Amy Parish

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Amy Parish
Alma mater University of Michigan University of California, Davis
Employer University of Southern California
Known forBonobos Studies
Darwinian Feminism

Amy Parish is a Biological Anthropologist, Primatologist, and Darwinian Feminist. She has taught at the University of Southern California in the Gender Studies and Anthropology departments since 1999. She is recognised as being a world leading expert in bonobo studies.

Contents

Education

Parish completed an undergraduate degree at the University of Michigan in 1989. [1] She received her Masters of Science from the University of California-Davis in 1990, where she completed her PhD. [2] Her dissertation focussed on sociosexual behaviour and the female-female relationships of bonobos, under the supervision of Sarah Blaffer Hrdy. [2]

Research

After graduating UCD, Parish moved to University College London, where she worked with Volker Sommer on behavioural patterns of animals. [3] During this time Parish became an expert on bonobos. [4] [5] Whilst studying bonobos at San Diego's Wild Animal Park, she demonstrated a distinct preference of bonobo females for each other's company. [6] Parish moved to the University of Giessen in Germany, where she focussed on reciprocity. [7]

Parish uses an evolutionary approach to understand human behaviour. [8] In 1999 Parish joined the University of Southern California. [9] At USC she has taught eighteen different topics in across a range of disciplines, including Anthropology, Gender Studies, Arts and Letters, Health and Humanities, School of Education, Psychology. [10] She taught a course on "love, marriage and the experience of being a wife and on the cultural impact of Darwin’s theories". [11]

In 2012 she gave a talk at the Natural History Museum, where she revealed "bonobos have more sex, in more ways, and for more reasons, than most humans can imagine". [12] Whilst at Wilhelma, a zoo in Stuttgart, she observed "two females attack a male at the Stuttgart Zoo in Germany and bit his penis in half". [13] In 2013 Parish spoke at World Vasectomy Day about the Evolution of Contraception. [14] In 2016 she gave a keynote talk at the In2In Thinking Forum, "Apes, Power, and Sex: Why We Make War Not Love". [15]

Alongside research, Parish teaches English at La Jolla Country Day School. [16] [17]

Darwinian feminism

For centuries, the mainly male evolutionary scientists overlooked the significance of female animals behaviour; treating it as a passive constant in a drama dominated by aggressive males. [18] Darwinian Feminism began when Parish and her then supervisor, Sarah Hrdy, began to reevaluate animal behavior. [1] Their goal has been simple; to pay equal attention to male and female interests. [18] In Bonobos, Parish found a matriarchal society, which she thinks "should give hope to the human feminist movement". [19] [13] Parish was featured in Angela Saini's 2017 book Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrong and the New Research That’s Rewriting the Story . [20] [21]

Parish has been featured in Ms Magazine, as well as on the television Nova, National Geographic Explorer and Discovery Channel. [18] [22] Her research formed part of the PBS evolution library for teachers and students. [23] She regularly gives public talks about her research. [24] [10]

Parish is a fellow of the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities. [25] She is on the board of the Kids Eco Club. [26] She is the scientific advisor for the Bonobo Conservation Initiative. [27] [28]

Related Research Articles

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The chimpanzee, also known as simply the chimp, is a species of great ape native to the forest and savannah of tropical Africa. It has four confirmed subspecies and a fifth proposed one. When its close relative the bonobo was more commonly known as the pygmy chimpanzee, this species was often called the common chimpanzee or the robust chimpanzee. The chimpanzee and the bonobo are the only species in the genus Pan. Evidence from fossils and DNA sequencing shows that Pan is a sister taxon to the human lineage and is humans' closest living relative. The chimpanzee is covered in coarse black hair, but has a bare face, fingers, toes, palms of the hands, and soles of the feet. It is larger and more robust than the bonobo, weighing 40–70 kg (88–154 lb) for males and 27–50 kg (60–110 lb) for females and standing 150 cm.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gorilla</span> Genus of large African apes

