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- Publisher
- Brill
- Copyright
- © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Subject
- Review Section
- ISSN
- 1063-1119
- eISSN
- 1568-5306
- DOI
- 10.1163/15685306-12341241
- Publisher site
- See Article on Publisher Site
Abstract
This is what I find a crucial point in the field of animal studies and posthumanism as well: we must not get stuck with the question concerning language and the defining differences (usually in terms of language) that remove the animal from the cultural. —Jussi Parikka, Insect Media: An Archaeology of Animals and Technology The history of other-than-human animal language experimentation has been more complex than most accounts, fictional and nonfictional, suggest. Radick’s The Simian Tongue: The Long Debate about Animal Language (2008) provides perhaps “the fullest reconstruction of the post-Darwinian debate” by focusing on Richard Garner’s early 20th-century “primate playback experiments.” Made possible by Edison’s invention of the phonograph, Garner’s goal was first to record ape calls and then, by playing them back and observing other ape’s responses, to determine whether simian cries were simply general alarm calls or specific signs alerting to specific dangers—in other words, whether apes produced purely instinctive responses or something closer to language. Garner’s goal was prompted by a complex of theories then current, prime among them Morgan’s Canon, which claimed that all nonhuman animal responses were mechanical reactions to stimuli. Morgan, in turn, wrote in response to Darwin’s claim that the
Journal
Society & Animals – Brill
Published: Jan 1, 2012