Developmental context effects on bicultural posttrauma self repair in chimpanzees.

Abstract

Longitudinal studies have shown how early developmental contexts contribute significantly to self-development; their influence extends through adulthood, informs sociality, and affects resilience under severe stress. While the importance of sociality in trauma recovery is recognized, the relationship between developmental and posttrauma contexts and recovery effects is less appreciated, particularly in cases in which recovery contexts differ widely from the culture of origin. Using an attachment-based model of bicultural (competence in two cultures) development, the authors examined the role of self in posttrauma repair of chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) who had been differentially reared by humans during neuroethologically formative periods and subsequently used as biomedical subjects. Results show that variations in posttrauma schema correlate with early socialization patterns. Self-resilience supports, but also may constrain, recovery depending on the compatibility of internal self models with recovery resources. Trauma severity notwithstanding, the cultural context of origin emerges as a critical factor in designing effective therapeutic intervention and assessments in primates, humans inclusive. Finally, the results underscore the ethical implications for the practices of cross-fostering nonhuman primates and their use in research.

Hybridizing sustainability: towards a new praxis for the present human predicament

“…The past half-millennium qualifies the West and its adherents for a unique place in human history as the engineer of the Sixth Great Extinction: an unprecedented sequence of genocides that have afflicted human and nonhuman species throughout the planet. The political and economic agendas that caused these genocides and undermined positive socio-moral parenting in tribal human (e.g., fatherlessness in African-American and South African families; Flood 2003; Hunter 2006) and animal (e.g., great ape captivity, Bradshaw et al 2008; elephant psychological and cultural breakdown, Bradshaw et al 2009) societies are also responsible for today's socio-moral crisis in modern communities.…”

Rehabilitation and Socialization of Chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) Used for Entertainment and as Pets: An 8-Year Study at Fundació Mona

“…Primates are at times used in entertainment, circuses, advertising, television, and as pets, which can involve separation from the mother (Latham and Mason 2008;Martin 2002), social isolation (Novak and Suomi 1991;Sackett 1970), humanization (Bradshaw et al 2009;Llorente et al 2005), and forced training in circuses or for other types of entertainment (Mallapur and Choudhury 2003). Prolonged captivity, sensory deprivation, and use in laboratories have been shown to contribute to behavioral pathologies in nonhuman primates (Anderson 2010;Bellanca and Crockett 2002;Bradshaw et al 2008;Kalcher et al 2008;Llorente and Campi 2014;Novak 2003;Rodríguez-Rodríguez et al 2010), including abnormal behaviors such as floating limb (Bentson et al 2010), self-biting (Reinhardt and Rossell 2001), self-injury (Wielebnowski et al 2002), self-clasping (Buttelmann et al 2008), pacing (Rybiski Tarou et al 2005), rocking (Lopresti-Goodman et al 2012), object attachment (Janson 2012), coprophagy (Nash et al 1999), and regurgitation-reingestion (Baker and Easley 1996).…”

How Abnormal Is the Behaviour of Captive, Zoo-Living Chimpanzees?

“…Many chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes ) kept in laboratory housing settings show a variety of serious behavioural abnormalities, such as repetitive rocking, drinking of urine, or self-mutilation [4], [5], [6], [7], [8], [9], [10], [11], [12]. Previous work indicates that various abnormal behaviour patterns also occur among chimpanzees held in zoological collections [13], [14], [15], [16], but detailed, quantitative studies on the zoo population are few [17].…”