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Re: Anthroplogists, I need advice! Please help me!
Herb Huston (huston@access2.digex.net)
9 Sep 1996 21:25:39 -0400
In article <01bb9e17$95021a40$1c08a392@dlevine.siue.edu>,
Karen <klevine@siue.edu> wrote:
}Also, what is the general opinion of Desmond Morris?
When reading answers to this question, keep in mind that almost 30 years
ago Desmond Morris pretty much trashed cultural anthropology in the third
paragraph of the introduction to _The Naked Ape_.
} His TV programs are
}fantastic! What field of anthropology does he specialize in (or does he
}specialize in zoology)?
His doctorate is in zoology (1954) from Oxford where his mentor was Niko
Tinbergen. His area of specialization was comparative ethology, and from
1959 to 1967 he was curator of mammals at the London Zoo. As he wrote in
the second paragraph of the introduction to _The Naked Ape_:
I am a zoologist and the naked ape is an animal. He is
therefore fair game for my pen and I refuse to avoid him
any longer simply because some of his behaviour patterns
are rather complex and impressive. My excuse is that, in
becoming so erudite, _Homo sapiens_ has remained a naked
ape nevertheless; in acquiring lofty new motives, he has
lost none of the earthy old ones.
I highly recommend his memoir, _Animal Days_, published in 1980 by Morrow
of New York. Just the story of how a chimpanzee named Congo became an
internationally celebrated painter with admirers named Dali, Picasso, and
Miro is worth the time spent.
--
-- Herb Huston
-- huston@access.digex.net
-- http://www.access.digex.net/~huston
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