DOCSLIB.ORG

Summary of HOPE Project

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Summary of HOPE Project February, 2004 Prof. Tetsuro Matsuzawa Kyoto University, Japan Summary of HOPE Project The human mind is as much a product of evolution as the human body. Where did we come from? What is human nature? To answer such fundamental questions, we must address the question of how humans have evolved. Humans (scientific name Homo sapiens) are a species of primate, a species of mammal, and a species of vertebrate. The HOPE project aims to study the “Primate Origins of Human Evolution” focusing on apes and monkeys as our evolutionary neighbors. HOPE is an anagram of our research title, and also expresses a hope for conservation. All primate species other than humans are designated as endangered or threatened in CITES (Washington convention on endangered animals and plants). Therefore, in parallel to advanced studies of primates, we must also make concentrated efforts for the conservation of monkeys and apes in tropical forests, as species symbolic of biological diversity and the global environment. Japan is unique among the advanced countries of the world in having an indigenous species of nonhuman primate. Thanks to the country’s natural and cultural background, Japanese primatological study has made unique contributions to the world. The late Kinji Imanishi (1902-1992) and his colleagues began the study of wild monkeys in Koshima, Miyazaki, Japan, in 1948. The study of Koshima monkeys continues to be conducted by the Primate Research Institute of Kyoto University (KUPRI) to the present day. Fifty-five years have passed, throughout which researchers kept records of monkeys of eight generations: the history of a monkey kingdom. Japanese primatologists embarked on fieldwork on great apes in Africa in 1958. While this work also continues, a new line of captive research on the chimpanzee mind is being promoted in parallel by KUPRI. Japanese researchers founded an English-language primatological journal titled “Primates” - the oldest one in the discipline - which is now published in collaboration with Springer-Verlag of Germany. Germany also has a long tradition in the study of chimpanzee intelligence, originated by Wolfgang Koehler (1887-1967). One of Germany’s most recent major contributions to the academic world was the founding of the Max Plank Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology (MPEVA) in 1997. This brand new facility focuses on the study of humans and apes, and is laying the foundations for a new discipline: Evolutionary Anthropology. MPEVA has already established itself as a core institution in Europe for the study of the primate origins of human evolution. 1/3 February, 2004 Prof. Tetsuro Matsuzawa Kyoto University, Japan HOPE is a core-to-core program established between Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) and Max-Plank-Gesellschaft (MPG). The HOPE project has two core institutions, one in Japan (KUPRI) and one in Germany (MPIEVA). These two institutions will serve as focal points for scientific collaborations relating to Primatology and Evolutionary Anthropology in the two countries. Researchers in Japan and Germany will collaborate to explore the evolutionary origins and genomic basis of the human mind, body, and society through comparative studies of primates. This work should proceed with the following basic question in mind: What is uniquely human? The answers may provide biologically relevant guidance toward solutions to many of the problems we are facing in modern human societies. KUPRI has several long-running research sites of wild Japanese monkeys, chimpanzees, and bonobos. It also serves as a national center for various disciplines within the field of primate studies. Similarly, MPIEVA maintains long-running research sites of great apes in the wild: chimpanzees, bonobos, and gorillas. It also has a research facility for captive apes: the Wolfgang Koehler Primate Research Center collaborated with the Leipzig Zoological Garden. MPIEVA has already made major contributions to the study of wild apes, comparative cognitive development, and comparative genomics. The two institutions complement each other fully, and a collaboration between them will catalyze scientific progress and create new frontiers in the study of the Primate Origins of Human Evolution. For that purpose, the HOPE project will promote collaborative research, facilitate exchange between young scientists, and hold international workshops and symposia. HOPE will also build up a database of primatology and evolutionary anthropology, and will run an internet web site showcasing these topics. In addition, HOPE plans to produce a series of English-language publications to provide the public with feedback on scientific achievements. The HOPE project’s present schedule is planned as follows. In 2004, the two institutions will participate in a meeting in Leipzig to draw up an agenda and action plans for the next two years. Then, a number of symposia organized