The Metaphysics of Apes
Negotiating the Animal-Human Boundary

This book traces the discovery and interpretation of the human-like great apes and shows how the taboo-ridden animal-human boundary was challenged.

Raymond H. A. Corbey (Author)

9780521836838, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 14 March 2005

238 pages, 8 b/w illus.
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.4 cm, 0.49 kg

'The text is clearly written, … and has useful summaries at the end of each chapter. … a fascinating, informative and intriguing must for all those interested in the arguments humans have found to place themselves, their alike and their ancestors in nature or, alternatively, above or beside it.' Sabine Eggers, Department of Genetics and Evolutionary Biology, University of São Paulo, Brazil

The Metaphysics of Apes, first published in 2005, traces the discovery and interpretation of the human-like great apes and the ape-like earliest ancestors of present-day humans. It shows how, from the days of Linnaeus to recent research, the sacred and taboo-ridden animal-human boundary was time and again challenged and adjusted. The unique dignity of humans, a central idea and value in the West, was, and to some extent still is, centrally on the minds of taxonomists, ethnologists, primatologists, and archaeologists. It has guided their research to a considerable extent. The basic presupposition was that humans are not entirely part of nature but, as symbolizing minds and as moral persons, transcend nature. This book was the first to offer an anthropological analysis of the burgeoning anthropological disciplines in terms of their own cultural taboos and philosophical preconceptions.

Preface
Introduction
Part I. Ambiguous Apes: 1. Traditional views of apes
2. The discovery of apes and early hominids
3. Citizens and animals
Part II. Crafting the Primate Order: 4. Homo sylvestris
5. The primate order
6. Separate again
7. Speaking apes
Part III. Up From the Ape: 8. 'A grim and grotesque procession'
9. The monstrous other within
10. Narrative and paradox
Part IV. Homo's Humanness: 11. The earliest homo
12. 'Ancients' and 'Moderns'
Part V. 'Symbolic Man' in Ethnology: 13. A discipline's identity
14. Biological approaches rejected
Part VI. Pan Sapiens?: 15. Fierce or gentle
16. Tools, mirrors, symbols
17. Ape and human rights
Part VII. Beyond Dualism: 18. An epistemological reminder
19. Rethinking dichotomies
Bibliography.

Subject Areas: History of science [PDX], Anthropology [JHM]