Nim Chimpsky: The Chimp Who Would Be Human | 
 enlarge | Author: Elizabeth Hess
Publisher: Bantam
Category: Book
List Price: $23.00
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Avg. Customer Rating:  15 reviews
Sales Rank: 26273
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 384
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 8.4 x 5.8 x 1
ISBN: 0553803832
Dewey Decimal Number: 636.98850929
EAN: 9780553803839
ASIN: 0553803832
Publication Date: February 26, 2008
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Product Description
Could an adorable chimpanzee raised from infancy by a human family bridge the gap between species—and change the way we think about the boundaries between the animal and human worlds? Here is the strange and moving account of an experiment intended to answer just those questions, and the astonishing biography of the chimp who was chosen to see it through.
Dubbed Project Nim, the experiment was the brainchild of Herbert S. Terrace, a psychologist at Columbia University. His goal was to teach a chimpanzee American Sign Language in order to refute Noam Chomsky’s assertion that language is an exclusively human trait. Nim Chimpsky, the baby chimp at the center of this ambitious, potentially groundbreaking study, was “adopted” by one of Dr. Terrace’s graduate students and brought home to live with her and her large family in their elegant brownstone on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
At first Nim’s progress in learning ASL and adapting to his new environment exceeded all expectations. His charm, mischievous sense of humor, and keen, sometimes shrewdly manipulative understanding of human nature endeared him to everyone he met, and even led to guest appearances on Sesame Street, where he was meant to model good behavior for toddlers. But no one had thought through the long-term consequences of raising a chimp in the human world, and when funding for the study ran out, Nim’s problems began.
Over the next two decades, exiled from the people he loved, Nim was rotated in and out of various facilities. It would be a long time before this chimp who had been brought up to identify with his human caretakers had another opportunity to blow out the candles on a cake celebrating his birthday. No matter where he was sent, however, Nim’s hard-earned ability to converse with humans would prove to be his salvation, protecting him from the fate of many of his peers.
Drawing on interviews with the people who lived with Nim, diapered him, dressed him, taught him, and loved him, Elizabeth Hess weaves an unforgettable tale of an extraordinary and charismatic creature. His story will move and entertain at the same time that it challenges us to ask what it means to be human, and what we owe to the animals who so enrich our lives.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 10 more reviews...
 Disturbing portrait July 15, 2008
I don't know which was more disturbing... The travails of this innocent animal, or the thinking that motivated the "science" of raising chimps as retarded children.
This is a well-written book, and the story will stay with (haunt?) you long after you've put it back on the shelf.
The reader shouldn't leave the subject without knowing that at least one of the scientists involved in teaching ASL to chimps now regrets his role in the experiment. Roger Fouts wrote in Great Apes and Humans: The Ethics of Coexistence, a collection of essays by Benjamin Beck, about Washoe, one of Nim's contemporaries:
"It was a project, in its ignorance, that condemned a young girl to a life where she could never fully reach the potential for which she was born, and would always be out of place, and would always be considered inferior... It was a project that condemned her to life in prison, even though she never committed a crime. It is for these reasons that I have publicly stated that I would never again support or be a part of a project that necessitates the taking of an infant chimpanzee from her or his mother or his or her species... Projects that do this today cannot hide behind the ignorance that existed before the 1970s... Because the five chimpanzees for whom I am responsible are marooned in this prison for life, I insist that their interests and well-being be our first priority."
The author of "Nim Chimpsky" did primates a great service. Her inside look at the Nim's experience should lead us all to Fouts conclusion.
Moving Account Of An Unwittingly Cruel Experiment June 28, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
A thought-provoking, moving account of Columbia professor Herbert Terrace's attempt to teach a chimpanzee, Nim Chimpsky, American Sign Language. Among other things, this compellingly written account illustrates humanity's casual cruelty toward animals, even when the animal is as human-like as the chimpanzee. Lovingly raised as a human child for purposes of the research, Nim was cast aside once the experiment was deemed a failure. Even the most intelligent of Nim's human handlers had failed to think through the ethical implications of raising an intelligent, wild creature as a human being, or thought much about Nim's intense emotional life and connections to human beings. I really enjoyed this book and recommend it to anyone with an interest in primates, human linguistics, animal rights, or, especially, our responsibilities toward the "dumb" animals that share the planet with us.
 Nim and his humans June 23, 2008
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
This was an interesting and informative read but I agree with the reviewer who wanted more about Nim and less about his handlers. This was very gossipy, as much about the very fallible human beings who worked with Nim - their rivalries, their romances, their sex lives, as it was about Nim and his chimpanzee companions. That, in its way was fascinating, albeit somewhat depressing as human ambition & passions seemed so often to trump thoughtful consideration of the chimpanzees' feelings and well being. Although I enjoyed the book and learned a great deal from it I preferred NEXT OF KIN by Roger Fouts and I recommend it to all readers interested in the subject.
more chimp please May 20, 2008
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
This book was a disappointment. I was hoping for a lot more about who Nim was and what he was like. Instead, the book was mostly about the politics of his life and the people around him. Many references were made to how much everybody loved him, but the few vignettes about his "doings" were such that he seemed rather an awful, destructive animal. I imagine there was much that was loveable about him; that's why I bought the book. But he was presented almost exclusively as an out-of-control, manipulative, extremely strong and destructive beast. I'm sure he was much, much more than that, and I was disappointed not to get to read about his other attributes.
 A powerful tale of animal rights, emotions, psychology and more May 19, 2008
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
The psychological question of whether or not chimpanzees can communicate, while highly important, runs a clear second to the story of the "person" of Nim Chimsky in this insightful book -- including the insight of raising the question as to whether or not that word "person" ultimately should be left in scare quotes or not.
Actually, the issue of Nim learning American Sign Language is probably the third or fourth story line in this book.
Elizabeth Hess also shows how Nim's upbringing fit squarely into an emerging animal rights movement, which itself grew out of other turmoil of the late 1960s and 1970s. In fact, Nim's whole upbringing fits there, including his beer drinking and pot toking.
Yet another storyline is how Nim served as a mirror to the different humans who interacted with him -- a mirror of their preconceptions, their emotions toward him, and more. This includes not just "laypeople," but "experts" like psychologist Herbert Terrace, who was going to try to prove Noam Chompsky wrong with Nim. (Rather, it might be best to say that primate language studies today have shown that Noam was a good launching pad for refuting naive "naturist" ideas of Skinnerians like Terrace, but that Chompsky's work has needed a lot of development.)
Yet, if Nim is a person in some way, it's not as a human being, as Hess also illustrates in yet another story line. While Nim clearly has a personality, and was early Exhibit A in refuting the idea that animals don't have emotions, he still is not a more hairy member of Homo sapiens. Nim's antics, which people like Jane Goodall showed also happened in the wild, including chimps as murderers, showed that Nim had nothing to offer to do-gooders in the way of a "greater angel" counterweight to humanness.
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