Great Ape Trust scientist to give 'Distinguished Lecture' at Central States Anthropological Society conference

Des Moines, Iowa – April 1, 2011 – Dr. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, a scientific researcher at Great Ape Trust, will present the Distinguished Lecture at the 2011 conference of the Central States Anthropological Society. Her lecture, When Method Becomes Culture and Culture Becomes Method: The Interface of Psychology and Anthropology, will be presented Friday, April 8, 4:30 pm at the John Pappajohn Business Building on the University of Iowa campus.

“To obtain ‘real language’ in any nonhuman form is also to obtain cultural practices that support and integrate symbolic world views into the daily life of all the beings with language,” said Savage-Rumbaugh. “This means that the ‘methods’ of psychological learning paradigms must be transcended and the language must become a part of the ape’s culture, instead of the methodology of the experimenters.”

The Central States Anthropological Society (CSAS) is the longest-standing section of the American Anthropological Society.  The 2011 annual meeting marks the 90th anniversary of CSAS and will be hosted by the University of Iowa from April 7-9 in Iowa City.

Savage-Rumbaugh is a scientist with special standing at Great Ape Trust in Des Moines, Iowa. The first scientist to conduct language research with bonobos, Savage-Rumbaugh joined Great Ape Trust in 2005 following a 30-year association with Georgia State University's Language Research Center (LRC).  In 2008, she retired from the administrative and laboratory duties in the Great Ape Trust bonobo facility to focus exclusively on research, writing and lecturing.