Jennifer Richards
Assignment 1
In the New York Times article, “Boom! Hok! A Monkey Language Is Deciphered”, written by
Nicholas Wade, scientists from, “the University of St. Andrews in Scotland”, are studying the language
patterns of the “campbell’s Monkey”. I had heard of chimpanzees being able to communicate using sign
language, however this was the first time I have heard of a non-human primate having a vocal form of
communication, which was considered to include syntax, whether primitive syntax or otherwise. It was
quite fascinating to me that these monkeys seemed to be using specific sounds to mean different things
depending on the order they were used in comparison to other sounds.
In the article, Wade makes mentions that, “the meaning of monkey calls was first worked out
with vervet monkeys”. However, it would have been nice if he had included in his article who did the
research on the vervet monkeys, or where the research was conducted. I was curious to know if the
research done on the vervet monkeys was conducted by the same scientists who studied the campbell’s
monkey, or by different scientists.
In anthropology, the term holistic means that, out of each of its four sub-fields, the fields of
anthropology are all connected to one another and one cannot be fully understood without
understanding the others. In the article, studying the language of these monkeys can be considered to
be part of the sub-fields of linguistic, cultural, and possibly physical. (Three of the four sub-fields of
anthropology).
Extant, means the study of living species, in this case living primates. In the article, research was
conducted on extant, or living monkeys, opposed to dead ones found in the archaeologic record.
Culture, is shared or learned behavior. The Campbell monkeys in the article all shared the same
behavior by making certain sounds at specific times, such as the “ ‘Krak’ “ sound that “was a warning of
leopards in the area”.
Linguistics, is the study of communications. The research in the article was done on the
communications of Campbell monkeys.
Fieldwork studies, are studies conducted in the country of origin. The monkeys studied in the
article were studied in their natural environment in, “the forests of the Tai National Park in Ivory Coast”.
All wild non-human primates either come from either New World, Africa/Asia/ or Gibraltar for
the Old World. In the case of the Campbell monkey from “the forests of the Tai National Park in Ivory
Coast”, the area of these non-human primates would be Africa.
