De Wall, Frans 1948-

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De Waal, Frans 1948-
(Frans B.M. de Waal)

PERSONAL:

Born October 29, 1948, in Den Bosch, Netherlands; came to United States in 1981; son of Jo A. (a bank director) and Francis de Waal; married Catherine C.F. Marin (a French teacher), August 20, 1980. Education: Attended University of Nijmegen, 1966, and University of Groningen, 1970; University of Utrecht, Netherlands, Ph.D., 1977.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Stone Mountain, GA. Office— 325 Psychology Bldg., 532 N. Kilgo Circle, Emory University, Atlanta, GA 30322. E-mail—dewaal@emory. edu.

CAREER:

Primatologist, educator, and writer. University of Utrecht, Utrecht, Netherlands, worker in ethology and primatology at Laboratory of Comparative Physiology and Arnhem Zoo, 1973-81; Wisconsin Regional Primate Research Center, Madison, assistant scientist in ethology and primatology, beginning 1981; then Emory University, Atlanta, GA, C.H. Candler Professor of Primate Behavior, and research professor of psychobiology and director of Living Links, Yerkes National Primate Research Center.

MEMBER:

National Academy of Sciences, Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences.

WRITINGS:

Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex among Apes, J. Cape (London, England), 1982, Harper (New York, NY), 1983.

Peacemaking among Primates, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 1989.

Good Natured: The Origins of Right and Wrong in Humans and Other Animals, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 1996.

Bonobo: The Forgotten Ape, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 1997.

(Editor, with Filippo Aureli) Natural Conflict Resolution, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 2000.

The Ape and the Sushi Master: Cultural Reflections by a Primatologist, Basic Books (New York, NY), 2001.

(And photographer) My Family Album: Thirty Years of Primate Photography, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 2003.

(And photographer) Our Inner Ape: A Leading Primatologist Explains Why We Are Who We Are, Riverhead Books (New York, NY), 2005.

Primates and Philosophers: How Morality Evolved, Princeton University Press (Princeton, NJ), 2006.

EDITOR: AS FRANS B.M. DE WAAL

(With Alexander H. Harcourt) Coalitions and Alliances in Humans and Other Animals, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1992.

Tree of Origin: What Primate Behavior Can Tell Us about Human Social Evolution, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 2001.

Infant Chimpanzee and Human Child: A Classic 1935 Comparative Study of Ape Emotions and Intelligence, translated by Boris Vekker, introduction by Allen and Beatrix Gardner, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2002.

(With Peter L. Tyack) Animal Social Complexity: Intelligence, Culture, and Individualized Societies, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 2003.

Author's books have been translated into fourteen languages.

SIDELIGHTS:

In his book Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex among Apes, primatologist Frans de Waal documents the behavior of a group of about twenty-five chimpanzees living in the Arnhem Zoo. His data is drawn from notes taken about the behavior of these apes over a period of several years, and the focus is on the struggles for power among three males in the colony: Yeroen, Luit, and Nikkie. De Waal describes the complexities of the rise to power of any individual in the colony, explaining how other chimps formed coalitions and factions that greatly influenced who would rule. Book reviewer R.A. Hinde praised Chimpanzee Politics in his Times Literary Supplement review, stating that "this excellent book achieves the dual goal which eludes so many writers about animal behavior—it will both fascinate the nonspecialist and be seen as an important contribution to science."

De Waal's next book, Peacemaking among Primates, focuses on the chimpanzees' ability to avoid violence and limit the escalation of violence whenever it does occur. The author notes that the ability to control violence is partially due to a continuous social testing among the chimpanzees, which helps them to ascertain and accept their status in the social hierarchy. The author also compares chimpanzee behavior to human behavior in such areas as aggressiveness. Beryl Lieff Benderly, writing in Psychology Today, noted: "Just how various species balance mayhem and mollification is the subject of his new book, … distilled from years of watching our close and distant cousins bicker, battle and, quite literally, kiss and make up." Benderly went on to write: "He dismisses the currently fashionable sociobiological explanations as inadequate in accounting for individual actions." In a review in People, Ralph Novak noted that the author "doesn't romanticize the animals he studies"and referred to the book as a "curiously engaging study."

Good Natured: The Origins of Right and Wrong in Humans and Other Animals states the author's belief that ethics and a sense of right, wrong, and overall morality also exist in animals other than humans and came about through an evolutionary process to enhance survival as a group. "De Waal's point in Good Natured is that the cognitive basis for morality and the echoes of a just society can be found in the behaviors of other animals, which in turn suggests a long evolutionary history for the human approach to social life," wrote Meredith F. Small in the Sciences. "One can no longer think of human society as a righteously constructed place, a world in which intelligent beings can make sure everything works out fine because they are so smart—and so disconnected from their biology." Tyrone Cashman, writing in Whole Earth, noted that the author "makes a strong case" for his theories about the evolution of good behavior.

De Waal presents an overview of the scientific research and modern theories concerning the behavior and psychology of the bonobo species of primates in his book Bonobo: The Forgotten Ape. The bonobos are considered very similar to humans and may be their closest biological relatives. The author examines many aspects of the apes' lives, including their intelligence, sexual practices, and overall matriarchal social structure. In a review in BioScience, Michelle Y. Merrill commented that the author "does a terrific job of presenting the lives of bonobos in a way that will capture the interest of most readers," adding: "His prose is clear and lively, and he pulls no punches when addressing racy or contentious issues." Whole Earth contributor Tyrone Cashman wrote that Bonobo "is the first book that gives the lay reader any real knowledge of them."

