are no strangers to these topics. All primatologists are familiar with the early struggles of Jane Goodall, as she labored to have the chimpanzees that science saw as research subjects to be labeled as “it,” as sentient beings to be addressed as “he,” “she,” or “who.” Politics of Species: Reshaping our Relationships with Other Animals is a unique volume that begs the reader (scientist or not) to move beyond deeply rooted epistemologies that direct the way we view the natural world and our place within it. As we enter the Anthropocene, where the actions of Homo sapiens have become a geologic force, we can no longer ignore our speciesist tendencies, making Politics of Species a challenging but necessary read. Edited by Raymond Corbey (philosopher and anthropologist) and Annette Lanjouw (primatologist and Vice President, Strategic Initiatives and the Great Ape Program for the Arcus Foundation), Politics of Species is the result of an interdisciplinary roundtable held in New York in August 2011. The goal of this dialogue was to bring together the voices of researchers and activists from across disciplines (including but not limited to primatology, philosophy, ethology, neuroscience, and law) to tease apart the historical and philosophical roots of the human–animal binary in Western tradition. In combining these varied viewpoints on how humans interact with their environment and the organisms within it, contributors hoped to develop transdisciplinary approaches aimed at moving beyond human–animal dichotomies toward a “respectful co-existence” with “other animals.” In the introductory chapter Corbey and Lanjouw identify the exploitation and “othering” of animals as a “profoundly political process,” whereby people engage, exercise, and legitimize power (p. 1). They argue for the extension of this definition to Int J Primatol (2015) 36:197–201 DOI 10.1007/s10764-014-9808-y