I chose to explore the website for The American Society of Primatologists (https://www.asp.org/index.cfm). The American Society of Primatologists represents the subfield primatology because of their efforts to encourage discovery of information regarding primates. The ASP has links on their website to information regarding their work on the conservation of primate populations, education about primate populations, and even information on grants to conduct your own research on primate populations. Primatology is a subfield of biological anthropology because the study of primates, an evolutionary relative of humans, can unlock new information on behaviors, cultures, genetics, and forms of communication. Information on behaviors among groups of primates can also help unlock information on the behaviors of human populations. One of the many special topic journals posted on the website for order was entitled “Sexual Selection and Reproductive Competition in Primate: New Perspectives and Directions”. This specific journal stuck out to me because sexual selection and the competition that coincides with it is a form of natural selection perpetuated among populations of organisms. These researchers discovered cultural and behavioral patterns among primate populations through their various observations on different aspects of mate selection. This information along with the hundreds of thousands of other articles published on their site about primatology is greatly connected to anthropology because the study of human’s closest relatives, primates, can help in the discovery of information on human behaviors.
Not much of research posted on the America Society of Primatologists’ website is made readily available to the public; however, they have a lot of article titles listed on their website under their main journal and other special topic journals. Many of the special topic articles that they advertise are focused on different kinds of human interactions with primates – some interactions are positive, others are negative. There seems to be a concern with human intervention/interaction in primate populations. To list a few: “Characterizing Primate Pet Ownership in Sulawesi: Implications for Disease Transmission”, “Perceptions of Pests: Human Attitudes to Primates, Conflict and Consequences For Conservation”, “Habitat Destruction, Population Compression and Overbrowsing by the Zanzibar Red Colobus Monkey (Procolobus kirkii)”, “Round Up the Usual Suspects – Conflict Between Monkeys and Farmers in East and West Africa”, and “Tourist Impacts on the Behavior of Black Howling Monkeys (Alouatta pigra) at Lamani, Belize”. Not only are they studying the primates to discover new things to apply to human populations, but they’re also concerned about human impact on these primate populations. On the website were also a few articles about the interactions between various primate populations and vegetation in their habitats. Concern over human impact on the environment and the preservation of organism populations should be a major goal of all anthropologists, not only primatologists. This work on conservation directly relates to biological anthropology because biological anthropology involves both the evolution of humans AND the relationship of humans to other organisms. The study of human impact on primate habitats, thus, is a derivative of a biological anthropologist’s goal of studying the relationship of humans to other organisms.
Hey Samantha Kish, when I read your blog post I was very intrigued by the use of the information about the American Society of Primatologists. I learned a good amount about how these organizations want to expand their knowledge about the importance of primates that can possibly affect human behavior, genetics and especially their culture. However, I totally understand the interaction of humans with primates. I like how you reference the articles from this organization to make a connection between both physical anthropology and the more broader field of Anthropology. Also, you did a great job on how you explained that primates cultural and behavioral patterns that occur when you talked about the mate section and the natural selection topic. And to include but I never knew that not all interactions between humans and primates can be negative. Great job!
Hi, Samantha. You have chosen a website of a very professional organization. Primatology is the study of the behaviors, physical structures and evolution of nonhuman primates. Anthropology is the study of human beings, including our history, culture and evolution. In the beginning, I wonder that why the study of nonhuman primates could be a subfield of anthropology. After reading your post, I think my questions could be answered. Firstly, as you have mentioned, many of these studies focus on human interactions with primates, and human beings are involved in this process. The human activities will also influence the behaviors and the living environments of these nonhuman primates. Secondly, the study of primates’ behaviors and evolutions will also provide references for the study of human beings. I have seen the trees of evolution, and the monkeys are also listed there. Human beings are evolved from the ancient primates.