by KUPRI and/or MPIEVA will be held: “Evolutionary origins of human language”, “Apes and disease”, “Feeding ecology”, “Evolution of intelligence for tool use”, “Research, welfare, and conservation of the great apes”. In 2005, HOPE will organize a satellite workshop at the HUGO (Human Genome Organization) international symposium in Japan. In addition to the exchange of information, HOPE will also promote the exchange of young scientists of future generations through collaborative visits to the respective institutions. Illuminating the unique features of MPIEVA, HOPE will focus on 2/3 February, 2004 Prof. Tetsuro Matsuzawa Kyoto University, Japan exchanges in the following three advanced fields: “Developmental processes of cognition and language”, “Ecology of apes in their natural habitat”, and “Comparative genomics”. Moreover, HOPE will focus on two additional fields that can not be fully covered by the Japan-Germany collaboration: “The study of fossils” and “The study of wildlife conservation and animal welfare”. For that purpose, HOPE will maintain a perspective for future collaborations with institutions in the USA which address all of the above topics, with particular emphasis on the latter two. Throughout its continuing efforts of collaboration, HOPE will aim to clarify the primate origins of the human mind, body, and society, as well as the genomic bases thereof. *Please visit the following websites: KUPRI website http://www.pri.kyoto-u.ac.jp/index-j.html JSPS website: JSPS Core-to-Core Program http://www.jsps.go.jp/j-bilat/sen.html 3/3 .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Déroutants Primates : Approches Émergentes Aux Frontières De L’Anthropologie Et De La Primatologie
    5 | 2013 Varia http://primatologie.revues.org/1250 Dossier Déroutants primates : approches émergentes aux frontières de l’anthropologie et de la primatologie Special section on Disconcerting primates: emerging approaches in the anthropology/primatology borderland Dossier proposé et édité avec le concours de la revue par Vincent Leblan Vincent Leblan Introduction: emerging approaches in the anthropology/primatology borderland [Texte intégral] Introduction : approches émergentes aux frontières de l’anthropologie et de la primatologie Article 62 Takanori Oishi 5 | 2013 Varia http://primatologie.revues.org/1250 Human-Gorilla and Gorilla-Human: Dynamics of Human-animal boundaries and interethnic relationships in the central African rainforest [Texte intégral] Homme-gorilles et gorille-hommes : dynamiques de la frontière homme-animal et relations interethniques dans la forêt d’Afrique centrale Article 63 Gen Yamakoshi et Vincent Leblan Conflicts between indigenous and scientific concepts of landscape management for wildlife conservation: human-chimpanzee politics of coexistence at Bossou, Guinea [Texte intégral] Conflits entre conceptions locales et scientifiques de la gestion du paysage pour la conservation de la faune : politiques de la coexistence entre humains et chimpanzés à Bossou, Guinée Article 64 Naoki Matsuura, Yuji Takenoshita et Juichi Yamagiwa Eco-anthropologie et primatologie pour la conservation de la biodiversité : un projet collaboratif dans le Parc National de Moukalaba-Doudou, Gabon [Texte intégral] Ecological anthropology
    [Show full text]
  • Professor Masao Kawai, a Pioneer and Leading Scholar in Primatology and Writer of Animal Stories for Children
    Primates (2021) 62:677–695 https://doi.org/10.1007/s10329-021-00938-2 EDITORIAL Professor Masao Kawai, a pioneer and leading scholar in primatology and writer of animal stories for children Masayuki Nakamichi1 Received: 20 July 2021 / Accepted: 28 July 2021 / Published online: 24 August 2021 © Japan Monkey Centre 2021 This Editorial is dedicated to Professor Masao Kawai (Fig. 1), who passed away on May 14th, 2021. He served as the sixth Editor-in-Chief of Primates for 15 years (1981–1995). The following is a collection of memories from 20 scholars. A last eulogy for Prof. Kawai by his last student Naofumi Nakagawa Professor Emeritus Masao Kawai is one of the so-called frst generation of Japanese primatologists, comprising students of Kinji Imanishi, the pioneer of the discipline of Japanese primatology (Matsuzawa and Yamagiwa 2018), and the frst president of the Primate Society of Japan (Kawai 1985). It is my honor and privilege to deliver this memorial address for Prof. Kawai as one of his last students. Prof. Kawai served as my mentor until his retirement from the Primate Research Institute of Kyoto University (KUPRI), when I was in the frst year of my doctoral study. Although I am now 61, when I frst met him, I quickly realized that I was no match for his extensive knowledge and enlightened spirit, which led to a wide range of human networks. Prof. Kawai was so busy that it was very difcult for me to see him; however, whenever I happened to see him in a meeting room during lunchtime, or to meet with him in his own ofce, he would talk to me in a friendly manner with much humor, while providing profound insights.
