The metaphysics of apes : negotiating the animal-human boundary

239 Pages·2005·38.5 MB·English

by  Raymond Corbey

THE
OF
Ne9otiatin9 the Animal-Human Boundary
RBEY
THE METAPHYSICS OF APES
The Metaphysics ofA pes traces the interpretation of the ambiguously human
like great apes and ape-like 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 redrawn to cope with these
challenges. At stake was the unique human dignity, a basic idea and value
in the West which and to some extent still is, centrally on the minds of
wa~,
ethnologists, archaeologists, and primatologists. This book is thus the first
to offer an anthropological-cum-epistemological analysis of the burgeon
ing anthropological disciplines in terms of their own cultural taboos and
philosophical preconceptions. It maps their unwilling retreat from the no
tion of human unicity and from the relentless policing of the animal- human
boundary.
Raymond Corbey is Lecturer in the Department of Philosophy at Tilburg
University and holds the Chair of Epistemology of Archaeology at Leiden
University, both in The Netherlands. He has published extensively on the
history of philosophical, scientific, and colloquial views of humans, animals,
culture and cultural others, as well as on the history and epistemology of
anthropology. He participates in the Dutch research program Thoughtflll
Hullters, on Neanderthal cognition and communication, and is the co-editor,
with Wi1 Roebroeks, of Studyillg Human Origills: Disciplinary History ami
Epistemology
(2001).

The Metaphysics of Apes
Negotiating the Animal-Human Boundary
RAYMOND CaRSEY
Tilbllrg Universiry and Leidell University
CAMBRIDGE
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First publi.hed
Z005
Primed in the United State! of America
A 'tll"rogur r,'((lrd lor rhi, publicillio" ;s (lWli/"b/r (ro." rile Bririsl! Libmry.
Librmy of COlIgrw C"w/oguing ;'1 Public",;'", DM"
(oTbey, Raymond, 1954-
metaphysics of apes negotiating the imal- human Ra;'mond Corbe)".
Th~ ,I boundar~'1
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Includes bibliographical references ,md index.
0-511-83683-1 hardback) - 0'Sll-HS33'1 pbk.
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Primate:; - Evolulion. Apes- holulion. 3. Fossil hominids.
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Origin of man now proved. - Metaphysics may flourish. - He who un
derstands the Baboon would do more towards metaphysics than Locke.
Charles Darwin, in Notebook M (Darwin 1987: 539)

Contents
Preface page ix
Introduction
,
Ambiguous Apes
5
Traditional Views of Apes 8
..,
The Discovery of Apes and Early Hominids
'-3 Citizens and Animals 23
Crafting the Primate Order ,6
2
Homo sylveslris
2. ,
37
The Primate Order
2.2 43
2.3 Separate Again 48
2A Speaking Apes
54
Up from the Ape 60
3
"
3· , "A grim and grotesque procession "
3·2 The Monstrous Other Within 75
'·3 Narrative and Paradox 88
Homo's Humanness
4 92
4.1 The Earliest Homo 96
4.1 "Ancients" and "Moderns " .05
..
, n
Contents
5 "Symbolic Man" in Ethnology '"
5· , A Discipline's Identity m
p Biological Approaches Rejected
'34
6 Pan Sapiens?
'45
6. , Fierce or Gentle
'48
6.2 Tools, Mirrors, Symbols .60
6.3 Ape and Human Rights .68
,
Beyond Dualism .,8
7' An Epistemological Reminder .82
7.2 Rethinking Dichotomies
' 91
Bibliography 20)
Index
225
Preface
My ongoing fascination with the ape- human boundary was sparked by
my doctoral research in the on the animal/human distinction and
19805
the interpretation of evolution in German philosophy in the '9205, in
particular in the work of Max Scheler and Helmuth P[cssner. Most of
the research resulting in the prescnt monograph was done in an im
mensely stimulating context: the multidisciplinary research program
"Changing Views of Icc Age Foragers" (1993- 1998) at Leiden Univer
sity, sponsored by the Netherlands Foundation of Scientific Research
(NWO). Two conferences and their participants added 10 the inspiration
provided by that setting: Ape, Mml, Apeman: Chmlging Views since 1600,
in Leiden in 1993 (Corbcy and Theunissen 1995), and Studying Human
Origins: Disciplinary History and Epistemology, issuing from the above
mentioned research project, also in Leiden in 1998 (Corbey and Roebroeks
2001a).
Over the course of the past ten or so years, I have been tolerated as a
philosopher among archaeologists and anthropologists at Leiden Univer
sit y. and as an anthropologist among philosophers at Tilburg University
an always rewarding and often demanding road, not onlr for myself. My
interest in both continental European and Anglo-American philosophy,
both humdn sciences and life sciences, and both intellectual history and
present· da~ epistemological issues has added to t he com plex.ities of being
an interdisciplinary mediator.
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