Anthropology 1010 Spring Semester 2013
Instructor Judith Higgins
PBR#1 Skull Lab
We had the opportunity to examine 4 million years old skulls in a lab we did for this class. This lab was the coolest experience I got out of Spring Semester 2013. I learned alot and knew very little in the begining of studying these skulls. I really enjoyed this class. We watched many eye opening videos and had very indepth conversations. There were many people in the class that were very smart and it was really fun to learn not only from the instructor but my class mates as well. The point of this skull lab was to try to classify then place in oldest to earliest order by studying the skull cast. It was a little complicating but the critical thinking involved in this class was challenging and rewarding.
Anthropology 1020: Human Origins
Fall Semester 2013
Instructor: Nathan Harris
This class was challenging but worth it. It became very clear I was going to need to study as much as possible right after I took the first test. As challenging as it may have seemed, I really enjoyed it. I chose to do my final paper on the studies of primates and their ability to obtain language. I did not expect the spiral tunnel of information I would be jumping into trying to find the answers to the many question I had in the process of furthering my research.
This class was challenging but worth it. It became very clear I was going to need to study as much as possible right after I took the first test. As challenging as it may have seemed, I really enjoyed it. I chose to do my final paper on the studies of primates and their ability to obtain language. I did not expect the spiral tunnel of information I would be jumping into trying to find the answers to the many question I had in the process of furthering my research.
Taylor Sanders
11/30/2013
Final Paper
Revaluating the History of Primate Research
For half a Century, Humans have been fascinated with the idea of
communicating with animals. Research on Greater Apes has provided Humans with an
understanding of the connection we still have to our most recent common
ancestors, their ability to process complex thoughts and ultimately change the
way Language has been defined in countless ways. This paper will cover Francine
Patterson’s work with Koko and her foster brother Michael, the flaws in her
research and how eliminating these flaws made it possible for the study of
Kanzi, a Bonobo ape, to excel in the ability to understand the complexity of the
English Language and communicate to Humans using American Sign Language (ASL).
This paper will also discuss the profound technology now available to us within
the last decade that allows Humans to finally begin to truly understand the
complexity of our natural born ability to speak and understand one another,
along with analyzing what 20 to 40 year old research on primates could now tell
scientist about the possibilities of animals learning and using the concepts of
language with these innovative discoveries of the 21st Century.
The world has been astonished by Koko’s abilities to communicate for
decades. Dr. Patterson started research on animal communication through teaching
Koko sign language. Koko was taken out of her Zoo habitat at a year old because
she had fallen extremely ill. Given the opportunity to work with Koko, Patterson
began to teach this one year old gorilla how to communicate in ASL. According to
Patterson’s research, it wasn’t until a year and a half into her studies that
Koko began to respond on a level that met previous research standards. Patterson
stressed that one sure difficulty to teaching Koko sign was her inability to
sign certain words because of the placement of her thumbs. Keeping this in mind,
Patterson developed her own version of criteria that fit her research for a
gorilla. An astonishing development in Patterson’s studies was Koko’s need to
invent new words. Sign Language does not have a wide complexity of words. Very
many things are lumped together for one sign or mimicked in ways gorillas cannot
physically achieve. Overcoming this obstacle for Koko was simpler than that of
those studying her ability to communicate. Sometimes several months would pass
before Patterson understood what these signs meant to Koko and what she was
trying to communicate.
Through many years of research, Patterson soon realized the overwhelming amount of people that
would criticize her work, her emotional investment interfering with her research
findings, and her ability to construct a controlled environment for Koko’s
ability to think complex thoughts about the world around her. It is without
doubt that many things about gorillas were discovered in Patterson’s research.
She was able to prove that gorillas have the ability to remember events, people,
and dreams. They have feelings about life, death, parenthood, family, love,
hate, guilt, shame, fear, happiness, sadness, and the list goes on. (Patterson)
The most rewarding part of her research reveals the natural
characteristic of gorillas which is why their reputation has been put to such
shame through the years. By nature, gorillas are very protective, stubborn, and
sarcastic. Countless conversations with Koko were about how she seriously
disliked the test she was instructed to perform repeatedly, day after day.
