Human-Nonhuman Primate Interconnections and Their Relevance to Anthropology

The human-nonhuman primate interface is a core component in conservation and an emerging area of discourse across anthropology. There is a growing recognition of the relevance of long-term sympatry between human and nonhuman primates. Until recently these relationships received limited attention in the anthropological literature and in the primatological construction of models for the behavior and evolution of primate societies. Most socioecological investigations into primate groups and human populations do not incorporate their interactions (beyond predation or crop raiding), potential pathogen sharing, or the role of the anthropogenically impacted environment. Current relationships between humans and nonhuman primates are generally assumed to be rooted in conflict over land use and relatively recent, and thus have limited evolutionary and long term ecological impact. To date, too few studies have attempted to incorporate specific aspects of human cultural conceptualizations of nature and nonhuman primates into explanations/examination of either human or nonhuman primate behavioral and ecological patterns. Ongoing research projects and a growing number of publications demonstrate that long-term sympatry between human and nonhuman primates results in a complex web of behavioral, ecological, epidemiological, and economic relationships, suggesting a need for increased attention by anthropologists to this topic. This essay introduces a set of articles in this issue of Ecological and Environmental Anthropology that illustrate theoretical and practical considerations suggesting the need for increased focus of the anthropological gaze towards the human-nonhuman primate interface. Human-nonhuman Primate Interactions: the Ethnoprimatological Approach Because of the biological, phylogenetic, and behavioral overlaps between humans and nonhuman primates, relationships between the two groups have a special significance (Fuentes and Wolfe 2002). No other organisms on the planet share as much structurally and behaviorally with humans. Humans, along with other primates, exhibit a series of primate wide trends such as grasping hands, relatively large brains, an emphasis on visual signaling, extended infant dependency, and behaviorally dynamic social complexity, for example. The existence of these primate wide trends in both morphology and behavior suggest the possibility that interconnections between humans and other primate species may differ from those between humans and other mammals. These human-nonhuman primate similarities increase both the likelihood of cultural association/inclusion of other primates by humans, and certain primates’ potential to co-exist with humans. As is evident from the rapid and dramatic reduction in numbers and range, especially the great apes and the monkeys and lemurs tied to large tracts of forest cover, some species of primates do not do well when they encounter anthropogenic challenges. However, in many instances other species, members of the monkey genera Macaca (the macaques), Papio (the baboons), and Chlorocebus (the vervets) for example, do quite well around humans.