ape scension

8/3/2019 Ape Scension

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 The relations between apes and humans seem to have a penchantfor both fantastical and practical depictions. The inaudible mystiquebetween Homo sapiens and the primate order Hominoidea is thesubject of fascination, scrutiny, paraphernalia, and wonder. Thefamily of apes are widely decried as the category that we share somuch in common with; yet are still somewhat alienated from. In aneffort to combat the latter, several figures have made high-gravitascontributions in shaping the aura of the primate-all as a result of their astonishment at the wonder of the animal-the mystique of theape-scension.

In 1960s, the renowned primatologist Jane Goodall bore witnessto the then-undiscovered, sophisticated communicative patternsbetween chimpanzees in the Gombe Stream National Park in

 Tanzania. What's more, her groundbreaking observations also shed

light on both the technical and emotional dimensions of the apepsyche; apes were capable of applying tools to their environment,and a noticeable social hierarchy was in place.

The rather intriguing experimentation of Dr. Herbert S. Terraceof Columbia University on an ape named Nim Chimpsky (1973-2000)was also revelatory in the field of primatological cognition. Terrace'saim was to see whether Nim could make advancements upongrammar and language by means of rearing him in a human child'senvironment-in the hope that Nim would eventually formulategrammatically correct sentences. Though it was not to be, Nim soon

became the ubiquitous posterboy of experimental analysis on apes.His biography was documented in the film Project Nim (2011).

Moreover, the realm of entertainment and fantasy were quick tocapitalize on the audacity and feckless aggression of the animal-giving birth to a feared being known as "King Kong" all the way backin 1933. Kong's monstrous strength creolised with his empatheticsentiment signified that he wasn't simply a wild brute-but a martyrfor the concept of beauty within the beast. As technologicallyperiodically progressed, so did the "8th Wonder of the World",evolving from a stop-motion figurine to a fully-decked out, CGI'd

behemoth whose lustrous fur was almost brushing the audience inthe cinema hall. Unlike the typical city-crushing monster, Kong had adegree of intelligence and apprehension to him. This, mixed with hisimpetuous emotion and brute strength, makes him seem quitehumanly.

The Planet of the Apes franchise chooses not to solely demonizeapes-rather, it posits a bitter struggle for understanding and theprevention of oppression. Unlike the King Kong series, the seriesdraws upon didactic political clashes of interest. The series-especially the last two films- continually stresses that it is not the

barbaric weaponry of the apes that is threatening. Rather, it is thefact that these primordial beings-whom were once under "our"

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control- have amounted to forming such a terrifying intelligentsia. Inthe latest film, Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the drasticadvancement of the apes' intellect is muddled up with the originalintention of the protagonist's intention- curing Alzheimer's. Yet,though the intellect could be injected into any being (Rise of ThePlanet of The Ocelots, here we go), apes were elected as they arethe only family of animals that have the intelligence and physicalprowess to distort the entrenched authority between us humans andthemselves.

Apes, primates, monekys-label them as you wish-are thesignificant ancestral "others" of us humans. And though we aresuperior to them , they are the specimans that continue to puzzleand surprise us. Perhaps the overarching advancement of cognitivepotential is a journey we're taking together, hand-in-hand. As our

distant relatives, apes are embedded into our identities- as theKenyan archeologist and ape-fanatic Louis Leakey once said inresponse to Goodall's findings- "We must now redefine man,redefine tool, or accept chimpanzees as human!".