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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 6 page paper which discusses how
Washoe, from Roger Fouts' "The Next of Kin," written with assistance along with Stephen
Tukel Mills, is bilingual and bicultural. The paper also discusses how this challenges the
powerful notion, and existence, of European ethnocentrism. No additional sources cited.
Page Count:
6 pages (~225 words per page)
File: JR7_RAnextkin.doc
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
Fouts presents the reader with information, which appear incredibly specific and scientific. It provides incredibly detailed accounts of Washoe and how this chimpanzee illustrates that primates are, in fact, persons.
As a person, Washoe has proven to be bilingual, or multilingual, as well as bicultural. In the following paper we examine Washoe and her powerfully innate abilities which demonstrate, according
to Fouts, that she is a person. The paper also discusses how this clearly challenges the old notions of European ethnocentrism. Washoe Fouts, in the first chapter of
his book, discusses how his first introduction to primates, and more specifically, chimpanzees of a sort, was through the story books of Curious George. He then illustrates how His next
encounter was with Washoe: "Washoe the real chimpanzee was more fantastical than Curious George in one important respect: she teamed how to talk with her hands using American Sign Language.
Washoe was the first talking nonhuman, and in the wake of her accomplishment the ancient notion that humans are unique in their capacity for language was shaken forever" (Fouts NA).
This presents us with the entire foundation of understanding how chimpanzees, and perhaps all primates, are persons. Washoe, in Fouts illustrations, clearly speaks of a person who is able
to adjust to different cultures, or the culture of humans, and also exist as a multilingual being. Fouts further illustrates this essential theory in the following: "But then Washoe began
talking. She took me on an amazing journey to a world where animals can think and feel-and can communicate those thoughts and feelings through language. Along the way I met
dozens of other chimpanzees, each one as individualistic and expressive as Washoe herself. In the end I learned more about my own species than I ever dreamed possible: the nature
...