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The Ape Language Controversy Revisited
INNOVATIVE SCIENCE DEPENDS UPON A potentially volatile mixture of highly creative work and realistic skepticism. In a recent issue of Skeptic (Vol. 13, No. 4, "Aping Language: A Skeptical Analysis of the Evidence for Nonhuman Primate Language"), University of Horida psychologist Clive Wynn likened the potential import of the discovery that the chimpanzee named Washoe had learned to produce simple linguistic utterances to humans landing on the moon. If Wynn is correa regarding the importance of ape language research, all truly innovative reports in this field will merit considerable scrutiny, scholarly debate, and informed critique. It is, therefore, not surprising that reports of "talking apes" have been subjected to a level of criticism beyond that of other claims. Such strongly negative reactions stem from the fact that, if the reports are true, their implications are threatening to the long-held anthropocentric conceit of uniqueness for our species based on our language ability.
Science has traditionally viewed human achievements as something peculiar, even accidental, by evolutionary standards. Our societies and our ways of life are said to be completely dependent upon, and mostly determined by, language. If apes are capable of language, it means that we must radically revise our views of who we are and of how we have achieved our current technologically advanced lifestyles. None of these changes will be easy. Much of the Western canon and many of our scholarly disciplines are built upon the assumption that humans and humans alone have language.
A Brief History of Ape Language Research: The Initial Three Chimpanzees
The initial reports that Washoe - a chimpanzee trained by Beatrice and Allen Gardner - was acquiring human sign language were soon followed by news that a second chimpanzee named Sarah (trained by David Premack) was employing magnetic pieces of plastic as "words." Then came reports that a third chimpanzee named Lana (trained by Duane Rumbaugh) was using geometric symbols on a computer-based keyboard to produce multi-word sentences. Washoe generalized her signs to new objects and made spontaneous sign combinations. Sarah answered questions about language (such as, Name of this apple?), even though she had no language she could employ for the purpose of communication. She was said to able to look at plastic...