Visions of Caliban

by Dale Peterson

"Using Shakespeare's play Tempest and its characters Prospero and Caliban as structural metaphors representing the master-slave relationship between humans and chimpanzees, authors Dale Peterson and Jane Goodall collaborate in this exploration of how we interact with the species that shares more than 98 percent of our genetic makeup. They introduce us to an animal that fashions and uses tools, exploits forest medicines, transmits learned cultural behaviors, and exhibits human-like emotions. With first hand evidence, Peterson and Goodall document the drastically declining numbers of chimpanzees in the wild, as well as the many abuses chimps continue to endure at the hands of humans. The authors address conservation issues and the ethics of keeping chimpanzees in captivity." "Through their in-depth exploration of our relationship with chimpanzees, Peterson and Goodall demonstrate our close ties to these animals and also reveal how distant humans have become from their own place in nature