    [Show full text]
  • Mahale Chimpanzees: 50 Years of Research Edited by Michio Nakamura, Kazuhiko Hosaka, Noriko Itoh and Koichiro Zamma Frontmatter More Information
    Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-05231-4 - Mahale Chimpanzees: 50 Years of Research Edited by Michio Nakamura, Kazuhiko Hosaka, Noriko Itoh and Koichiro Zamma Frontmatter More information Mahale Chimpanzees 50 Years of Research Long-term ecological research studies are rare and invaluable resources, particularly when they are as thoroughly documented as the Mahale Mountains Chimpanzee Research Project in Tanzania. Directed by the late Toshisada Nishida from 1965 until 2011, the project continues to yield new and fascinating findings about our closest neighbor species. In a fitting tribute to Nishida’s contribution to science, this book brings together 50 years of research into one encyclopedic volume. Alongside previously unpublished data, the editors include new translations of Japanese writings throughout the book to bring previously inaccessible work to non-Japanese speakers. The history and ecology of the site, chimpanzee behavior and biology, and ecological management are all addressed through first-hand accounts by Mahale researchers. The authors highlight long-term changes in behavior, where possible, and draw comparisons with other chimpanzee sites across Africa to provide an integrative view of chimpanzee research today. This is a major contribution to great ape research, complementing Nishida’s last work Chimpanzees of the Lakeshore (Cambridge University Press, 2012). Michio Nakamura is Associate Professor at the Wildlife Research Center, Kyoto University, Japan. He has studied the Mahale chimpanzees since 1994 and is a recipient of the Primate Society of Japan’s Takashima Prize. Kazuhiko Hosaka is Associate Professor at Kamakura Women’s University, Japan. His research focuses on the social interactions, hunting, and meat-eating behavior of chimpanzees in relation to human evolution.
    [Show full text]
  • Imanishi Kinji, a Japanese View of Nature --- Introduction
    A Japanese View of Nature [*] A Japanese View of Nature—The World of Living Things by Kinji Imanishi Translated by Pamela J. Asquith, Heita Kawakatsu, Shusuke Yagi and Hiroyuki Takasaki Although Seibutsu no Sekai (The World of Living Things), the seminal 1941 work of Kinji Imanishi, had an enormous impact in Japan, both on scholars and on the general public, very little is known about it in the English-speaking world. This book makes the complete text available in English for the first time and provides an extensive introduction and notes to set the work in context. Imanishi's work, based on a wide knowledge of science and the natural world, puts forward a distinctive view of nature and how it should be studied. Ecologist, anthropologist, and founder of primatology in Japan, Imanishi's first book is a philosophical biology that informs many of his later ideas on species society, species recognition, culture in the animal world, cooperation and habitat segregation in nature, the "life" of nonliving things and the relationships between organisms and their environments. Imanishi's work is of particular interest for contemporary discussions of units and levels of selection in evolutionary biology and philosophy, and as a background to the development of some contributions to ecology, primatology and human social evolution theory in Japan. Imanishi's views are extremely interesting because he formulated an approach to viewing nature that challenged the usual international ideas of the time, and that foreshadows approaches to study of the biosphere that have currency today. Japan Anthropology Workshop Series (JAWS) Series editor: Joy Hendry, Oxford Brookes University Editorial board: Pamela J.
