Washoe the Chimpanzee Demonstrates Sympathy

People who should be there for her and aren't are often given the cold shoulder--her way of informing them that she's miffed at them. Washoe greeted Kat [the caretaker] in just this way when she finally returned to work with the chimps. Kat made her apologies to Washoe, then decided to tell her the truth, signing "MY BABY DIED". Washoe stared at her, then looked down. She finally peered into Kat's eyes again and carefully signed "CRY", touching her cheek and drawing her finger down the path a tear would make on a human. (Chimpanzees don't shed tears.) Kat later remarked that that one sign told her more about Washoe and her mental capabilities than all her longer, grammatically perfect sentences.

Notes:

Story of Washoe the Chimpanzee when one of her caretakers missed work for awhile after having a miscarriage.

Folksonomies: communication anthropology chipmanzee asl sympathy

Taxonomies:
/business and industrial/biomedical (0.571697)
/education/school (0.529331)
/law, govt and politics/government (0.466422)

Keywords:
Chimpanzee Demonstrates Sympathy (0.940689 (negative:-0.738407)), Washoe (0.915723 (negative:-0.172248)), Kat (0.725629 (positive:0.079180)), cold shoulder (0.642364 (negative:-0.373941)), mental capabilities (0.589548 (negative:-0.313110)), way (0.431413 (negative:-0.569577)), caretakers (0.405118 (negative:-0.738407)), miscarriage (0.401820 (negative:-0.738407)), caretaker (0.399628 (neutral:0.000000)), apologies (0.397179 (neutral:0.000000)), chimps (0.394824 (neutral:0.000000)), Chimpanzees (0.385208 (negative:-0.320276)), tear (0.379527 (neutral:0.000000)), cheek (0.378617 (neutral:0.000000)), tears (0.375435 (negative:-0.320276)), sentences (0.374246 (neutral:0.000000)), Story (0.370157 (negative:-0.738407)), finger (0.369620 (neutral:0.000000)), People (0.365716 (negative:-0.373941)), eyes (0.365036 (negative:-0.293366)), truth (0.364392 (neutral:0.000000)), BABY (0.360583 (negative:-0.420949)), sign (0.358005 (negative:-0.313110))

Entities:
Washoe:Person (0.928818 (negative:-0.320395)), Kat:Person (0.549972 (negative:-0.134292))

Concepts:
Human (0.969799): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Chimpanzee (0.871208): dbpedia | freebase | opencyc
Hominidae (0.802986): dbpedia | freebase
Common Chimpanzee (0.802887): dbpedia | yago

 Anthropology & Law
Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book:  Donovan , James M. and III Anderson , H. Edwin, (2003-07), Anthropology & Law, Berghahn Books, Retrieved on 2011-09-15
  • Source Material [books.google.com]
    • Folksonomies: law anthropology


    Schemas

    17 MAY 2011

     Comparing Ourselves to Other Animals

    Examples of authors referring to animals in nature for insights into human nature.
    Folksonomies: nature evolution enlightenment science naturalism
    Folksonomies: nature evolution enlightenment science naturalism
     18