Koko’s ability to understand lying demonstrated her understanding of consequence
and the concept of past vs. future. To this day Patterson and Koko still spend
their days together. Koko now understands over 2,000 English words and 1,000
signs. She never found a suitable mate to further Patterson’s research through
Koko’s potential offspring, and the relentless ridicule by Dr. Terrace (Project
Nim) on her research findings, ruined the thrill and financial support for Project
Koko faded. (Sapolsky)
Patterson spent many years trying to find a mate for Koko to
keep her research on animal and human communication going. Her first attempt was
Michael, a three year old, Silver Back Gorilla. He was brought to Koko’s
compound with the intention she would eventually mate with him. As four years
went by, there were no signs of Koko and Michael developing into an intimate
relationship. Patterson asked Koko why she hadn’t mated with Michael, her
response was simple, “Michael brother”. Patterson realized she had introduced
Michael into Koko’s life at too young of an age and the chances of them
reproducing where now gone.
Research on Michael did not fall short of astonishing, however.
Michael had been a victim of poachers. While conducting a memory test on Michael
he was asked about his mother. His first response was to point to his caretaker.
When prompted to talk about his gorilla mother, Michael responded, “Scared.”
They began to ask Michael questions having realized they had never talked about
how he had been taken into captivity. Several weeks into the questioning,
Michael began to open up about the day his mother was murder in front of him. He
made the sign for knife at his throat, made the sign red, scared, alone, and
dark. Discovering the brutality of Michael’s early life allowed researchers to
wrap their mind around the reality of a dying species. It was at this time
Patterson realized her research would switch direction and focus on the
preservation of the Gorilla species. When Michael died from a heart disease
several years later, he knew about 1,500 English words and about 600 signs
(Patterson).
During the years of the “Terrace Raids”, many researchers were
put to shame for their discoveries with communicating to chimps and gorillas.
Patterson was the last one to put up a fight against the accusations that these
greater apes were not actually using language in the ways we had previously
defined to being uniquely human. Terrace eventually won the battle by putting
many researchers into exhaustion trying to prove their theories and discoveries
(Sapolsky). However, during this exact time, studies on Bonobos started showing
undeniable results. Savage-Rumbaugh followed the strict guidelines Terrace had
preached about conducting controlled test that do not influence the ape to
respond accordingly. What they discovered however was that Bonobos did not do
very well if not having face to face communication, that is until Kanzi was
born.
Kanzi was born in a research facility and had attached himself
to a foster mother named Matata. Matata was learning sign, and because Kanzi was
introduced to both English and Sign since birth they started realizing he was
picking up the ability to learn language on his own. At about 12 months, Kanzi
began to babble the way all babies do before they fall to sleep, except Kanzi
was babbling the way deaf babies do, with his hands. Soon after, Kanzi began
using simple words like mother, drink, eat, food, and tickle. This discovery was
astounding for Savage-Rumbaugh. Kanzi soon became the focus of attention.
Kanzi is capable of understanding complex thoughts, and unlike
his mother and others who learned language later in life, Kanzi shows cognitive
thinking ability even through the use of headphones or a telephone. Today Kanzi
does not need to be spoken to in sign, and uses a digital sound board that has
over a hundred symbols representing words he wishes to use. Countless tests have
proved that Kanzi is capable of language in a way humans view language to be
suited uniquely for Homo sapiens; this however cannot be guaranteed about his
mother and siblings (PBS/NOVA).
What could this revolution in science tell linguistics about
language? Not until recently have we truly understood the early development of
language. When Human babies are born they are universally formatted to absorb
and learn their native tongue. There are three components in the cortex of the
brain specifically designed for language that begin to develop the day we are
born (Sapolsky). New technology and studies lead by Patricia Kuhl show us
through controlled testing that children start to learn language at the very
beginning of their lives(Lemetyinen). By age three months, the ability to
understand a new language has dropped dramatically. This is not to say they
can’t gain that back but test have shown that there is absolutely no increase in
language development if this is done through television or auditory. In order
for a child to see any cognitive recognition of a different language other than
that spoken in the home, this child must be exposed to that language personally
and face to face. This raises serious question to the scrutiny laid down by
Terrace against the miss information on data collected by Patterson and
colleagues like her about communication with
primates.
There are other factors that made the research of Kanzi much
more fundamental than Koko and Michael. One being that Bonobos have no trouble
mating or finding mates. In fact, using Bonobos was a brilliant idea because by
nature they are more calm like gorillas then chimps making it easier to work
with them, they are less stubborn then gorillas, and anytime, anywhere is their
motto, creating endless opportunities for furthering studies and asking more
question, and learning more things about language development from birth in
Greater Apes.
