Primate Visions: Gender, Race, and Nature in the World of Modern Science

by Donna J. Haraway

Book Overview

Haraway's discussions of how scientists have perceived the sexual nature of female primates opens a new chapter in feminist theory, raising unsettling questions about models of the family and of heterosexuality in primate research.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0415901146
• ISBN13: 9780415901147
• Release Date: January 1990
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 486 Pages
• Weight: 2.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.8" x 7.3" x 10.1"

Customer Reviews

Excellent, thought-provoking work

Although Haraway is better known for her later Cyborg Manifesto, Primate Visions is arguably better and more insightful, and is certainly a clearer and more accessible work. Primate Visions takes the reader through the history of primatology, tracing the science's roots in racism, sexism, and colonialism. Haraway begins by outlining the early 20th century American museum exhibits that furthered the racist agenda of social Darwinism, and moves through descriptions of inhumane psychological research done on primates, the implications of young women recruited to do some of the first field work with apes (including Jane Goodall), and feminist sociobiological and anthropological theories. Haraway's intense prose is supplemented by provocative and heart-wrenching illustrations. All in all, a book that challenges our preconceptions of scientific research as incorruptible and free of bias.