Language, anthropomorphism, and metaphor in science, and translating Kinji Imanishi and the flow of Japanese primatology with Dr. Pamela Asquith

The PrimateCast

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This episode presents an interview with Dr. Pamela Asquith, and anthropologist and meta-primatologist who has studied how primatology was done historically in Japan, and tackled the challenge of language, metaphor and anthropomorphism in science.
In March 2022, she delivered an excellent talk for CICASP in our International Primatology Lecture Series: Past, Present and Future Perspectives in the Field. You can find a link to that event here, or go straight to the CICASP YouTube Channel and find it here.
The interview is not a carbon-copy of the lecture, so I'm sure one can find value in both!

Pam Asquith is currently adjunct professor in Environmental Studies at the University of Victoria, but perhaps spent the bulk of her career in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Alberta.
Pam is perhaps best known around here as the person who translated - with support from colleagues in Japan - Kinji Imanishi's seminal 1941 book Seibutsu no Sekai 「生物の世界」into English, under the title: "A Japanese View of Nature: The World of Living Things". Imanishi is considered a founder of Japanese primatology- he set up Kyoto University's Primate Research Institute itself! - and was especially instrumental in giving it the flavor it had that set it apart from primatology as it emerged somewhat independently in the West.
Some of the topics we cover during the conversation include:

• understanding primatology through the lens of history and philosophy, and how Eastern and Western cultural trends influenced the trajectory of the field
• the challenges of anthropomorphism and metaphor in science and the study of animal behavior
• meta-primatology and the process of studying those who study primates, especially in Japan
• marginalization in science, sometimes caused by language constraints and cultural influences on thought
• the legend that is Kinji Imanishi, his views on nature, and his influence on Japanese primatology and beyond

For anyone interested in finding out more about her work, you can visit Dr. Pamela Asquith's website, and check out her book A Japanese View of Nature: The World of Living Things on

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The PrimateCast is hosted and produced by Andrew MacIntosh. Artwork by Chris Martin. Music by Andre Goncalves. Credits by Kasia Majewski.

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