Next of Kin: What Chimpanzees Have Taught Me About Who We Are
ROGER FOUTS
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58 reviews (1997) (420p)Visit this book's Amazon.com page >>
| Book Description |
| At the heart of this moving and vibrant book is Fouts' magical, 30-year friendship with Washoe--the chimp whom Fouts has taught American Sign Language--whose dialogues with the author have opened a window into chimpanzee consciousness. Movie rights sold to 20th century Fox. of photos. |
| Amazon.com Review |
| For three decades, primatologist Roger Fouts has been involved in language studies of the chimpanzee, the animal most closely related to human beings. Among his subjects was the renowned Washoe, who was "endowed with a powerful need to learn and communicate," and who developed an extraordinary vocabulary in American Sign Language. Another chimpanzee, Fouts writes, "never made a grammatical error," which turned a whole school of linguistic theory upside down. While reporting these successes, Fouts also notes that chimpanzees are regularly abused in laboratory settings and that in the wild their number has fallen from 5,000,000 to fewer than 175,000 in the last century. |
| Roger Fouts Award Stats |
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| *Major Prize = Pulitzer Prize, National Book Critics Circle Award, National Book Award, Man Booker Prize, and PEN/Faulkner Award |