    [Show full text]
  • Newly-Acquired Pre-Cultural Behavior of the Natural Troop of Japanese Monkeys on Koshima Islet
    PRIMATES, Vol. 6, No. 1, 1965 Newly-acquired Pre-cultural Behavior of the Natural Troop of Japanese Monkeys on Koshima Islet MASA0 KAWAI The Japan Monkey Centre, Aichi INTR OD UC TION The problem of pre-culture in the society of Japanese monkeys (Macaca ,/hscata) was first discussed and given a theoretical interpretation by K. Imanishi (1952). Since then the Primates Research Group has collected various kinds of data. A general view on the pre-culture* of Japanese monkeys was given by S. Kawamura (1956, '58, '59 and '64). Sweet-potato washing is an example of pre-culture characteristic of the troop of monkeys in Koshima (a small islet in Miyazaki Prefecture, Kyushu). This was already reported by Kawamura (1954, '56, '58, '59, and '64), D. Miyadi (1959), and Kawai (1964). Kawamura and I observed the habit of sweet-potato washing occurred in the Koshima troop in 1953, and since then I have paid much attention to observing the pre-cuhural phenomena (Kawai 1964 a, b). Besides the sweet-potato washing behavior, the Koshima troop acquired some other new behaviors, which can be regarded as the pre-culture peculiar to the troop. I would like to discuss here the sweet-potato washing pre-culture and the new pre-cultural phenomena, especially, their process of acquisition and propagation, their causes, and finally, the meaning of these pre-cultures. Before proceeding into the report, I should like to show my gratitude for the valuable advice and friendship of those who have long been with me in studying the Koshima Troop: Dr. Syunzo Kawamura of Osaka City Univer- sity, Dr.
    [Show full text]
  • Toshisada Nishida (1941–2011): Chimpanzee Rapport
    Obituary Toshisada Nishida (1941–2011): Chimpanzee Rapport Frans B. M. de Waal* Living Links, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America ‘‘Chimpanzees are always new to me.’’ Toshisada Nishida [1] One of the absolute greats of primatol- ogy, Toshisada Nishida (March 3, 1941– June 7, 2011), recently passed away at the age of 70 (Figure 1). We have come such a long way in our knowledge of chimpan- zees, and the discoveries have reached us in such a gradual and cumulative fashion, that it is easy to forget how little was known when Nishida set out for Africa to establish one of the first chimpanzee field sites, in 1965. At the time, chimpanzees did not yet occupy the special place in our thinking about human evolution reserved for them today. Science considered ba- boons the best model of human evolution, since baboons had descended from the trees to become savanna-dwellers, like our ancestors. These rambunctious monkeys, however, are genetically more distant from us, and many of the characteristics deemed important for human evolution Figure 1. Toshisada Nishida in a Kyoto temple, in 2007. Photograph by Frans de Waal. are either absent or minimally developed, doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001185.g001 such as tool technology, cooperative hunt- ing, food sharing, territoriality, cultural patiently for chimpanzees at a patch of any need for social bonds—not unlike traditions, and certain cognitive capacities, sugar cane planted to attract them. The Rousseau’s noble savages—Nishida had such as planning and theory-of-mind. primates started to make regular visits only noticed that chimpanzees live a communal Chimpanzees show all of them.
    [Show full text]
  • Silent Invasion: Imanishi's Primatology and Cultural Bias in Science
    Anim Cogn (2003) 6 : 293–299 DOI 10.1007/s10071-003-0197-4 ORIGINAL ARTICLE Frans B. M. de Waal Silent invasion: Imanishi’s primatology and cultural bias in science Received: 29 July 2002 / Revised: 5 November 2002 / Accepted: 1 September 2003 / Published online: 10 October 2003 © Springer-Verlag 2003 When it comes to our relation with nature, there is no es- nese saw it in terms of complementary roles within the caping the tension between perception and projection. ecosystem. While the two teams agreed on the data, they What we discover in nature is often what we put into it in operated on the basis of strikingly different outlooks. the first place. Consequently, the way naturalists have East–West disagreements about the naturalness of com- contributed to humanity’s know-thyself mission can be petition versus cooperation go back at least to the late 19th understood only in the context of the stained glasses century debate between Thomas Henry Huxley and Petr through which they stare in nature’s mirror. Given that Kropotkin, in which the former took a “gladiatorial” view these glasses cannot be taken off, the next best thing is to of nature and the latter advocated a more synergistic model compare alternative ones. (Todes 1989; de Waal 1996). These disagreements rarely The present essay explores cultural bias in the context show a clear winner. They rather tend to have the flavor of of my own little corner of science, which is the behavior the-glass-is-half-full versus the-glass-is-half-empty debate. of monkeys and apes.