The author collaborated with Filippo Aureli on the book Natural Conflict Resolution, a further look into how non-human primates successfully overcome conflicts with each other in order to maintain a social order. "Natural Conflict Resolution represents a thorough synthesis of past and current research and an exciting prospectus for future investigations of relationship repair in nonhuman and human primates, and other social taxa," wrote Sue Boinski in the Quarterly Review of Biology. Boinski went on to comment: "The prose is smooth and clear throughout."

In The Ape and the Sushi Master: Cultural Reflections by a Primatologist, de Waal examines culture in the apes as a function of learning via communication and social organization. The title of the book refers to how sushi chefs learn by acquiring the knowledge and following the various habits of master sushi chefs. Once again, the author compares his observations and theories about primate society and behavior with how humans behave and act within a social structure. "This apparently simple book uses the Trojan horse of accessible, lucid prose to smuggle into the reader's mind important, if not profound, insights into the human condition," wrote Will Self in the New Statesman. Self went on to write: "Just one of the book's many strengths is de Waal's ability to unite telling observations from the research literature with wider theoretical arguments." Wendy Williams, writing in Animals, commented: "This is an absolutely charming book that fits perfectly into the burgeoning genre of ‘accessible academia’—serious scientific thought written in a readable style for the general public."

The author looks back on his long career as a primatologist through his own personal photographs in his book

My Family Album: Thirty Years of Primate Photography. Through 125 black-and-white photographs and accompanying essays, the author presents his observations of both wild and zoo animals. In a review in the Quarterly Review of Biology, Charles Janson wrote: "The pictures in this volume are all to be treasured individually."

Our Inner Ape: A Leading Primatologist Explains Why We Are Who We Are continues de Waal's observations concerning the similarities between ape and human social structures and behaviors. In this book, the author focuses on a variety of primates, including the three upper primates and certain species of chimpanzees. Ray Olson, writing in Booklist, commented that the author's "prose has become ever clearer and more artful."

The author has also served as editor of numerous books focusing on primatology, including Animal Social Complexity: Intelligence, Culture, and Individualized Societies. The book presents a variety of papers based on a 2000 conference held by the Chicago Academy of Sciences. The primary topics under discussion include how cooperative strategies evolved in society, the evolution of the brain, communication, and the transference of cultural traits and tendencies. Writing in the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Hilary Callan called the book an "excellent collection."

de Waal once told CA: "My professional interests as a scientist are in the field of primate behavior. I hate the so-called ‘ivory tower’ of science, and feel that I have an obligation to communicate with the general public."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

De Waal, Frans, My Family Album: Thirty Years of Primate Photography, University of California Press (Berkeley, CA), 2003.

PERIODICALS

American Scientist, January-February, 2002, Asif A. Ghazanfar, review of Tree of Origin: What Primate Behavior Can Tell Us about Human Social Evolution, p. 90.

Animals, summer, 2001, Wendy Williams, review of The Ape and the Sushi Master: Cultural Reflections of a Primatologist, p. 32.

BioScience, March, 1998, Michelle Y. Merrill, review of Bonobo: The Forgotten Ape, p. 214.

Booklist, October 1, 2005, Ray Olson, review of Our Inner Ape: A Leading Primatologist Explains Why We Are Who We Are, p. 6.

Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, September, 2005, Hilary Callan, review of Animal Social Complexity: Intelligence, Culture, and Individualized Societies, p. 607.

Library Journal, December, 2003, Beth Clewis Crim, review of My Family Album, p. 156.

New Statesman, July 16, 2001, Will Self, review of The Ape and the Sushi Master, p. 52; November 21, 2005, Edward Skidelsky, review of Our Inner Ape, p. 54.

People, July 17, 1989, Ralph Novak, review of Peacemaking among Primates, p. 26.

Psychology Today, December, 1989, Beryl Lieff Benderly, review of Peacemaking among Primates, p. 70.

Quarterly Review of Biology, September, 2001, Sue Boinski, review of Natural Conflict Resolution, p. 391; September, 2002, Anna TC Feistner, review of Tree of Origin, p. 360; September, 2003, Craig Stanford, review of Animal Social Complexity, p. 378; December, 2004, Charles Janson, review of My Family Album, p. 430.

Science, November 10, 2000, Mary Greenberg, Ray Pierotti, Charles H. Southwick, and Frans B.M. de Waal, "Conflict and Resolution in Primates—All Too Human?," p. 1095; November 29, 2002, Andrew Whiten, review of Infant Chimpanzee and Human Child: A Classic 1935 Comparative Study of Ape Emotions and Intelligence, p. 1720.

Sciences, November-December, 1997, Meredith F. Small, review of Good Natured: The Origins of Right and Wrong in Humans and Other Animals, p. 40.

Times Literary Supplement, October 15, 1982, R.A. Hinde, review of Chimpanzee Politics: Power and Sex among Apes, p. 1124.

Whole Earth, winter, 1997, Tyrone Cashman, review of Bonobo and Good Natured, p. 50.