Primate Encounters ─ Models of Science, Gender, and Society

Scientists and those who examine science and scientists from within that cultural studies sub-field known as "science studies," address changes in perception of primates and humans since primatology matured after WWII, as well as the practice of primatology, and the role of women scientists in it. Beginning with a history of ideas about primate society, this collection which began as papers from a conference in Teresopolis, Brazil, continues with personal reflections from senior primatologists, and proceeds to primatologies existing outside North America, primatology's relationship to sciences like archaeology and animal behavior, and the influence of the media and of technology on the field. Contributors include Donna Haraway, Alison Jolly, Bruno Latour, and Robert W. Sussman. Featured are four e-mail exchanges around a series of questions such as, "Why has there been so much resistance by scientists to science studies and the critique of science?" Not much mystery there: science studies comes less to praise science, than to criticize and reprove it. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)