But the CLAS anthropologist, who studies squirrel monkeys and capuchins, says she is not taking inordinate risks in her work. Boinski has been researching the social behavior and ecology of wild monkeys in the tropics of the western hemisphere for twenty years. As one of the world's foremost scholars on squirrel monkeys and capuchins, she tries to decipher what these animals talk about. Whether or not such communication constitutes formal language remains an unresolved issue. One important indication that the squirrel monkeys are employing sophisticated language is their use of deception while making travel decisions.
Primates sometimes demonstrate Machiavellian social maneuvers.
This implies that they are aware of what others are thinking. Our book argues that they really do seem to be tricky and complex in the social processes that determine how a group moves. Boinski has studied primates in Costa Rica, Peru, Argentina, and Brazil. Eighty-five percent of the country is undisturbed rain forest. Suriname's internal strife effectively closed the wilderness to scientists from 1980 to the early 90s, but when the country re-opened, Boinski was among the very first researchers to begin fieldwork there.