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| Dr. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, left, was named a 2007 Woman of Influence by the Des Moines Business Record. Loretta Sieman, a consultant with the newspaper, is also pictured. |
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Remarks by Dr. Sue Savage-Rumbaugh, scientist with the bonobo research program at Great Ape Trust of Iowa, after being honored as a “Woman of Influence” by the Des Moines Business Record on Aug. 14, 2007:
I am ever grateful for the kindness and the privilege of receiving this award. First, I wish to thank the bonobo people: Kanzi, Panbanisha, Nyota, Nathan, Matata, Elykia, Maisha and the late P-Suke, for without them, nothing would have been possible. Secondly, I wish to thank all of my wonderful friends and colleagues at Great Ape Trust who work tirelessly and selflessly each and every day to help The Trust fulfill its role on the world stage.
As a woman, to receive an award through the assistance and recognition of other women is particularly meaningful. As every woman here and elsewhere who has distinguished herself in business, science, the humanities or the arts is aware, most of the time the people you must look up to and please are of the opposite sex. It is important to bring more women into business, science and all aspects of public life, for the world does not need women OR men; the world needs BOTH women and men working hand in hand, with respect for the talents and strengths of each other.
The community of Des Moines is only beginning to receive international prominence and recognition for the warmth, the support and the understanding it has extended to great apes in partnership with Great Ape Trust. Because of the inescapable closeness between ourselves and great apes, research with them is rapidly becoming one of the foremost scientific enterprises of our time. It is recognized as an investigation that must include and integrate the humanities with the science. With the sequencing of the chimpanzee genome, for the first time, scientists and students of the humanities alike are recognizing that progress in the natural and social sciences of man depends upon understanding the great apes. What separates us from them? What ties us to them? How did these similarities and differences come into being? Are they stable or are they fluid?
It is in understanding mankind that the scientists of the future will take the world forward. Yet any natural science of mankind, lacking the input and the soul of the humanities, cannot take society where it needs to go into the future. During the past 200 years, we have been building better technologies. So we must aim for a “new science” – one that commingles values, esthetics and a disciplined, objective search for the truth. For the next 200 years, we need to focus on building better human individuals and better human societies. Imagine what the world of the future would be like if we could improve ourselves – and our social relationships – as much in the next 200 years as we have improved our material lives in the last 200? We could eliminate war. We could eliminate famine. We could eliminate homelessness. We could do away with terror and abuse. We could double the average lifespan by constructing societies that constantly diminish stress instead of increasing it. We could enhance personal wealth many times over. We could agree on means of protecting the environment and we could devise an equitable way to share material wealth with all. All of these things are now within our grasp to learn to do, if we but seek to do them.
The profession of science is increasingly one that includes women, and one in which women are permitted a voice. It is not easy for any young scientist to keep their own lights and search always for the truth, but it has been especially difficult for women. The pressure to give up the truth in order to conform with the status quo is perhaps greater in science than in all other endeavors. Careers can be made by following the crowd or by choosing, when the road diverges in the woods, the path less traveled. For that is the path – if followed with care, truth and grace – which can make all the difference.
When I began, no one, not even me, thought apes could acquire real human language. But Kanzi did, and then, so did his sister, Panbanisha. Many scientists are still skeptical – in science, it takes data, time and a critical mass to change opinions. But truth always comes to those who seek it.
And as my esteemed friend, colleague and collaborator William Fields has observed:
“The fact that Kanzi has language means he would speak and listen to you. The simplicity of this fact is its significance.”
The simplest truths are often the most difficult to understand. Many of you here today will have in the future a chance to converse with an ape. It could be seem strange at first. There are social niceties which must be coordinated prior to a good chat, and they are daunting, as are the technological logistics of using symbol board. Just like ourselves, apes are hesitant to speak to strangers or to those who don’t believe or trust them. But more apes are coming to Des Moines in the future and many of them will learn language, as the technical hurdles to communication between the species are overcome. This will be greatly aided by the young scientists of Iowa across the coming decades. And eventually you will speak with the apes, in their language or your own. In so doing, you will find that you can never think of “being human” in quite the same way again.
Humankind must change the world. We cannot go on as we have and survive. To do this, we must change ourselves, one person at a time. To do this, we must know who we are, how we came to be as we are today and the nature of our true potential for the future. Great Ape Trust is a wide open portal into our unlimited potential. It is unique in all the world.
Great Ape Trust Background
Great Ape Trust of Iowa is a scientific research facility in southeast Des Moines dedicated to understanding the origins and future of culture, language, tools and intelligence. When completed, Great Ape Trust will be the largest great ape facility in North America and one of the first worldwide to include all four types of great ape – bonobos, chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans – for noninvasive interdisciplinary studies of their cognitive and communicative capabilities.
Great Ape Trust is dedicated to providing sanctuary and an honorable life for great apes, studying the intelligence of great apes, advancing conservation of great apes and providing unique educational experiences about great apes. Great Ape Trust of Iowa is a 501(c) 3 not-for-profit organization and is certified by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). |
Great Ape Trust is certified by the Association of Zoos & Aquariums
