Going the whole orang: Darwin, Wallace and the natural history of orangutans

John van Wyhe; Peter C. Kjærgaard

doi:10.1016/j.shpsc.2015.02.006

Going the whole orang: Darwin, Wallace and the natural history of orangutans

John van Wyhe, Peter C. Kjærgaard^*

^*Corresponding author af dette arbejde

9 Citationer (Scopus)

195 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

This article surveys the European discovery and early ideas about orangutans followed by the contrasting experiences with these animals of the co-founders of evolution by natural selection, Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace. The first non-human great ape that both of them interacted with was the orangutan. They were both profoundly influenced by what they saw, but the contexts of their observations could hardly be more different. Darwin met orangutans in the Zoological Gardens in London while Wallace saw them in the wild in Borneo. In different ways these observations helped shape their views of human evolution and humanity's place in nature. Their findings played a major role in shaping some of the key questions that were pursued in human evolutionary studies during the rest of the nineteenth century.

Originalsprog	Engelsk
Tidsskrift	Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences
Vol/bind	51
Sider (fra-til)	53-63
Antal sider	11
ISSN	1369-8486
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1016/j.shpsc.2015.02.006
Status	Udgivet - 2015

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10.1016/j.shpsc.2015.02.006Licens: CC BY-NC-ND

vanWyhe_2015_Going_the_whole_orangForlagets udgivne version, 1,32 MBLicens: CC BY-NC-ND

Citationsformater

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AU - Kjærgaard, Peter C.

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AB - This article surveys the European discovery and early ideas about orangutans followed by the contrasting experiences with these animals of the co-founders of evolution by natural selection, Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace. The first non-human great ape that both of them interacted with was the orangutan. They were both profoundly influenced by what they saw, but the contexts of their observations could hardly be more different. Darwin met orangutans in the Zoological Gardens in London while Wallace saw them in the wild in Borneo. In different ways these observations helped shape their views of human evolution and humanity's place in nature. Their findings played a major role in shaping some of the key questions that were pursued in human evolutionary studies during the rest of the nineteenth century.

KW - Alfred russel wallace

KW - Anthropology

KW - Charles darwin

KW - Great apes

KW - Human evolution

KW - Orangutans

U2 - 10.1016/j.shpsc.2015.02.006

DO - 10.1016/j.shpsc.2015.02.006

M3 - Journal article

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SN - 1369-8486

VL - 51

SP - 53

EP - 63

JO - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences

JF - Studies in History and Philosophy of Science Part C: Studies in History and Philosophy of Biological and Biomedical Sciences

ER -

Going the whole orang: Darwin, Wallace and the natural history of orangutans

Abstract

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