It is quite clear in many studies that the concept of trying to teach your child to speak at an
earlier age doesn’t show any increase in a child’s ability to speak language
earlier. So the question Kanzi answered researchers was will an infant ape learn
language from his mother if she is taught language. Kanzi did not learn from his
mother or researchers, he learned through observation, and executed this
knowledge in a time of need and want. Could this discovery lead scientist to
realize language is about community. Language is about cooperation. Even
adolescent, human teenagers are most influenced to use the vocabulary and
accents of their friends rather their family and this draws on the conclusive
theory that language is culturally induced (Pagel). The second advantage that
Kanzi has over Koko, Michael, and his bonobo family is that he learned English
and sign from birth. It wasn’t until Koko was one year old and Michael three
that they began to learn the concepts of communication with humans. With that
being said, is it fair to say that English and sign is a second language for
Koko, Michael, and the other bonobos in Savage-Rumbaugh research excluding Kanzi
because they were not introduced to this type of language till later in their
life and the opportunity to develop certain aspect of the fundamental principals
of language had passed(Lemetyinen)?
It has been recorded that gorillas in their natural habitat have up to sixty different body
language signs, sometimes with a string of up to six (Dian Flossey). Some of
these signs that mean nothing to ASL were used by Koko and Michael to
communicate when they were together. Perhaps this could be evidence of a first
language for them, something that science has yet to tap into because of our
lack of technology up until this point in time. It will be very interesting to
see what kinds of research will be reevaluated after discovering the development
of early language in humans and greater apes. Is it possible that research
having been ruled as impartible data will be reevaluated or reconstructed under
guidelines we now see appropriately compatible with the ideas of language?
Perhaps being bipedal really did allow us the ability to move our tongues and
develop vocal cords and it is what has allowed us the ability to speak of
complexity in thought and language (Pagel). Will uncovering 20 to 40 years of
research with the knowledge we now have show us something astoundingly new about
humans and our purpose for language through time? Regardless, it’s safe to
assume we owe thanks to researchers like Patterson and Savage-Rumbaugh for
bringing us to the verge of a linguistic evolutionary breakthrough through the
dedication of years and years of research and criticism. Learning about the
language possibilities of Great Apes has pushed researchers to learn more about
our own abilities and need for language, and when and where we start to develop
this natural born gift to communicate in our lives today, and our ancestral
history.
Sources Cited:
Lemetyinen, H. (2012). Language AcquistionTheory-Simple
Psychology.http://www.simplypsychology.org/language.html#upkqBlc2kpE.email
Marsh,James, dir. Project Nim. Writ. Elizabeth Hess. Icon Film Distribution
(UK), 2011. Film. 1 Oct 2013.
Pagel, Mark. "How Language Transformed Humanity." TEDGlobal2011.
TED Talks. Jul 2011. Speech.
Patterson, Francine. Can Animals Talk to Us?: The Education
of Koko. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1981.
Print.
PBS, , prod. NOVA: Ape Genius. 2011. Web. 11 Nov 2013.
< http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/nature/ape-genius.html>.
PBS, , dir. Nature. A Conversation With Koko. 1982.
Videocassette. 11 Sept 2013.
Sapolsky, Robert. "23. Language." Stanford Department of Biology. Stanford Channel.
Stanford University, Stanford, California. 10 May 2010. Lecture.
http://wwwyoutube.com/stanford , see Sapolsky
11/30/2013
Final Paper
Revaluating the History of Primate Research
For half a Century, Humans have been fascinated with the idea of
communicating with animals. Research on Greater Apes has provided Humans with an
understanding of the connection we still have to our most recent common
ancestors, their ability to process complex thoughts and ultimately change the
way Language has been defined in countless ways. This paper will cover Francine
Patterson’s work with Koko and her foster brother Michael, the flaws in her
research and how eliminating these flaws made it possible for the study of
Kanzi, a Bonobo ape, to excel in the ability to understand the complexity of the
English Language and communicate to Humans using American Sign Language (ASL).
This paper will also discuss the profound technology now available to us within
the last decade that allows Humans to finally begin to truly understand the
complexity of our natural born ability to speak and understand one another,
along with analyzing what 20 to 40 year old research on primates could now tell
scientist about the possibilities of animals learning and using the concepts of
language with these innovative discoveries of the 21st Century.
The world has been astonished by Koko’s abilities to communicate for
decades. Dr. Patterson started research on animal communication through teaching
Koko sign language. Koko was taken out of her Zoo habitat at a year old because
she had fallen extremely ill. Given the opportunity to work with Koko, Patterson
began to teach this one year old gorilla how to communicate in ASL. According to
Patterson’s research, it wasn’t until a year and a half into her studies that
Koko began to respond on a level that met previous research standards. Patterson
stressed that one sure difficulty to teaching Koko sign was her inability to
sign certain words because of the placement of her thumbs. Keeping this in mind,
Patterson developed her own version of criteria that fit her research for a
gorilla. An astonishing development in Patterson’s studies was Koko’s need to
invent new words. Sign Language does not have a wide complexity of words. Very
many things are lumped together for one sign or mimicked in ways gorillas cannot
physically achieve. Overcoming this obstacle for Koko was simpler than that of
those studying her ability to communicate. Sometimes several months would pass
before Patterson understood what these signs meant to Koko and what she was
trying to communicate.
