chat with them in order to organize the tests practicably can feel slightly
ridiculous. For obvious reasons, no ape language critic has commented
on this comical aspect of ape language research. It is no laughing matter,
however, but a recurrent moral problem in our relations with the apes.
Each visitor wants a practical demonstration of the apes’ language, and
therefore we often have to treat the apes, in their own home, as if they
were trained circus performers: ‘Kanzi do this, Panbanisha do this.’ It is
part of the tragicomedy of ape language research that it is this under-
standable desire to see the apes’ language demonstrated that creates the
circus-like atmospherethat critics so much enjoy ridiculing. The reader
already understands that this atmosphere has little to do with the per-
sonal relations we developed with the bonobos, and by which their lan-
guage began to flourish. If anything resembles the spirit of the circus,
it is the formal tests that sceptics demand, without a sense of the tragi-
comedy of the demand.
That the bonobos’ language exists in personal and moral dimensions
makes observing their language from a neutral position problematic.
When Pär Segerdahl first visited the LRC, his desire was that of most of
our visitors. He wanted to see the bonobos with his own eyes and decide
for himself to what extent our claim that these apes have language was
reasonable. However, during the first day of his visit, two events brought
this to nothing.
The first event happened as follows. Early the first morning he is
assigned to sit outside the apes’ enclosed play yard. This enclosure is
connected with the group room in the main building through a tunnel.
The apes can move freely between the group room and the play yard
by using this tunnel. This particular morning Panbanisha is lying on
her blanket in the play yard while her two sons, Nyota and Nathan, run
in and out the tunnel. Since it is the first day of his visit, Pär is told very
clearly to just sit and observe. He is told this in front of the apes so that
they will know that this stranger is under the control of a trusted human
member of the Pan/Homo group and will not disturb them. However,
while he is quietly sitting there, a previously employed caregiver
comes to visit the apes, and she is looking for a keyboard to talk with
Panbanisha. This new visitor makes Pär momentarily forget about the
bonobos and his promise to just sit and observe. He stands up and
begins to gesture and explain in broken English where she can find a
keyboard. This tumult created by a visitor who should just sit and
observe makes Panbanisha react. Disapprovingly she points to a lexi-
gram on the keyboard she has inside the enclosure. Since Pär does not
master the keyboard, he has to ask what Panbanisha is saying. Some-
what embarrassed, the visiting caregiver explains to Pär that Panban-
isha is saying QUIET on the keyboard. The first thing Panbanisha says
to Dr. Segerdahl, who in his capacity as philosopher of language trav-
elled from Sweden to decide for himself whether the bonobos commu-
nicate linguistically, is that he should keep quiet! Pär is surprised by feel-
ings of shame, sits down and continues to observe quietly.
Here is how the second event took place. After a while, Nyota and
Nathan stop running through the tunnel and stay unobservable inside
the group room. The trusted member of the group (Bill) returns and
assigns Pär to Savage-Rumbaugh’s office, where he can observe the two
ape brothers through a large window facing the group room. Just below
the window, through the wall, there is a plastic tube through which
NHK runs cables when they make documentaries. Pär plays peek-a-boo
with Nyota: they look at each other through window and tube alter-
nately. Nyota then sends a pen through the tube, Pär sends it back and
they continue to play like that for a while. Finally, little brother Nathan
wants to participate, but he drives his entire arm through the tube. Pär
watches Nathan’s little hand stretched out into the office where he sits,
and cannot resist the temptation to touch it. Nathan immediately with-
draws his hand and runs out through the tunnel into the play yard to
his mother Panbanisha. Given Pär’s earlier experience, he now feels that
he has done something wrong and that Panbanisha is going to know.
It turns out he is right. After just a few seconds, Panbanisha bursts into
the group room, carrying the keyboard in her left hand, almost as a
weapon. Upset, she approaches the window behind which Pär sits and
hits it with her right fist. She then places herself just below the window
and puts her finger on one of the lexigrams. Bill, who is in the kitchen
area, asks Panbanisha, ‘Do you want to communicate with Pär?’, to
which she responds eee. Pär then searches for a keyboard in order to
find out what Panbanisha says: he must read the English translation
printed below the lexigram. This takes time, but Panbanisha patiently
keeps her finger on the symbol. The moment Pär shouts to Bill, ‘She is
calling me a MONSTER!’, she removes her finger from the keyboard. Pär
is surprised a second time by how this ape managed to make him feel
ashamed.