Profile of Dorothy L. Cheney and Robert M. Seyfarth
| Autor: | Jennifer Viegas |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Předmět: |
Primates
0106 biological sciences History media_common.quotation_subject Sister Social Environment History 21st Century 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences Laissez-faire Animals Humans 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences 050102 behavioral science & comparative psychology Wilderness Family moved Preparatory school Language media_common Multidisciplinary Behavior Animal Courtesy 05 social sciences Ethology History 20th Century Biological Evolution Independence Language evolution Profile Psychological Theory Classics |
| Zdroj: | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 115:3735-3738 |
| ISSN: | 1091-6490 0027-8424 |
| DOI: | 10.1073/pnas.1804145115 |
| Popis: | Field studies in Africa over the past four decades by ethologists Dorothy Cheney and Robert Seyfarth have uncovered a trove of insights into the behavior, communication, and social cognition of nonhuman primates. The pair’s research further reveals evolutionary antecedents of the human mind. University of Pennsylvania professors emeriti, Cheney and Seyfarth are both elected members of the National Academy of Sciences. For her Inaugural Article cowritten with Seyfarth, Cheney strengthens the hypothesis that many primate vocalizations shape social interactions. Factors driving the early stages of language evolution may therefore be associated with primate social challenges. Dorothy Cheney and baboons. Image courtesy of Keena Roberts (photographer). Robert Seyfarth and baboons crossing water. Image courtesy of Dorothy L. Cheney. As youths, Cheney and Seyfarth enjoyed travel and nature. Cheney’s father was in the US Foreign Service, so her family moved to a different place every few years before returning to Washington, DC. “My parents’ rather laissez faire approach to child-rearing allowed my sister and me to travel alone around India in our teenage years,” says Cheney. “We were given complete independence, for which I’ve always been grateful.” Seyfarth’s father was a Chicago-based businessman. “He also loved the outdoors, and on fishing trips to Canada and the Caribbean, taught me how to enjoy the wilderness even when we didn’t catch fish,” Seyfarth says. Cheney and Seyfarth were not initially drawn to science. Cheney preferred history at her preparatory school in Massachusetts, Abbot Academy, and Seyfarth at first struggled with science. He says, “I found science courses difficult and unappealing until, in my senior year at Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire, I took a course on Darwin. The theory of evolution brought everything into focus and made all that memorization seem worthwhile.” Cheney’s “Darwin moment” happened in the spring term of her Wellesley … |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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