Through many years of research, Patterson soon realized the overwhelming amount of people that
would criticize her work, her emotional investment interfering with her research
findings, and her ability to construct a controlled environment for Koko’s
ability to think complex thoughts about the world around her. It is without
doubt that many things about gorillas were discovered in Patterson’s research.
She was able to prove that gorillas have the ability to remember events, people,
and dreams. They have feelings about life, death, parenthood, family, love,
hate, guilt, shame, fear, happiness, sadness, and the list goes on. (Patterson)
The most rewarding part of her research reveals the natural
characteristic of gorillas which is why their reputation has been put to such
shame through the years. By nature, gorillas are very protective, stubborn, and
sarcastic. Countless conversations with Koko were about how she seriously
disliked the test she was instructed to perform repeatedly, day after day.
Koko’s ability to understand lying demonstrated her understanding of consequence
and the concept of past vs. future. To this day Patterson and Koko still spend
their days together. Koko now understands over 2,000 English words and 1,000
signs. She never found a suitable mate to further Patterson’s research through
Koko’s potential offspring, and the relentless ridicule by Dr. Terrace (Project
Nim) on her research findings, ruined the thrill and financial support for Project
Koko faded. (Sapolsky)
Patterson spent many years trying to find a mate for Koko to
keep her research on animal and human communication going. Her first attempt was
Michael, a three year old, Silver Back Gorilla. He was brought to Koko’s
compound with the intention she would eventually mate with him. As four years
went by, there were no signs of Koko and Michael developing into an intimate
relationship. Patterson asked Koko why she hadn’t mated with Michael, her
response was simple, “Michael brother”. Patterson realized she had introduced
Michael into Koko’s life at too young of an age and the chances of them
reproducing where now gone.
Research on Michael did not fall short of astonishing, however.
Michael had been a victim of poachers. While conducting a memory test on Michael
he was asked about his mother. His first response was to point to his caretaker.
When prompted to talk about his gorilla mother, Michael responded, “Scared.”
They began to ask Michael questions having realized they had never talked about
how he had been taken into captivity. Several weeks into the questioning,
Michael began to open up about the day his mother was murder in front of him. He
made the sign for knife at his throat, made the sign red, scared, alone, and
dark. Discovering the brutality of Michael’s early life allowed researchers to
wrap their mind around the reality of a dying species. It was at this time
Patterson realized her research would switch direction and focus on the
preservation of the Gorilla species. When Michael died from a heart disease
several years later, he knew about 1,500 English words and about 600 signs
(Patterson).
During the years of the “Terrace Raids”, many researchers were
put to shame for their discoveries with communicating to chimps and gorillas.
Patterson was the last one to put up a fight against the accusations that these
greater apes were not actually using language in the ways we had previously
defined to being uniquely human. Terrace eventually won the battle by putting
many researchers into exhaustion trying to prove their theories and discoveries
(Sapolsky). However, during this exact time, studies on Bonobos started showing
undeniable results. Savage-Rumbaugh followed the strict guidelines Terrace had
preached about conducting controlled test that do not influence the ape to
respond accordingly. What they discovered however was that Bonobos did not do
very well if not having face to face communication, that is until Kanzi was
born.
Kanzi was born in a research facility and had attached himself
to a foster mother named Matata. Matata was learning sign, and because Kanzi was
introduced to both English and Sign since birth they started realizing he was
picking up the ability to learn language on his own. At about 12 months, Kanzi
began to babble the way all babies do before they fall to sleep, except Kanzi
was babbling the way deaf babies do, with his hands. Soon after, Kanzi began
using simple words like mother, drink, eat, food, and tickle. This discovery was
astounding for Savage-Rumbaugh. Kanzi soon became the focus of attention.
Kanzi is capable of understanding complex thoughts, and unlike
his mother and others who learned language later in life, Kanzi shows cognitive
thinking ability even through the use of headphones or a telephone. Today Kanzi
does not need to be spoken to in sign, and uses a digital sound board that has
over a hundred symbols representing words he wishes to use. Countless tests have
proved that Kanzi is capable of language in a way humans view language to be
suited uniquely for Homo sapiens; this however cannot be guaranteed about his
mother and siblings (PBS/NOVA).