    [Show full text]
  • The Legacy of Kinji Imanishi Kyoto University’S Heritage of Fieldwork and Primatology
    History The Legacy of Kinji Imanishi Kyoto University’s Heritage of Fieldwork and Primatology NTHROPOLOGY and primatology fieldwork at Kyoto University is rooted 史A in the tradition of the Academic Alpine Club of Kyoto (AACK), which was established by Kinji Imanishi and his colleagues in 1931. The AACK’s activities centered on climbing uncharted mountains, and the group made several expeditions into unknown parts of Asia under their motto of “ascent of virgin peaks.” Their expeditions were always motivated by academic interests, with the members comprising an interdisciplinary research team of anthropologists, zoologists, botanists, geologists, From right, Itani, Imanishi, Kawamura. Upper, Tokuda, at Toi Cape, which and other specialists. was known for wild horses. (Photo from Itani Jun’ichiro Archives at PRI, Kyoto University) After World War II, the club splintered into horses and Japanese macaques. He believed that several groups focusing on distinct academic understanding animal societies would aid in fields, but the resulting groups continued to tracing the evolution of human society. Imanishi interact with each other. Imanishi was based developed a new definition of society from the in Kyoto University’s Department of Zoology, viewpoint of combining both the organism and its and his initial field studies focused on feral habitat, and he applied it to all living things. He devised a guide for field studies which entailed adopting the methods of comparative sociology, basing work on individual identifications, and recording social interactions through prolonged and continuous observations. This later came to known as the Japanese method. After the retirement of Imanishi in 1965, Junichiro Itani led the university’s studies in primatology and ecological anthropology.
    [Show full text]
  • Toshisada Nishida (March 3, 1941– June 7, 2011)
    Int J Primatol (2012) 33:10–18 DOI 10.1007/s10764-011-9571-2 Obituary: Toshisada Nishida (March 3, 1941– June 7, 2011) John C. Mitani & Frans B. M. de Waal & Kazuhiko Hosaka & William C. McGrew & Michio Nakamura & Akisato Nishimura & Richard W. Wrangham & Juichi Yamigiwa Published online: 15 December 2011 # Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011 Toshisada Nishida, a pioneer in the study of primate behavior, died on June 7, 2011 following a prolonged battle with cancer. He was 70 years old. Nishida began his career while still an undergraduate student at Kyoto University, where he was inspired by Kinji Imanishi. In 1962, he investigated interactions between two groups of Formosan macaques that had been translocated to Japan. He followed this in 1963 with a study of Japanese macaques living at the northern limit of their geographical distribution. He continued to study Japanese macaques from 1964 to 1965 for his Master’s thesis at Kyoto. Working under the supervision of Junichiro Itani, he described the life of solitary male macaques and how they transfer J. C. Mitani (*) Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA e-mail: [email protected] F. B. M. de Waal Living Links, Yerkes National Primate Research Center, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322, USA K. Hosaka Faculty of Child Studies, Kamakura Women’s University, Kamakura 247-8512, Japan W. C. McGrew Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge CB2 1QH, UK M. Nakamura Wildlife Research Center, Kyoto University, Kyoto 606-8203, Japan A. Nishimura Iwakura Kino-cho 251-28, Kyoto 601-1125, Japan R.
