ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

The Remains of a Dream: Bonobos as Experimental Animals

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

English Abstract

Since the 1990s, bonobos have gained popularity as “make-love-not-war” apes, symbolizing a peaceful counterpoint to bellicose chimpanzees. Yet decades before their non-aggressive behavior aroused interest in primatologists, this very aspect made them promising experimental subjects. Medical scientists hoped they would be an easier to handle version of chimpanzees, but this dream ultimately failed. The remains of this dream are archived in the AfricaMuseum (formerly Royal Museum for Central Africa) in Tervuren, the very institution where bonobos were first described as a species. The collection holds the skulls of 50 bonobos from Camp Lindi, a medical facility in the Belgian Congo where they were used for polio vaccine research in the late 1950s. While their remains helped the study of their species, their individual histories were erased in the museum. My presentation traces the bonobos’ journey from the wild to the lab to the museum, exploring how the dividing lines between human and non-human primates were constantly renegotiated. By focusing on the work of local caretakers, I will first challenge the view that these bonobos were merely organs for experimentation, stripped of their individuality, by showing that seeing them as individuals was a crucial, if complex, part of the laboratory setting. I will further suggest that viewing the museal specimens as individuals again is vital for the curatorial care in the museum today, not only for ethical reasons, but also their scientific value.

Author

• Hannah Kressig, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin