ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

Among Dominants and Chiefs: Who rules Primatology?

• In Event: From Specimens to Subjects: Plural Practices of Seeing and Naming Primates

English Abstract

Dominance has long been a key analytical category in primatology. Although first developed in studies of chickens, the concept gained prominence in primate research through its close association with the practice of identifying and naming individual animals. Whether following the lineage of Jane Goodall’s fieldwork or the Japanese tradition established by Kinji Imanishi, primatologists rely on individualized observation to quantify aggressive encounters and construct dominance hierarchies. However, what dominance means and how it is applied varies considerably across primate species and research settings. This presentation explores how primatologists studying robust capuchin monkeys (Sapajus libidinosus) in Northeastern Brazil employ the concept of dominance, and contrasts their use with the knowledge practices of local field experts who assist their work. Rather than speak of dominance, these experts refer to certain monkeys as “chiefs,” a preexisting local category that overlaps with, but is not identical to, scientific understandings. Both notions highlight the individuals who guide group behavior and the repetition of power dynamics throughout the time. The core argument of this presentation is that, rather than only dominant to their groups, dominant individuals are also dominant to their primatologists and local experts: they are good at drowning attention to them and “make others make”, as in Bruno Latour’s expression. By placing the scientific concept of dominance in dialogue with the local idea of the chief, the paper expands conventional primatological discussions and asks what individual non-human primates compel scientists and field experts to do.

Author

• Mateus Oka, State University of Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil