Abstract
The paper provides an extensive literature review on the topic of communication among apes and discusses how it seems clear that apes can acquire some form of language and communicate with humans. The paper reveals that there is also evidence that apes may have a form of language of their own by which they communicate with each other. The paper discovers that apes would not normally acquire such capabilities on their own, but they can be trained to use language and respond to its meaning.

Outline:
Introduction
Review of Literature
Conclusion

From the Paper
"Research has been conducted for a long time on questions about the origin of language and how human beings first learned to speak. More recently, research has shifted to various primate studies as to whether or not other primates have what can be considered a language and in some cases whether apes can be taught to understand language and even to speak. Some of the early experiments in this area were seen as promising by some and as self-delusion by others, but the research continued and has produced a number of interesting results that may bring us closer to understanding the genesis of language and how widespread language is in the animal kingdom."

Tags:chimpanzees, language, acquisition, thought, processes

Abstract
This paper addresses a number of different language experiments that have been performed with all four species of great apes - gorillas, chimpanzees, orangutans, and bonobos, and the advantages, disadvantages, and relative success of each, including conducted experiments. The author discusses the physical limitations of the apes, the advantages of using sign language as opposed to keyboard and symbol-based language, and criticisms brought up by various skeptics. The paper also mentions other types of cognitive activities in which the apes have participated, including painting and learning a system of economic exchange.

From the paper:

"The Koko Project is currently the longest running and most successful of all the ape language projects. Patterson's goal was for Koko [the gorilla] to learn 200 signs ? she now knows over a thousand, and understands at least 2,000 words of spoken English. She asks questions, she lies, she tells stories, she uses the negative, she uses and understands abstract words like love, hate, and death, and she even tells jokes. One of the most famous incidents involves a conversation between Koko and one of her teachers regarding the color of her blanket. As she was getting ready to go to bed, the teacher asked Koko what color the blanket was. Koko responded "red," even though the blanket was white. The teacher admonished her and asked her again, refusing to believe that Koko would make such a simple mistake. Still, Koko responded "red," and repeated it several times. The teacher was perplexed. Then Koko pulled a tiny piece of red lint off the blanket, pointed to it, and signed "red," and started laughing her deep, breathy, gorilla laugh. Humor, then, is another quality we humans can no longer claim for ourselves alone."

Tags:allen, ann, beatrice, bonobo, chimpanzee, david, fouts, francine, gardner, gorilla, herbert, koko, language, lyn, miles, orangutan, patterson, penny, premack, primate, roger, rumbaugh, savage, sign, sue, terrace

Abstract
This paper discusses the premise of Stanford's book, "The Hunting Apes", which contends that early human social formations were predicated on the acquisition and sharing of meat. The paper explains how Stanford, after exploring the role of female and male apes as hunters and consumers of meat, arrived at the conclusion that the acquisition and sharing of meat contributed to a "might-makes-right" form of patriarchy.

From the Paper
"Over the course of the last 100 years, consensus has varied greatly with respect to the emergence of mankind in Africa; especially with respect to temperament. These theories have met with everything from hearty praise to scornful denunciation; the book jacket to "African Genesis," published in the 1950's, includes the opinion of the New York Times: "The theories are wildly wrong." One of the most controversial subjects has been man's diet, and how that has had a bearing on the evolution of mankind. This is the subject of Craig Stanford's "The Hunting Apes," which portrays early human social formations as being predicated on the acquisition and sharing of meat."

Tags:meat-acquisition, theory, human, evolution, male, chauvanism, chimpanzees, patriarchy, primates, coalitions, forced, mating

Abstract
The paper looks at a few studies conducted on apes and their ability to acquire language. The writer addresses the hypothesis that if researchers can learn how apes acquire language skills and how they process input from humans, it should be possible to communicate with them in a meaningful way. The paper presents a method of study, introducing the hypothesis and the test for reaching a conclusion.

From the Paper
"The design of the study would involve a comparison of the methods by which children and apes acquire language skills. The apes and humans tested would have to be raised from birth by the same caregivers and given the same exposure to language, either acquired by listening to it or acquired in specific teaching sessions. Learning of words and their association with objects would be studied first, then sentence recognition would be studied. Controls would be used to ensure that words and sentences were really recognized, and not just remembered by rote or by cues given unknowingly by the caregiver. These would involve presenting words or sentences in different orders, and varying the order of words in sentences."

Tags:testing, communication, verbal, humans

Abstract
This paper briefly explains the "Man the Hunter" theory of human evolution and then offers a longer, more detailed explanation of the theory on human behavior put forward in Craig Stanford's book, "The Hunting Apes: Meat Eating and the Origins of Human Behavior". The paper also compares and contrasts the two theories and cites some of the criticisms of Stanford's theory.

From the Paper
"How behavior has evolved from our hominid ancestors to the present day has been a constant concern among anthropologists. Charles Darwin's paradigm of human evolution lacks direct evidence in fossil record to provide the basis for the reconstruction (Stanford 1999), which leads anthropological researchers to rely much on their imagination to do the job. In the process, biases result and lead to heated debates and further guesses, the most controversial topic of argument being the origin of hominid sex roles and differences - if early hominid male had a different behavioral adaptation from the female and if one dominated the other."

