Anthropomorphism,Anthropocentrism,and Anecdote: Primatologists on Primatology

Abstract

This article critically examines the ways in which primatologists account for their research. Based on a series of unstructured interviews, it argues that the location of primates at the boundary between Western conceptions of nature and culture or human and animal has materially affected how primatologists talk about their research, what they find possible to write about in their research, and where they choose to publish their research. Through the discussion of a number of related topics (e.g., popular science, sociobiology, the potentially distinctive nature of nonhuman primates as objects of research), it outlines the reflexive nature of primatologists’ response to the cultural positioning of their research subjects.