Introduction: emerging approaches in the anthropology/primatology borderland

The purpose of this Revue de Primatologie issue is to put forward the multiple ways to look at primates across the fields of anthropology and primatology which are commonly thought to be (and which, for the most part, actually are) academically and epistemologically very remote from one another. It...

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Main Author: Vincent Leblan
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Société Francophone de Primatologie 2014-03-01
Series:Revue de Primatologie
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/primatologie/1831
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author Vincent Leblan
author_facet Vincent Leblan
author_sort Vincent Leblan
collection DOAJ
description The purpose of this Revue de Primatologie issue is to put forward the multiple ways to look at primates across the fields of anthropology and primatology which are commonly thought to be (and which, for the most part, actually are) academically and epistemologically very remote from one another. It is intended to provide a kind of sketch of this ever-widening gulf and to locate some of the major crosscurrents which constantly drive them apart, as well as to look for a few possible interdisciplinary crossing points. The first part of this introduction briefly describes how primates are caught in disciplinary uncertainty between the social and the natural sciences and between the various brands of “ethnoprimatology” which have emerged over the past 15 years. The second part proposes a slightly different perspective on the conceptual fuzziness surrounding primate studies and their relation to anthropology by emphasizing epistemological rather than disciplinary gaps: anthropology itself is partly characterized by dissents similar to those usually described in its opposition to primatology, while a few voices internal to primatology may, for their part, be characterized as anthropological ones. The third part explores some implications of the use of a “tool kit” metaphor to characterize the kind of interdisciplinarity which is practised in current ethnoprimatology, especially about the epistemological integration of the two fields and the overlapping of their respective ontological assumptions. The fourth and last part introduces the articles of this issue, each of them enabling us to consider how and to what extent it may be desirable to transcend these various disciplinary, political and epistemological boundaries.
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spelling doaj-art-8b64d0120581455b98f2cf45f2f45eaa2025-01-30T10:01:30ZengSociété Francophone de PrimatologieRevue de Primatologie2077-37572014-03-01510.4000/primatologie.1831Introduction: emerging approaches in the anthropology/primatology borderlandVincent LeblanThe purpose of this Revue de Primatologie issue is to put forward the multiple ways to look at primates across the fields of anthropology and primatology which are commonly thought to be (and which, for the most part, actually are) academically and epistemologically very remote from one another. It is intended to provide a kind of sketch of this ever-widening gulf and to locate some of the major crosscurrents which constantly drive them apart, as well as to look for a few possible interdisciplinary crossing points. The first part of this introduction briefly describes how primates are caught in disciplinary uncertainty between the social and the natural sciences and between the various brands of “ethnoprimatology” which have emerged over the past 15 years. The second part proposes a slightly different perspective on the conceptual fuzziness surrounding primate studies and their relation to anthropology by emphasizing epistemological rather than disciplinary gaps: anthropology itself is partly characterized by dissents similar to those usually described in its opposition to primatology, while a few voices internal to primatology may, for their part, be characterized as anthropological ones. The third part explores some implications of the use of a “tool kit” metaphor to characterize the kind of interdisciplinarity which is practised in current ethnoprimatology, especially about the epistemological integration of the two fields and the overlapping of their respective ontological assumptions. The fourth and last part introduces the articles of this issue, each of them enabling us to consider how and to what extent it may be desirable to transcend these various disciplinary, political and epistemological boundaries.https://journals.openedition.org/primatologie/1831ethnoprimatologyinterdisciplinarityprimatologyanthropologyepistemology
spellingShingle Vincent Leblan
Introduction: emerging approaches in the anthropology/primatology borderland
Revue de Primatologie
ethnoprimatology
interdisciplinarity
primatology
anthropology
epistemology
title Introduction: emerging approaches in the anthropology/primatology borderland
title_full Introduction: emerging approaches in the anthropology/primatology borderland
title_fullStr Introduction: emerging approaches in the anthropology/primatology borderland
title_full_unstemmed Introduction: emerging approaches in the anthropology/primatology borderland
title_short Introduction: emerging approaches in the anthropology/primatology borderland
title_sort introduction emerging approaches in the anthropology primatology borderland
topic ethnoprimatology
interdisciplinarity
primatology
anthropology
epistemology
url https://journals.openedition.org/primatologie/1831
work_keys_str_mv AT vincentleblan introductionemergingapproachesintheanthropologyprimatologyborderland