Homage to Jordi Sabater Pi Edited by: Joaquim J. Vea, Jordi Serrallonga, Daniel Turbon, Josep M. Fullola, David Serrat Parc Cientific de Barcelona, 2003 Centre Especial de Recerca en Primats Hominid Grup d'Origens Humans TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction: JORDI SABATER Pl THE LIFE AND WORK OF A NATURALIST Joaquim J. Vea, Jordi Serrallonga, Daniel Turbon, Josep Maria Fullola, David Serrat 7 EPISTOLARY HOMAGE TO PROFESSOR EMERITUS JORDI SABATER Pl Phillip V. Tobias 19 THE EVOLUTION OF HOMINID BEHAVIOR IN AFRICA DURING THE LATE PLIOCENE AND EARLIER PLEISTOCENE J. Desmond Clark 21 BIOGEOGRAPHY, ECOLOGY AND HOMININ ORIGIN. From East-Side Story to Sea-Side Story? Jonathan Kingdon 29 THE IMPLICATIONS OF BIPEDALITY FOR EARLY HOMINID BIOLOGY C. Owen Lovejoy 53 WHAT MONKEYS AND APES CAN AND CAN NOT TELL US ABOUT HUMAN EVOLUTION Frank E. Poirier 69 NESTING BEHAVIOUR IN AFRICAN HOMINIDS OF PLIO-PLEISTOCENE A MULTIDISCIPLINARYAPPROACH Jordi Sabater Pi, Joaquim J. Vea and Jordi Serrallonga 83 0N THE ORIGINS OF THE HUMAN FAMILY: COMPARISON OF GREAT APE S0CIAL ORGANIZATION Juichi Yamagiwa 91 EPISTOLARY HOMAGE TO PROFESSOR EMERITUS JORDI SABATER PI By Phillip V. Tobias It is a singular pleasure and honour, my dear colleague and friend, to send you this my greeting and expression of my esteem and admiration, on the occasion of the homage to you at Barcelona on Monday 13th October 1997. In your life's work, your science and your artistry, you epitomise one of my personal ideals - the marriage between science and art. I have long felt that the nineteenth century prejudice between the world of the humanities and the world of the sciences, which was probably generated by the immense success of Charles Darwin and his followers, in the form of a kind of defence reaction on the part of the artist and writers, has been allowed to persist for far too long, practically to the end of the twentieth century. When one thinks back to the early beginnings of scientific endeavours, it is salutary to realise that seekers after the truth were a company of human beings, some searching for answers through the insights of the poet or the artist, others delving through the techniques which we have come to call the scientific method. What they have in common was a veneration for the truth, no matter by which method the truth was apprehended or sought. How very sad it is that those days of syncretism and synthesis have been allowed to lapse, but you, my friend, through your life and work have achieved a remarkable personal reunification of the sciences and the arts. Your achievements in both spheres, the one enhancing and beautifying the other, have been and inspiration to your colleagues and older scientists and, above all, to younger schollars, at least some of whom earnestly ask such questions as: what is the relationship between science and the arts, between the humanities and philosophy? For your having achieved this, may I add my personal words of appreciation. It is especially pleasing to me to recall how much of your great scientif work in such fields as primatology and antropology has been carried out in this great warm continent of Africa. Every time I visit the Barcelona zoo and gaze upon Floquet de neu (Copito de Nieve), I am remainded of your contributions to the study of our anthropoid near-relations in Africa. Please accept my felicitations on the occasion of this institutional homage to you. I shall be with you in thought and spirit. With fondest regards, Yours sincerely, (Professor Emeritus) Phillip V. Tobias FRS Honorary Professorial Research Fellow. THE LIFE AND WORK OF A NATURALIST On a morning long ago, in June of 1940, Jordi Sabater Pi first arrived in Africa. From that day until our own times, Profesor Sabater Pi has developed a scientific career that qualifies as one of the most atypical and certainly the most fecund of contemporary naturalists. As he himself recounts in his first African impressions, in an autobiographical piece published in 1988: I retain a pleasant and nostalgic memory of the Africa which I knew in the 1940s, somewhat blurred in the foggy distance of time and framed in a moment when that continent still guarded a good deal of its mystery and its legend. Africa's fauna and flora had not suffered the tremendous impact of the destructive exploitation that would begin in the 1950s. But its inhabitants, who had unfortunately started along the trail toward a rapid process of cultural depersonalization as a result of the massive acculturation imposed by Western colonization, still maintained part of the enchantment of their rich ancestral tradition. At the age of seventeen, Jordi Sabater Pi, obliged by the conditions imposed by the Spanish Civil War, moved to Africa in 1940, going to what was then the island known as Fernando Poo. Here he worked as foreman on a farm in Basuala which was the property of a relation of his father and whom he himself did not know. These years spent in the colony, until 1944, were hard and not infrequently painful. In 1946, after having completed his obligatory military service, he returned to Spanish Guinea, then to the continental territory of Muni River. It was here, on his own request, that he would work on a coffee plantation in the region of Nkumadjap, close to the border with Cameroon, some 210 kilometers (130 miles) from the coast. In his free time, Sabater Pi began his anthropological study of the Fang of the Muni River (Ntum), assisted by the then director of the Ethnological Museum of Barcelona, Prof. August Panyella. Sabater Pi learned the Fang language and confined his agricultural work as foreman. He carried