The New Chimpanzee: A Twenty-First-Century Portrait of Our Closest Kin

Famed primatologist Jane Goodall forever changed our understanding of culture and animal intelligence when she discovered that wild chimpanzees were fashioning tools from sticks. Her mentor Louis Leakey exclaimed “Now, we must redefine ‘tool,’ redefine ‘man,’ or accept chimpanzees as humans.” In the 21st century, we continue to redefine ourselves in light of new revolutionary discoveries about chimpanzees.

In this lecture and his new book The New Chimpanzee, Craig Stanford reviews what the past two decades of chimpanzee field research has taught us about the origins of human social behavior, the nature of aggression and communication, and the divergence of humans and apes from our common ancestor. From culture to warfare, from our diet to our politics, the study of wild chimpanzees continues to change the way we understand both human nature and the apes themselves.

Speaker: Craig Stanford, Author