Page 28 - FWG Issue 3_April_2022
P. 28

Nature




















































                                  WOMEN HAVE IT. OK?





                                                    B Y JAMES CLARKE
                                                                                                         Francesco Ungaro, Unsplash


           t is interesting how women have taken   chimps would scatter in terror as soon as   no previous university degree.  This is
           over the science of ethology, the   they detected a human.          something Cambridge had condoned
           scientific study of animal behaviour.                               only seven times in its centuries’ old
        IThe trend began a short time after   Leakey had noticed Goodall’s unusual   history.
         Jane Goodall’s 1971 landmark book about   ability to patiently and intelligently
         chimpanzees, In the Shadow of Man.  observe, and her deep and inquisitive   Within 11 years of first setting foot in
                                            interest in animals. He suggested she   Africa, Cambridge awarded Goodall a
         Goodall   began   her   celebrated  might like to take up the challenge of   doctorate in ethology. It hadn’t been
         chimpanzee research project by living   studying the chimp society.   easy. Her mentors at Cambridge were
         with a wild chimp community alongside                                 aghast when she gave her chimps names.
         Tanzania’s thickly forested Gombe Stream   It was to take incredible patience. Day   She was told to assign them numbers, not
         on Lake Tanganyika.                after day she edged a few centimetres   names.  They said ethologists who gave
                                            nearer where the chimps were most   names to their study animals could no
         A Bournemouth girl, she’d been invited   active, but without reacting to them in   longer be objective. Assigning human
         to Kenya for a holiday and there had   any way. She wanted them to treat her as   feelings and emotions to non-humans
         met the famous palaeontologist, Louis   some inanimate object – like a tree stump   is known as anthropomorphising and
         Leakey. Leakey was at the time studying   but all the time she made notes.  anthropomorphism during most of the
         chimpanzees, believing they would                                     20th century, was a deadly sin among
         provide an insight into the way pre-  In 1965, Cambridge University, impressed   scientists.
         humans survived. But he and his students   by her papers, allowed her to study for
         were making no headway because the   a PhD in ethology even though she had   Goodall, while respectful of science and


                                                  Fourways Gardens • 26 • April 2022
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