Concern that humans might be more closely linked to "lower" forms of
life than had previously been imagined increased as natural historians
and world travelers began to provide detailed information about numerous species
of monkeys and apes. Could  a
creature with a hand like this one (at left) be anything but closely related
to human beings. Discussion and debate centered on a wide variety
of troubling questions. Were certain creatures (orang-utans, chimps, gorillas)
simply lower forms of human life? Were human beings merely the hairless apes they
appeared to be? Did creatures who obviously behaved as though they
had emotions and intelligence deserve any special consideration from human
beings? As more and more people had the opportunity to see such animals up close--especially living examples in menageries and zoos--it became harder and harder to believe in so-called separate creation. These animals had not only finger nails, finger prints, and the creased palms of human beings, they also exhibited a wide range of emotional behaviors: anger, sadness, grief, frustration, boredom, happiness. The issue of the morality of their captivity became a subject of debate from the time of their first arrivals in Europe. Monkeys had been kept as pets throughout the nonEuropean world since antiquity. By 1800, however, zoos as well as natural history cabinets in Italy, Germany, Britain, and elsewhere, allowed royalty, aristocrats and eventually the general public to stare long and hard at our closest living relatives. See Jardine's Natural
History of Monkeys, from which this image (above) is taken. This print depicts the hand of a Siamang (Hylobates syndactyla ), the largest of the so-called lesser apes, a member of the gibbon family notable for fingers united "as far as the second phalanx." This arboreal primate, once found widely throughout Thailand, Sumatra and the Malasian peninsula, is currently under severe threat from habitat destruction and the illegal pet trade. Also see "Monkeys,
Men, and Man-Apes." |