A Primate's Memoir
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 | |
| Author | Robert Sapolsky |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | baboons |
| Genre | Non-fiction |
| Published | 2001 |
| Publisher | Simon and Schuster, Scribner |
| Publication place | US |
| Pages | 304 |
| ISBN | 978-1-4165-9036-1 |
A Primate's Memoir: A Neuroscientist's Unconventional Life Among the Baboons is a 2001 book by the American biologist Robert Sapolsky. The book documents Sapolsky's years in Kenya studying baboons as a graduate student.[1] The chapters alternate between describing observations of a troop of baboons and the wildly different culture in Africa that he is increasingly cognizant of. The book portrays an unconventional way of studying neurophysiology to determine the effects of stress on life expectancy.
The book was nominated for The Aventis Prizes for Science Books in 2002.
In his childhood Robert Sapolsky dreamed about living with silverback gorillas. By age 12, he was writing fan letters to primatologists. He attended John Dewey High School and, by that time, he was reading textbooks on the subject and teaching himself Swahili.[2]
In 1978, Sapolsky received his B.A. in biological anthropology summa cum laude from Harvard University.[3][4] He then went to Kenya to study the social behaviors of baboons in the wild. When the Uganda–Tanzania War broke out in the neighboring countries, Sapolsky decided to travel into Uganda to witness the war up close, later commenting that "I was twenty-one and wanted adventure. [...] I was behaving like a late-adolescent male primate."[5]
After the initial year-and-a-half field study in Africa, he would return every summer for another twenty-five years to observe the same group of baboons, from the late 70s to the early 90s. He spent 8 to 10 hours a day for approximately four months each year recording the behaviors of these primates.[6]