Almost Human: A Journey into the World of Baboons - Softcover

Strum, Shirley C.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0226777561 ISBN 13: 9780226777566

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2001

Synopsis

In 1972, a young graduate student named Shirley Strum traveled to Kenya to study a troop of olive baboons (Papio anubis) nicknamed the Pumphouse Gang. Like our own ancestors, baboons had adapted to life on the African savannah, and Strum hoped that by observing baboon behavior, she could learn something about how early humans might have lived. Soon the baboons had won her heart as well as her mind, and Strum has been working with them ever since.

Vividly written and filled with fascinating insights, Almost Human chronicles the first fifteen years of Strum's fieldwork with the Pumphouse Gang. From the first paragraph, the reader is drawn along with Strum into the world of the baboons, learning about the tragedies and triumphs of their daily lives—and the lives of the scientists studying them. This edition includes a new introduction and epilogue that place Strum's research in the context of the current global conservation crisis and tell us what has happened to the Pumphouse Gang since the book was first published.

About this title

About the Author

Shirley C. Strum is a professor of anthropology at the University of California, San Diego. She is coeditor of The New Physical Anthropology, Natural Connections: Perspectives in Community-Based Conservation, and Almost Human: A Journey into the World of Baboons. Strum has studied olive baboons in Kenya since 1972 and is director of the Uaso Ngiro Baboon Project.


Linda Marie Fedigan is professor and Canada Research Chair in Primatology and Bioanthropology at the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. She is also the past Executive Editor of the American Journal of Primatology and a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.

From the Back Cover

Vividly written and filled with fascinating insights, Almost Human chronicles thirty years of Shirley Strum's fieldwork with a troop of olive baboons nicknamed the Pumphouse Gang. From the first paragraph, the reader is drawn along with Strum into the world of the baboons, learning about the tragedies and triumphs of their daily lives-and of her own voyage of courageous scientific discovery.

In the same way that Jane Goodall's pioneering study of chimpanzees revealed their likeness to humans, Strum's work shows how, contrary to the popular image and the scientific evidence of the time, the more distantly related baboons are just as socially savvy. Almost Human includes her groundbreaking discovery that social finesse, rather than male dominance and aggression, plays a crucial role in baboon society, and Strum relates the drama of a daring translocation experiment with the Pumphouse Gang that ultimately ensured their survival when their habitat was threatened by destruction.

This edition includes a new introduction that places Strum's research in the context of the current global conservation crisis and an epilogue that tells us what has happened to the Pumphouse Gang since the book was first published.

From the Inside Flap

Vividly written and filled with fascinating insights, Almost Human chronicles thirty years of Shirley Strum's fieldwork with a troop of olive baboons nicknamed the Pumphouse Gang. From the first paragraph, the reader is drawn along with Strum into the world of the baboons, learning about the tragedies and triumphs of their daily lives-and of her own voyage of courageous scientific discovery.

In the same way that Jane Goodall's pioneering study of chimpanzees revealed their likeness to humans, Strum's work shows how, contrary to the popular image and the scientific evidence of the time, the more distantly related baboons are just as socially savvy.Almost Human includes her groundbreaking discovery that social finesse, rather than male dominance and aggression, plays a crucial role in baboon society, and Strum relates the drama of a daring translocation experiment with the Pumphouse Gang that ultimately ensured their survival when their habitat was threatened by destruction.

This edition includes a new introduction that places Strum's research in the context of the current global conservation crisis and an epilogue that tells us what has happened to the Pumphouse Gang since the book was first published.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0226777561
• ISBN 13: 9780226777566
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 323