What could this revolution in science tell linguistics about
language? Not until recently have we truly understood the early development of
language. When Human babies are born they are universally formatted to absorb
and learn their native tongue. There are three components in the cortex of the
brain specifically designed for language that begin to develop the day we are
born (Sapolsky). New technology and studies lead by Patricia Kuhl show us
through controlled testing that children start to learn language at the very
beginning of their lives(Lemetyinen). By age three months, the ability to
understand a new language has dropped dramatically. This is not to say they
can’t gain that back but test have shown that there is absolutely no increase in
language development if this is done through television or auditory. In order
for a child to see any cognitive recognition of a different language other than
that spoken in the home, this child must be exposed to that language personally
and face to face. This raises serious question to the scrutiny laid down by
Terrace against the miss information on data collected by Patterson and
colleagues like her about communication with
primates.
There are other factors that made the research of Kanzi much
more fundamental than Koko and Michael. One being that Bonobos have no trouble
mating or finding mates. In fact, using Bonobos was a brilliant idea because by
nature they are more calm like gorillas then chimps making it easier to work
with them, they are less stubborn then gorillas, and anytime, anywhere is their
motto, creating endless opportunities for furthering studies and asking more
question, and learning more things about language development from birth in
Greater Apes.
It is quite clear in many studies that the concept of trying to teach your child to speak at an
earlier age doesn’t show any increase in a child’s ability to speak language
earlier. So the question Kanzi answered researchers was will an infant ape learn
language from his mother if she is taught language. Kanzi did not learn from his
mother or researchers, he learned through observation, and executed this
knowledge in a time of need and want. Could this discovery lead scientist to
realize language is about community. Language is about cooperation. Even
adolescent, human teenagers are most influenced to use the vocabulary and
accents of their friends rather their family and this draws on the conclusive
theory that language is culturally induced (Pagel). The second advantage that
Kanzi has over Koko, Michael, and his bonobo family is that he learned English
and sign from birth. It wasn’t until Koko was one year old and Michael three
that they began to learn the concepts of communication with humans. With that
being said, is it fair to say that English and sign is a second language for
Koko, Michael, and the other bonobos in Savage-Rumbaugh research excluding Kanzi
because they were not introduced to this type of language till later in their
life and the opportunity to develop certain aspect of the fundamental principals
of language had passed(Lemetyinen)?
It has been recorded that gorillas in their natural habitat have up to sixty different body
language signs, sometimes with a string of up to six (Dian Flossey). Some of
these signs that mean nothing to ASL were used by Koko and Michael to
communicate when they were together. Perhaps this could be evidence of a first
language for them, something that science has yet to tap into because of our
lack of technology up until this point in time. It will be very interesting to
see what kinds of research will be reevaluated after discovering the development
of early language in humans and greater apes. Is it possible that research
having been ruled as impartible data will be reevaluated or reconstructed under
guidelines we now see appropriately compatible with the ideas of language?
Perhaps being bipedal really did allow us the ability to move our tongues and
develop vocal cords and it is what has allowed us the ability to speak of
complexity in thought and language (Pagel). Will uncovering 20 to 40 years of
research with the knowledge we now have show us something astoundingly new about
humans and our purpose for language through time? Regardless, it’s safe to
assume we owe thanks to researchers like Patterson and Savage-Rumbaugh for
bringing us to the verge of a linguistic evolutionary breakthrough through the
dedication of years and years of research and criticism. Learning about the
language possibilities of Great Apes has pushed researchers to learn more about
our own abilities and need for language, and when and where we start to develop
this natural born gift to communicate in our lives today, and our ancestral
history.
Sources Cited:
Lemetyinen, H. (2012). Language AcquistionTheory-Simple
Psychology.http://www.simplypsychology.org/language.html#upkqBlc2kpE.email
Marsh,James, dir. Project Nim. Writ. Elizabeth Hess. Icon Film Distribution
(UK), 2011. Film. 1 Oct 2013.
Pagel, Mark. "How Language Transformed Humanity." TEDGlobal2011.
TED Talks. Jul 2011. Speech.
Patterson, Francine. Can Animals Talk to Us?: The Education
of Koko. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1981.
Print.
PBS, , prod. NOVA: Ape Genius. 2011. Web. 11 Nov 2013.
< http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/nature/ape-genius.html>.
PBS, , dir. Nature. A Conversation With Koko. 1982.
Videocassette. 11 Sept 2013.
Sapolsky, Robert. "23. Language." Stanford Department of Biology. Stanford Channel.
Stanford University, Stanford, California. 10 May 2010. Lecture.
http://wwwyoutube.com/stanford , see Sapolsky