Chimpanzees, humans, and the forest

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
Forest scene: July 1976: Valentin, a man of the local Guéré tribe, probably about 40 years old, had the reputation of being a healer, and one who not only used natural remedies but who also relied on magic forces for his art. He was recommended to us by the park authorities as someone who could help us in setting up our first camp and in finding our way through the forest. He had his own, in our view quite unorthodox, way of doing this. Also very intriguing were the stories he told when we said that we were here to live in the forest to learn all about the chimpanzees. ‘That’s easy’, he said, ‘the old people know a lot about the chimpanzee. They say he is our brother. In the old days he was of great help to us in warfare against our neighbours. Therefore they ask us to be grateful towards him and respect him. Nobody must kill him, even if he takes some of our fruit and vegetables. Anyway, he is very clever and you never see him because there is always a guardian. But when you hear a big ‘palaver’ in the forest, you know that the head of the family is distributing nuts. ‘And do you know how they carry these nuts around?’ Valentin asked us. Of course we did not. ‘Well, they catch a monkey, take its skin and use it as a bag. Isn’t that very smart?’ Indeed, we were highly impressed and wondered whether we were dreaming. War, nuts, hunting — all the big words were there. Valentin had certainly set us thinking.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: