Man's Small Relations

A study in the wild of social behavior among man's closest relatives, the anthropoid apes, was released last week by Psychologist Clarence Raymond Carpenter of Pennsylvania State College. Overlooking such obvious candidates as the gorilla and orangutan, he chose to study the small (14 lb.), long-armed gibbon, which walks and runs on the ground "with greater ease than any other primate except man," whose head, like man's, "combines a fairly large brain part with a relatively small face." In the forests of northwest Siam (Thailand) toward the Burma Road, Psychologist Carpenter spent four months in 1937 crouching in the bushes, watching the antics of gibbons in the trees, taking many movies and a few reluctant pot shots with his rifle. It was a psychological study that in effect skipped back 30,000,000 years through evolutionary time, when man's ancestors closely resembled the animals Carpenter spied on. Some findings:

>Gibbons live for around 30 years, are good, monogamous family creatures.

>Though roving through the treetops, each family assumes title to a definite territory.

>When this territory is invaded, a gibbon asserts his "property rights" first by vocal scoldings and threats, then by force.

>They make themselves understood through complex systems of gesture and voice, which direct even the youngsters.

>The sexes enjoy a striking equality.

>Gibbons are emotional, now mild, now vicious, but social ties are much strengthened by mutual need for parasite-plucking from their thick fur.

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