"They are us" Why do we keep mistreating our fellow primates? Meet the primates with Dr. Jordi Sabater Pi
" In our country there is no kind of awareness that animals have any rights. There are some associations, but from the point of view to be interested in animal rights and their dignity, we are surely among the last countries in Europe . " Dr. Sabater
The academic world knows this Professor Emeritus of psychobiology and ethology, Doctor Honoris Causa by the University Autónoma de Barcelona and the Autonomous University of Madrid, recently awarded Narcís Monturiol to science (May 2005), which was the pioneer of the ethology in our country and who created the first chair of this specialty at the University of Barcelona.
After a lifetime dedicated to the study of animal behavior, especially of primates, what do you most impressed by his behavior? What is the biggest discovery of ethology in the field of the great apes?
The proximity to humans and, in the case of chimpanzees, that all they do is cultural and that whole culture is learned from their parents. We can divide the behavior of chimpanzees in cultural areas.
A traditional course to consider the man different from other animals and above them was the rational thinking and language skills. However, Dr. Lyn White Miles explains that the Malay term orang-utan, has been translated as "be reasonable forest" or "old person of the forest" and you yourself have spoken of the "woodsman" referring the orangutan.
The animal is a relative concept: two hundred years ago we thought that blacks were not human, took them as slaves, thinking they are beings like us but they were not properly human. This has lasted until recently, because we must keep in mind that Spain abolished slavery (human) makes exactly one hundred and ten years we still see people of color with many prejudices and some people think that we are not like them. Something similar happens with a chimpanzee, a gorilla, an orangutan ... We have studied the bonobos (pygmy chimpanzees) and found that the Indians, for example, not kill them. There are many African peoples bonobos as a close relative of man.
The pongids (gorillas, chimpanzees, orangutans, bonobos) can develop communication systems similar to those of a two or three years, understand spoken language like sign language, use it creatively. .. and you wrote an article entitled "The concept of communication in primates." What is known of their language?
A chimpanzee being taught with different communication systems: a language of gestures, like the deaf, or an artificial language signs through a computer typing, not spoken language, because these animals have no voice box, but they can learn up to a thousand words with symbols, colors ... We should consider Homo sapiens 200,000 years ago, and I would watch him through a hole to see what he was doing, and what he did was ... almost nothing.
Is it true that the chimpanzee is more like a human being a zebra a horse?
Yes, the chimp is like a prehistoric hominid.
If neither the culture, language, intelligence and emotions are unique features of man, ie whether chimpanzees have the capacity not only cognitive but also cultural elements that we had booked as a mark of the human condition, then what makes us human?
say that basically the communication system. System is also cumulative and, in some way, but we do not represent the apex of a pyramid, because you and I are not only we, we and our ancestors.
Bonobos, in particular, have a peaceful attitude, much more than us. "In this they are superior to humans, not to be so violent?
Violence is something that does not lead to anything good. Is a negative energy.
Nevertheless, some of these primates can be cannibals ...
Yes, chimpanzees.
what cases go to these extremes? When no food?
even having food, they like it. They are omnivores like us. The man has been a cannibal. Many years ago I worked in the anthropology of the Fang, in Guinea, and even got to meet some Indians who had not been white. Because Fang could speak the language, after making friends and talking with them, some even confessed to having eaten human flesh.
Why need or because it was part of their culture?
No, it was good. All this has a principle: they ate human flesh, but of people who did not belong to his tribe. The reason is anthropocentrism. Like the Aztecs, who ate the body of their enemies. The Aztecs ate the prisoners. Cannibals were tremendous! I drew the heart and then dump the body. This comes from a very simple thing that should be explained in schools: all people think they are unique and are the real men.
"Like Greek or Roman about the barbarians?
course, the barbarians could not speak and if you can not speak are not a real man and can be eaten. As no human being can kill.
If we accept, after all we've said, that is well-established high emotional intelligence and sensitivity of the nonhuman primates who are our brothers for their phylogeny, including being able to learn our language and communicate with us, then why not change our relationship and attitude towards them? Why further define what interests differently from the man as a person and others as "animals" and therefore, as "inferior"?
For anthropocentrism. If we are able to do what we have done to blacks, imagine a chimpanzee.
What can be done to end the prejudice called speciesism and human superiority over animals?
teach. This should be taught to children in schools. It is a problem of education. All I'm saying is not taught in any school, but there should be. What It took Darwin to accept his idea of \u200b\u200bevolution! And yet many people do not accept it, when it's something obvious.
If the anthropologist Geza Teleki says "They are us," why we like to admit only the great apes, but accept that we are apes?
For morphology, the external appearance. But we are primates. Compare with the monkeys is something that annoys, disturbs us. It's like a caricature. The chimpanzees were used in human clothes beaches in circuses, mockery plan ... The chimpanzee has been a much-ridiculed animal entertainers.
If the resemblance is so much between people and say, not acceptable to keep these animals in captive situations, abuse, entertainment, medical laboratories ... So why even allowed experiments with chimpanzees alive and conscious while prohibiting a human being who is brain dead and can not talk or feel?
Because chimps do not protest, and society tolerates or does not know to see. Theoretically, in the European Community is prohibited, but is still done in secret ...
What should be done to prevent it?
thing to do is insist that this be taught in schools. Children of three, five years ... they should explain the meaning of anthropocentrism, ie, feeling superior to others. Hitler, with his idea of \u200b\u200bthe Aryan race, is a case of this phenomenon (an absurdity because Aryan is a linguistic term) that allowed him to justify the extermination camps. Hitler knew nothing about anthropology and was a madman. Although he said he liked dogs, a man could not love animals.
Why kill bulls associated with Spain?
Bulls have nothing to do with the English. In Italy he had run for 100 years in Spain. The law abolished a century ago by and nothing happened. The bulls were in many places: in Greece, in most of Europe ..., associate them with Spain is nonsense.
Why have continued in our country?
Because this has not reached modernity and the Enlightenment. Or has it gone too impoverished. Our country is still very backward in many respects.
is curious that the Buddha's first commandment is: "do not inflict pain on any living thing, and the Christians:" Do not kill any human being "...
Yes, this comes from Judaism. The only saint who was a patron of animals was San Francisco and was very frowned upon ... Even it was very difficult to be received by the Pope because of his attitude towards animals.
In Genesis, God gives man dominion over the animals and then punishes him with the Flood, but he saves animals. Is that a contradiction?
The saves for men to eat. In our tradition, always acts for human benefit.
This interview has been summarized. Source: http://www.ub.edu/fildt/
