Book contents
- Chimpanzee
- Reviews
- Chimpanzee
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Sister’s Keeper
- 2 Wild Lesson
- 3 A Most Surprising Creature
- 4 Kin
- 5 Scratching Out a Living in an Unforgiving World
- 6 Guts, Glorious Guts, Large Stomach, and Colon
- 7 Thews, Sinews, and Bone
- 8 Arboreal Gathering, Terrestrial Traveling
- 9 Forged in Nature’s Cauldron
- 10 Up from the Protoape
- 11 Building a Natural Wonder
- 12 The Source of Similarity
- 13 Making Your Way in the Great Wild World
- 14 The Grim Reaper in the Forest Primeval
- 15 Powering Life
- 16 Shelter from the Storm
- 17 Meat-Seeking Missiles
- 18 The Mind of the Chimpanzee
- 19 The Brain of the Chimpanzee
- 20 Tired Nature’s Sweet Restorer
- 21 Chimpanzee Thought Transfer
- 22 Ape Implements
- 23 Wisdom of the Ages
- 24 The Daily Grind
- 25 A Nation at War with Itself
- 26 The Sporting Chimpanzee
- 27 The Passion of Pan
- 28 Into the Light
- 29 The Other Sister, Bonobos
- 30 Sister Species
- Book part
- Index
- Plate Section (PDF Only)
- References
4 - Kin
The Chimpanzee’s Place in Nature
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 July 2020
- Chimpanzee
- Reviews
- Chimpanzee
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Foreword
- Preface
- Acknowledgments
- 1 Sister’s Keeper
- 2 Wild Lesson
- 3 A Most Surprising Creature
- 4 Kin
- 5 Scratching Out a Living in an Unforgiving World
- 6 Guts, Glorious Guts, Large Stomach, and Colon
- 7 Thews, Sinews, and Bone
- 8 Arboreal Gathering, Terrestrial Traveling
- 9 Forged in Nature’s Cauldron
- 10 Up from the Protoape
- 11 Building a Natural Wonder
- 12 The Source of Similarity
- 13 Making Your Way in the Great Wild World
- 14 The Grim Reaper in the Forest Primeval
- 15 Powering Life
- 16 Shelter from the Storm
- 17 Meat-Seeking Missiles
- 18 The Mind of the Chimpanzee
- 19 The Brain of the Chimpanzee
- 20 Tired Nature’s Sweet Restorer
- 21 Chimpanzee Thought Transfer
- 22 Ape Implements
- 23 Wisdom of the Ages
- 24 The Daily Grind
- 25 A Nation at War with Itself
- 26 The Sporting Chimpanzee
- 27 The Passion of Pan
- 28 Into the Light
- 29 The Other Sister, Bonobos
- 30 Sister Species
- Book part
- Index
- Plate Section (PDF Only)
- References
Summary
We had an introduction to the bold ideas of naturalist Carolus Linnaeus in the previous chapter (Figure 4.1). You will remember that he wanted first to identify unambiguously every living thing on the planet and second to organize the living world into as simple a system as possible. He coined the term taxonomy as a slightly irregular mash-up of the Greek words taxis, meaning arrangement, and nomos, meaning method. Thus, the modern science of describing and classifying living things began with Linnaeus and – with fewer modifications than you might guess – his system is still used today. No wonder. The structure he conceived was positively brilliant. His revolutionary innovation was the invention of a rule-based, hierarchical system that unequivocally differentiated species from one another, gave every organism a unique name, and specified the relationships among species.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- ChimpanzeeLessons from our Sister Species, pp. 40 - 60Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020