“The Contest for Primate Nature: Daughters of Man-the Hunter in the Field, ” Donna Haraway Prepared by: Dr. Kay Picart

Guide Questions Why does Haraway contend that “language is not innocent in our primate order”? In what ways is “science our myth”?

Guide Question In what ways are feminism and science both myths?

Guide Questions Does Haraway mean to say that there is no such thing as a “fact” or “truth”? Does Haraway contend that science and politics are one and the same thing?

Guide Question Describe Washburn’s “patrilineal primatology.”

Fathers-1 Who was the “father” and what was the “Man-the-Hunter” hypothesis?

Guide Question How was the Man-the- Hunter hypothesis modified by Washburn’s daughters (Jay/Dolhinow, DeVore, Ripley, Hrdy, Bogess)?

Fathers-4 How did Hrdy’s narrative constitute a rebellion from the patrilineal narrative?

Guide Question Why is Haraway highly critical of Hrdy’s remark that: “Anyone heroic enough to read on to the end of the book will learn why the identification of langurs with warriors was an appropriate taxonomic choice, & why the final salute must be to the prescience of the 19 th C British naturalists who first went to study the Hanuman”? (100)

Daughters-5 POSSIBLE TIE!!!!!!! If you can answer this question, then you may tie for first place! In what ways were Hrdy’s theories like soap operas?

Daughters-2 THE BONUS QUESTION: What was Ripley’s emphasis on?

The Final Bonus Question Why are categories of health and pathology important to Bogess?

Guide Question What are Haraway’s concluding remarks?

Final Question Can you think of other instances in which new scientific stories, implicating gender and/or race and class, have been revised? (E.g., the story of fertilization; a feminist critique of the story of sex)