Gorillas are herbivorous, predominantly ground-dwelling great apes that inhabit the tropical forests of equatorial Africa. The genus Gorilla is divided into two species: the eastern gorilla and the western gorilla, and either four or five subspecies. The DNA of gorillas is highly similar to that of humans, from 95 to 99% depending on what is included, and they are the next closest living relatives to humans after chimpanzees and bonobos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Primate</span> Order of mammals

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bonobo</span> Species of great ape

The bonobo, also historically called the pygmy chimpanzee, is an endangered great ape and one of the two species making up the genus Pan. While bonobos are, today, recognized as a distinct species in their own right, they were initially thought to be a subspecies of Pan troglodytes, due to the physical similarities between the two species. Taxonomically, the members of the chimpanzee/bonobo subtribe Panina—composed entirely by the genus Pan—are collectively termed panins.

<i>Pan</i> (genus) Genus of African great apes

The genus Pan consists of two extant species: the chimpanzee and the bonobo. Taxonomically, these two ape species are collectively termed panins. The two species were formerly collectively called "chimpanzees" or "chimps"; if bonobos were recognized as a separate group at all, they were referred to as "pygmy chimpanzees". Together with humans, gorillas, and orangutans they are part of the family Hominidae. Native to sub-Saharan Africa, chimpanzees and bonobos are currently both found in the Congo jungle, while only the chimpanzee is also found further north in West Africa. Both species are listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species, and in 2017 the Convention on Migratory Species selected the chimpanzee for special protection.

Sarah Hrdy is an American anthropologist and primatologist who has made major contributions to evolutionary psychology and sociobiology. She is considered "a highly recognized pioneer in modernizing our understanding of the evolutionary basis of female behavior in both nonhuman and human primates". In 2013, Hrdy received a Lifetime Career Award for Distinguished Scientific Contribution from the Human Behavior and Evolution Society.

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Franciscus Bernardus Maria "Frans" de Waal is a Dutch primatologist and ethologist. He is the Charles Howard Candler Professor of Primate Behavior in the Department of Psychology at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, director of the Living Links Center at the Yerkes National Primate Research Center at Emory, and author of numerous books including Chimpanzee Politics (1982) and Our Inner Ape (2005). His research centers on primate social behavior, including conflict resolution, cooperation, inequity aversion, and food-sharing. He is a member of the United States National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Homosexual behavior in animals</span> Sexual behavior among non-human species that is interpreted as homosexual

Various non-human animal species exhibit behavior that can be interpreted as homosexual or bisexual. This may include same-sex sexual activity, courtship, affection, pair bonding, and parenting among same-sex animal pairs. Various forms of this are found in every major geographic region and every major animal group. The sexual behavior of non-human animals takes many different forms, even within the same species, though homosexual behavior is best known from social species.

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Kanzi, also known by the lexigram , is a male bonobo who has been the subject of several studies on great ape language. According to Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, a primatologist who has studied the bonobo throughout his life, Kanzi has exhibited advanced linguistic aptitude.

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Animal sexual behaviour takes many different forms, including within the same species. Common mating or reproductively motivated systems include monogamy, polygyny, polyandry, polygamy and promiscuity. Other sexual behaviour may be reproductively motivated or non-reproductively motivated.

This is a list of countries banning non-human ape experimentation. The term non-human ape here refers to all members of the superfamily Hominoidea, excluding Homo sapiens. Banning in this case refers to the enactment of formal decrees prohibiting experimentation on non-human apes, though often with exceptions for extreme scenarios.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Wrangham</span> British anthropologist and primatologist

Richard Walter Wrangham is an English anthropologist and primatologist; he is Professor of Biological Anthropology at Harvard University. His research and writing have involved ape behavior, human evolution, violence, and cooking.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sue Savage-Rumbaugh</span> Psychologist and primatologist

Emily Sue Savage-Rumbaugh is a psychologist and primatologist most known for her work with two bonobos, Kanzi and Panbanisha, investigating their linguistic and cognitive abilities using lexigrams and computer-based keyboards. Originally based at Georgia State University's Language Research Center in Atlanta, Georgia, she worked at the Iowa Primate Learning Sanctuary in Des Moines, Iowa from 2006 until her departure in November 2013. She currently sits on the Board of Directors of Bonobo Hope.

