Sierra Clegg
6-13-16
Honors Biology
Honors Summary: When Elephants Weep
In the book, When Elephants Weep by Jeffrey Masson, Masson tackles the difficult subject animal lovers and scientist -from all backgrounds of Biology- have been fighting about for years: whether or not animals have emotions. For me personally, the reason I chose this book at the beginning of the semester was due of course for my interest and love for animals. Throughout its entirety, I found myself in awe from the wonderful relationships animals have within their own species, and with other animals (such as humans). But, what shocked me most about this book was how misconceptions of whether or not animals have emotions lead to torturous methods of: animal testing, animal abuse, and whether or not animals should go through surgery without medication. However, what surprised me the most was examples of pure anger among animals; such as how chimpanzees have been known to kill and eat other chimpanzees of other packs. But despite these twist and turns the book throws at you, its flows very nicely. There may be difficult texts from Darwin or older scientist, but despite the somewhat difficult texts at times Masson does a good job of unpacking the information and explaining it in great detail.
The book as a whole, as I have stated before, discusses the taboo thought of animals having the capability that we as humans are very familiar with - emotions. The reason the thought of animal emotions is considered “taboo” in the book is due to the fear of anthropomorphism by biologist. Anthropomorphism is essentially the act of giving human emotions or characteristics to objects, gods, or of course animals; moverover, the reason scientist are so scared of it is because, among the scientific community, it is seen as unethical, and supposedly producing unreliable scientific results in studies. For example, in Dr. Jane Goodall’s studies of chimpanzees in Gombe was and still is frowned upon by biologist is for her “improper” use of naming Chimpanzees. The reason her groundbreaking research was deemed anthropomorphic, was due to scientist usually giving animal subjects numbers instead of names.
Thankfully in the book, Masson sees the connection between animal behavior and human behavior due to the familiarity with our “emotions”, and proves his point animal emotions should be studied more through the six parts of the book: love, joy, anger, fear, shame, compassion, and loneliness.
The content of the book best connects with our course in Biology by the various mentions of Darwin and his surprisingly lax ideology of anthropomorphism. For example, in an account he gave about his encounter at a zoo where he claimed a zoo keeper was attacked by a baboon and the bravery another monkey had when he saw the zookeeper- who he considered his friend- being attacked. The small monkey distracted the baboon long enough for the zookeeper to escape. This altercation moved Darwin to believe the monkey was “...a friend and a brave one at that”. This simple observation by Darwin has lead modern scientist to ostracize Darwin claiming him to “anthropomorphize animal behavior”.
The connect of Darwin several times throughout the book is extremely significant to this course because it gives an surprising outlook on a revolutionary evolutionary scientist such as Darwin. The very fact Darwin is seen as anthropomorphic by contemporary scientist is appalling considering the powerful impact Darwin had on scientific thought as we know it today. It also solidifies the urgent need of study in the field of animal emotions, because, if Darwin’s work is seen as anthropomorphic by scientist today, it will just continuate the negative connotation animal emotion has in the scientific community.
Lastly, if I were to rate this book out of five stars, I would give it a four out of five. The reasoning behind this is because of the overall feel of the book. Don’t get me wrong, I thought this book was very informative with its numerous examples of animal studies and behaviors; however, the structure of how the book was written, could at times be a tad boring. The reason I feel that way is because of the -at times- neverending examples of animal behavior. Other than that, the book was excellent with its open mindset about both sides of the animal emotion debate. Overall, I recommend this book to animal lovers across the board because of the continuous concern of animals in the book.
6-13-16
Honors Biology
Honors Summary: When Elephants Weep
In the book, When Elephants Weep by Jeffrey Masson, Masson tackles the difficult subject animal lovers and scientist -from all backgrounds of Biology- have been fighting about for years: whether or not animals have emotions. For me personally, the reason I chose this book at the beginning of the semester was due of course for my interest and love for animals. Throughout its entirety, I found myself in awe from the wonderful relationships animals have within their own species, and with other animals (such as humans). But, what shocked me most about this book was how misconceptions of whether or not animals have emotions lead to torturous methods of: animal testing, animal abuse, and whether or not animals should go through surgery without medication. However, what surprised me the most was examples of pure anger among animals; such as how chimpanzees have been known to kill and eat other chimpanzees of other packs. But despite these twist and turns the book throws at you, its flows very nicely. There may be difficult texts from Darwin or older scientist, but despite the somewhat difficult texts at times Masson does a good job of unpacking the information and explaining it in great detail.
The book as a whole, as I have stated before, discusses the taboo thought of animals having the capability that we as humans are very familiar with - emotions. The reason the thought of animal emotions is considered “taboo” in the book is due to the fear of anthropomorphism by biologist. Anthropomorphism is essentially the act of giving human emotions or characteristics to objects, gods, or of course animals; moverover, the reason scientist are so scared of it is because, among the scientific community, it is seen as unethical, and supposedly producing unreliable scientific results in studies. For example, in Dr. Jane Goodall’s studies of chimpanzees in Gombe was and still is frowned upon by biologist is for her “improper” use of naming Chimpanzees. The reason her groundbreaking research was deemed anthropomorphic, was due to scientist usually giving animal subjects numbers instead of names.
Thankfully in the book, Masson sees the connection between animal behavior and human behavior due to the familiarity with our “emotions”, and proves his point animal emotions should be studied more through the six parts of the book: love, joy, anger, fear, shame, compassion, and loneliness.
The content of the book best connects with our course in Biology by the various mentions of Darwin and his surprisingly lax ideology of anthropomorphism. For example, in an account he gave about his encounter at a zoo where he claimed a zoo keeper was attacked by a baboon and the bravery another monkey had when he saw the zookeeper- who he considered his friend- being attacked. The small monkey distracted the baboon long enough for the zookeeper to escape. This altercation moved Darwin to believe the monkey was “...a friend and a brave one at that”. This simple observation by Darwin has lead modern scientist to ostracize Darwin claiming him to “anthropomorphize animal behavior”.
The connect of Darwin several times throughout the book is extremely significant to this course because it gives an surprising outlook on a revolutionary evolutionary scientist such as Darwin. The very fact Darwin is seen as anthropomorphic by contemporary scientist is appalling considering the powerful impact Darwin had on scientific thought as we know it today. It also solidifies the urgent need of study in the field of animal emotions, because, if Darwin’s work is seen as anthropomorphic by scientist today, it will just continuate the negative connotation animal emotion has in the scientific community.
Lastly, if I were to rate this book out of five stars, I would give it a four out of five. The reasoning behind this is because of the overall feel of the book. Don’t get me wrong, I thought this book was very informative with its numerous examples of animal studies and behaviors; however, the structure of how the book was written, could at times be a tad boring. The reason I feel that way is because of the -at times- neverending examples of animal behavior. Other than that, the book was excellent with its open mindset about both sides of the animal emotion debate. Overall, I recommend this book to animal lovers across the board because of the continuous concern of animals in the book.