Tags:early, hominid, males, cooperative, groups, hunted, development, human, intellect, cognitive, attributes, meat-sharing, manipulative, distribution

Abstract
Audience reaction to the first of a series of five films, derived from Pierre Boulle's novel, "La Planete des Singes", was a solid indicator of a new kind of consciousness. The paper shows that, despite the repulsiveness of the mere possibility of man's reversing roles with apes, movie and television audiences accepted that suggestion or entertainment. It terrified, repelled, but stretched their imagination as to what the future could be. The threat of nuclear destruction, the implications of the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy, and the consequences of the Vietnam War were the torrents and setting when Boulle wrote his novel. By the time the first film was produced and shown in 1968, there were other threats to human security. This paper looks at each of the five films and discusses them in relation to human intelligence and consciousness.

From the Paper
"Apes, therefore, thrive on nature as their sole guide. On the other hand, man is equipped with the responsibility, duty as well as privilege to use his intelligence, judgment and will to choose his good or evil, survival or destruction. Apes are on the safe side, which is far from error and destruction, but their capacity for happiness and the determination of that level of happiness are both limited. In man, it is virtually without limits, because he has what is called a soul."

Tags:Ulysse, Merou, Charleston, Heston

Abstract
The paper defines the word consciousness and questions whether chimpanzees and other apes do indeed possess all three traits that make up consciousness as we know it: language, self-awareness, and theory of mind. The paper gives examples from animal communication research which show that they perhaps do possess these traits. It then looks at the critics of this theory who claim that the difference between the human and ape consciousness is vast and that apes cannot really claim to possess language, self-awareness and a theory of mind skills.

From the Paper
"One of the original researchers using sign language with apes, Herb Terrace is now a critic. Terrace placed a chimpanzee named Nim in a community of people using sign language to see if he would pick up the language, but found that only by bribing him with treats did he learn (Wynne 52). Terrace realized that Nim was simply using signs that his trainers had used in their question, so in effect he was just echoing what had been said (Wynne 52). Regarding Washoe's description of a swan as "waterbird," it is noted that perhaps she was simply naming two things she saw, water and bird. As far as Kanzi's ability to pick up symbolic language from observation of her mother's training, it must be noted that Kanzi was rewarded for her use of symbols and usually given the things that she named (Wynne 52)."

Tags:Great, Ape, Project, Washsoe, Kanzi, Herb, Terrace, Jane, Goodall

Abstract
Audience reaction to the first of a series of five films derived from Pierre Boulle's novel, "La Planete des Singes", was a solid indicator of a new kind of consciousness among viewers. It terrified and repelled, but stretched their imagination as to what the future could be. The threat of nuclear destruction, the implications of the assassination of former President John F. Kennedy, and the consequences of the Vietnam War were the torrents and setting when Boulle wrote his novel, and by the time the first film was produced and shown in 1968, there were other threats to human security. This paper analyzes all five films in the series, showing the messages relating to mankind that each one attempts to get across. The paper concludes that history shows that the majority of the human race has not used its rational functions as intelligently or positively as it should have, and thus, this novel rang a wake-up call: Man could have lost the right to rule over creation and thus, been dethroned by beasts to enjoy supremacy.

From the Paper
"The novel awakened something deep within us that made the series this fascinating. It must be the desire to find a race or species that is superior or better than today's man. A species that would not need to make slaves out of apes or other forms of life deemed lower or inferior, so that no novel like Boulle's has to be written in rebellion.
But his novel still tells us a lot of things. The human race limited itself not only with the use of only two instead of four limbs, which apes make use of out of their intelligence. It also tells us that apes exercise more options than humans do: it is believed that they can speak and reason like man, but have no inclination or desire to do so.. This seeming position of advantage implies still another form of "superiority.""

Tags:Planete, des, Singes, Ulysse, Merou, Zira

From the Paper
"Edgar Rice Burroughs created the best-known African hero in Tarzan, first seen in the novel Tarzan of the Apes in 1912. Tarzan is a white man who was lost in the jungle as a child and raised among the animals. From one point of view, he is more animal than human himself because he is not "civilized," but from another point of view, he is closer to nature than the average man and so more natural himself. Burroughs follows certain literary traditions of the nineteenth century regarding the goodness of nature, the special role of the natural man, and the particular importance and virtue of the noble savage when compared to the corruption of the "civilized" man. The representation of nature in the novel is Romantic in tone, and Burroughs has clearly adapted the romantic idea of nature and of the need for the natural man to be at one with the natural world."

Abstract
This is a book review of the 1967 title "The Naked Ape" by Desmond Morris. The book is a narrative on the evolution of the human species and the review digests just that. Looking at the name, the object of human behavior and probability of evolution, the writer breaks down these theories for the reader by providing a brief look at some of the problems of Morris' arguments as well as some of successes. The general conclusion is that "The Naked Ape" provides a very interesting and compelling read, but much of the claims cannot be backed by scientific research.

From the Paper
"Aside from shedding the thick layer of fur that covers all other primates and most other mammals, Morris believes that one of the defining characteristics of the human species is the fact that we evolved as predators and omnivores--that is, we hunt and eat other animals in addition to plant matter. Hunting requires both a different skill set and certain different biological mechanisms than what exists in most other primates, and Morris believes that the hunting practiced by early human ancestors did much to separate them still further from other primate species, both as a reflection and possible cause of their evolution. In fact, Morris suggests that it is possibly because our ancestors became hunters that they also shed the layer of hair and fat standard to most other primate species; the elimination of this layer and the addition of many sweat glands Is more effective at minimizing overheating, which is necessary when a species is regularly engaged in a highly physical struggle for food--like hunting."

Tags:naked ape, desmond morris, evolution