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References

  1. 1 2 "Bonobos Use the Power of Female Friendship to Overthrow Male Hierarchy". Broadly. 2017-05-02. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  2. 1 2 Parish, Amy Randall (1996-03-01). "Female relationships in bonobos(Pan paniscus)". Human Nature. 7 (1): 61–96. doi:10.1007/BF02733490. ISSN   1045-6767. PMID   24203252. S2CID   44291796.
  3. ↑ Sommer, Volker; Parish, Amy R. (2010). Homo Novus – A Human Without Illusions. The Frontiers Collection. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. pp. 19–33. doi:10.1007/978-3-642-12142-5_3. ISBN   9783642121418.
  4. ↑ Parish, Amy R.; De Waal, Frans B. M.; Haig, David (2000-04-01). "The Other "Closest Living Relative": How Bonobos (Pan paniscus) Challenge Traditional Assumptions about Females, Dominance, Intra- and Intersexual Interactions, and Hominid Evolution". Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 907 (1): 97–113. Bibcode:2000NYASA.907...97P. doi:10.1111/j.1749-6632.2000.tb06618.x. ISSN   1749-6632. S2CID   35370139.
  5. ↑ Hare, Brian; Yamamoto, Shinya (2017). Bonobos : unique in mind, brain and behavior. [Oxford, United Kingdom]. ISBN   978-0198728511. OCLC   988167775.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  6. ↑ de Waal, F. B. M. (1997). Bonobo : the forgotten ape . Lanting, Frans. Berkeley: University of California Press. ISBN   978-0520216518. OCLC   35450429.
  7. ↑ "Indiana State University: Darwin". www2.indstate.edu. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  8. ↑ "First Fridays - February 3, 2012". Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County. 2011-11-01. Archived from the original on 2018-02-04. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  9. ↑ "The Evolution of Beauty". www.lapl.org. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  10. 1 2 "Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology | UCLA -- The Curious Naturalist Seminar Series". www.eeb.ucla.edu. Archived from the original on 2018-02-04. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  11. ↑ "Bella DePaulo, Amy Parish, Marc Solomon, moderated by Dan Segal | The Humanities Institute". www.scrippscollege.edu. 8 April 2010. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  12. ↑ "Bonobo expert talks evolution, sex and feminism". Southern California Public Radio. 2012-02-09. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  13. 1 2 Angier, Natalie (2016-09-10). "In the Bonobo World, Female Camaraderie Prevails". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  14. ↑ "The evolution of contraception with Amy Parish - World Vasectomy Day". Vimeo. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  15. ↑ David, Ariane (2016-06-21), Apes, Power, and Sex: Why We Make War Not Love - Part 1 , retrieved 2018-02-03
  16. ↑ "English teacher Amy Parish Discusses Bonobo Apes". La Jolla Country Day School. 2016-09-13. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  17. ↑ Kaplan, Jacob. "Getting to know the Country Day faculty: Dr. Parish, anthropologist and English teacher". The Palette. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  18. 1 2 3 Moser, Kim. "Jessica Seigel -- Print". www.jessicaseigel.com. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  19. ↑ "Living on Earth: The Make Love, Not War Species". Living on Earth. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  20. ↑ "Scientists assumed that patriarchy was only natural. Bonobos proved them wrong". Quartz. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  21. ↑ Saini, Angela (2017). Inferior : how science got women wrong and the new research that's rewriting the story. Boston. ISBN   978-0807071700. OCLC   965781304.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  22. ↑ "The Last Great Ape". www.pbs.org. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  23. ↑ "Evolution: Library: Chimps And Bonobos". www.pbs.org. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  24. ↑ "Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness". Library Foundation of Los Angeles. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  25. ↑ "List of Fellows > Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities > USC Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences". dornsife.usc.edu. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  26. ↑ "Board Members". Kid's Eco Club. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  27. ↑ "Living on Earth: July 7, 2006". Living on Earth. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
  28. ↑ "Bonobo Conservation Initiative » The BCI Team". www.bonobo.org. Retrieved 2018-02-03.
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