    [Show full text]
  • Front Matter
    Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01578-4 - Chimpanzees of the Lakeshore: Natural History and Culture at Mahale Toshisada and Nishida Frontmatter More information Chimpanzees of the Lakeshore Chimpanzees are humanitys closest living relations, and are of enduring interest to a range of sciences, from anthropology to zoology. In the West, many know of the pioneering work of Jane Goodall, whose studies of these apes at Gombe in Tanzania are justly famous. Less well-known, but equally important, are the studies carried out by Toshisada Nishida on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika. Comparison between the two sites yields both notable similarities and startling contrasts. Nishida has written a comprehensive synthesis of his work on the behaviour and ecology of the chimpanzees of the Mahale Mountains. With topics ranging from individual development to population-specific behavioural patterns, it reveals the complexity of social life, from male struggles for dominant status to female travails in raising offspring. Richly illustrated, the author blends anecdotes with powerful data to explore the fascinating world of the chimpanzees of the lakeshore. TOSHISADA NISHIDA (1941–2011) was Executive Director of the Japan Monkey Centre and Editor-in-Chief of the journal Primates.He conducted pioneering field studies into the behaviour and ecology of wild chimpanzees for more than 45 years. © in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01578-4 - Chimpanzees of the Lakeshore: Natural History
    [Show full text]
  • Introduction
    Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-01578-4 - Chimpanzees of the Lakeshore: Natural History and Culture at Mahale Toshisada and Nishida Excerpt More information Introduction origins of japanese primatology and kinji imanishi My first mentor, Kinji Imanishi (19021992), was the founder of Japanese primatology. He was a bio-social anthropologist as well as ecologist, zoologist, entomologist, Himalayan mountaineer, explorer, and philos- opher. His primary interest was the structure of the biological world, including human society (Imanishi 2002; Japanese original published in 1941). From 1932 to 1942 he made several geographical and anthro- pological expeditions to Sakhalin, northern Korea, Mongolia, and northeastern China. From 1944 to 1945 he established the Seihoku (Northwestern) Research Institute at Choukakou and studied the ecol- ogy of pastoralists and their livestock in Mongolia. He returned to Japan at 1946 after the end of the Second World War in 1945 (Saitoh 1989). Finding no funds to conduct research outside of Japan, he began a study of the society of free-ranging horses indigenous to Japan at Toimisaki Point, Miyazaki Prefecture, in 1948. He identified and named each horse and investigated grouping patterns and social interactions among them. One day in November 1948, when Imanishis students, Shunzo Kawamura (19241999) and Junichiro Itani (19262001), were observ- ing horses, they noticed that wild Japanese macaques in the distance were travelling in a neat procession. The beautiful line created by the monkeys procession impressed them. After a month, Imanishi and the students visited Kohshima Island to look into the possibility of studying Japanese macaques. After this survey, Imanishi decided they should begin to observe macaques, leaving behind the horse research (Nishida 2009).
    [Show full text]
  • Hope-Gm Report 2010
    HOPE-GM REPORT 2010 Primate Origins of Human Evolution: From Genes to Mind Kathelijne Koops Leverhulme Centre for Human Evolutionary Studies Department of Biological Anthropology University of Cambridge Summary The HOPE-GM program ‘Primate Origins of Human Evolution: From Genes to Mind’ funded by JSPS provided the opportunity to 7 foreign young scholars from various research institutions to come to Japan for the duration of 3 months. The senior host of the program was Prof. Tetsuro Matsuzawa, director of the Primate Research Institute (PRI), University of Kyoto, Inuyama, Japan. Co-hosts were Prof. Ikuma Adachi and Prof. Misato Hayashi. The fellowship was based at the Centre for International Collaboration of Advanced Studies in Primatology (CICASP) at the Primate Research Institute of Kyoto University. The main aim of the fellowship was to encourage international collaboration between Japanese and non-Japanese researchers and promote multidisciplinary studies on the primate origins of human evolution. This program provided a stimulating opportunity for young primatologists from diverse scientific backgrounds, including both captive and field research, to exchange ideas and establish possible future collaborations. Duration of stay Arrival in Japan (KIX): 12 March 2010 Departure from Japan (KIX): 10 June 2010 The author of this report observing Japanese macaques on Koshima Island. Activities I) Conference participation 1) ‘Hope-GM Lectures on Primate Mind and Society’ Kyoto University, 22-23 rd March 2010 Title of presentation: ‘The effect of ecology on the use of elementary technology in foraging and nest-building in the chimpanzees of the Nimba Mountains, Guinea’ Abstract: Elementary technology denotes the knowledgeable use of one or more physical objects as a means to achieve an end.
    [Show full text]