About Chimpanzees
So Like Us
Blurring the Line
From her very first days at Gombe, Jane Goodall has referred to the chimpanzees by name and not, as was scientific practice in the early 1960s, by numbers. She also shocked ethologists (scientists who study animal behaviour) by describing chimpanzees' personalities, their ability to reason and most of all, their emotions. All of this was considered anthropomorphic (projecting human qualities onto nonhumans) and unacceptable.
But Jane had not attended university at that time, so she knew none of the established "rules." Indeed, Jane's work had from the start emphasised the differences between individuals and the contributions each may uniquely make.
These became Jane's first battles with established science–which she won.
The study has also served to blur the line, once thought so sharp, between humans on the one hand and the rest of the animal kingdom on the other.
References
Among the Wild Chimpanzees. Jane Goodall. Videocassette. National Geographic Society, 1984.
Goodall, Jane. The Chimpanzees of Gombe: Patterns of Behavior. Boston: Bellknap Press of the HarvardUniversity Press, 1990.
Goodall, Jane. Through a Window. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1990.