out the first research involving questions related to sociology, anthroponymy, and material culture among these highly interesting African people. In 1950, he came into contact with Dr. J. R Chapin of the Department of Ornithology of the American Museum of Natural History and collaborated on ornithological studies, also supplying material to the Museum. This relationship then became extended to the Department de Anthropology directed by Dr. H.L. Shapiro. These contacts would be prolonged for many years and would serve him well in the acquisition of knowledge in the field of anthropology as well as specialized literature and the establishment of professional relationships with other scientists. In 1953, Sabater Pi met Dr. D. Stark of the University of Frankfurt and Doctors A. Schultz and J. Biegert of the University of Zurich. The ensuing relationship eventually helped him to establish his initial studies in fieldwork in primatology, especially in the area of African pongids. It was not until 1958 that he founded and was named curator of the Ikunde Center for Biological Research on the Muni River. This was administered by the Barcelona town hall, having been set up to study Western Equatorial African fauna. The Center also studied anthropological and ethnological aspects of the peoples of this area. Sabater Pi carried out the responsibilities involved in this position and did fruitful work in the field until the coming of independence to Cuinea in 1969. During this time, he was a grant holder from such prestigious institutions as Tulane University, the National Geographic Society, the National Institute of Health and others. This funding aided him in an ambitious research program in the ethoprimatology of African pongids. After his return to Spain, he engaged in work at the Barcelona Zoological Park, where he was curator of the primate section and the terrarium. In l972, however, he returned to Africa on a grant from the National Geographic Society and began to study the mountain gorillas in Karisoke. In 1974, in a program organized by the Barcelona Zoological Garden, he traveled in Kenya, Tanzania, and Ethiopia to study baboons. While there, he also carried out a hasty review of the fauna and the flora of these countries. On his return to Spain, Sabater Pi began simultaneously to study for a degree in psychology and for a Ph.D, in 1976 becoming an associate professor at what was then the Faculty of Philosophy and Educational Sciences (Psychology Section), somehow managing to make this compatible with his teaching activities as curator of the Zoological Park. It was during this period that he would introduce Animal Psychology into the psychology curriculum. This would change its name to Ethology in 1982. Three years later, he was fully incorporated as a full professor; in 1987, as fully tenured professor. The same year, he was named emeritus professor of the University of Barcelona. In 1989, Sabater Pi returned to Africa, going to Zaire with a research team from the Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychobiology (University of Barcelona) to set up an investigative program on the ethoecology of the pygmy chimpanzee. MAIN PUBLICATIONS BY PROFESSOR JORDI SABATER PI (chosen by the author): SABATER Pl, J. & LASSALETTA, L. (1958): Beitrag zur Kenntnis des Flachlandgorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla). Zeitschrift fur Saugetierkunde, vol 23, pp.108-114. SABATER PI, J. (1960): Beitrag zur Biologie des Flachlandgorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla). Zeitschrift fur Saugetierkunde, vol 25, pp. 133-141. SABATER Pl, J. (1966): Gorilla attacks against humans in Rio Muni, West Africa. Joural of Mammalogy, vol 47, pp. 123-124. SABATER Pl, J. (1967): An albino gorilla from Rio Muni (West Africa), and notes on its adaptation to captivity. Folia primatologic no. 7, pp. 155-160. JONES,C & SABATER Pl, J. (1969): Sticks used by chimpanzees in Rio Muni, West Africa. Nature, vol. 223 (5), pp. 100-101. SABATER Pl, J. (1972): Contribution to the ecology of Mandrillus sphinx, Linn.1758 (Rep. of Equatorial Guinea, West Africa). Folia Pnmatological, no. 17, pp. 304-319. SABATER Pl, J. (1974): An elementary industry of the chimpanzees in the Okorobiko mountains of Rio Muni (Rep. Equat. Guinea West Afnca). Primates, no. 15 (4) pp.351-364. SABATER PI, J. (1977): Contribution to the study of alimentation of lowland gorillas in natural state in Rio Muni, Rep. Equat. Guinea (West Africa). Primates, no. 18, pp. 183-204. SABATER Pl, J. (1979): Feeding behaviour and diet of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes troglodytes) in the Okorobiko mountains of Rio Muni, West Afnca. Zeits. fur Tierpsychology, no. 50, pp. 265-281. SABATER Pl, J. (1985): Contribution to the biology of the giant frog (Conraua goliath). Amphibia-Reptilia, Publ. of the Societas Europaea Herpetological, vol 6, no. 2, pp. 143-153. GROVES, C. P & SABATER Pl, J. (1985): From ape's nest to human fix-point. Man,The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute England, vol. 20, (1) pp. 22- 47. SABATER Pl, J. & VEA, J. J. (1994): Comparative inventory of foods consumed by the wild pygmy chimpanzees (Pan paniscus) in th.e Lilungu-Lokofe region of the Republic of Zaire. Joumal of African Zoology, vol. 108 no. 4. pp. 381-396. HOW TO BORROW: To borrow this document, contact Joanne Brown (brown@primate.wisc.edu), Head of Technical Services, Wisconsin Regional Primate Research Center Library and Information Service, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Fax: 1-608-263-3512 Posted Date: 6/3/2003
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