Clarence Ray Carpenter
Clarence Ray Carpenter | |
|---|---|
Ray Carpenter (right) with Marlin Perkins | |
| Born | November 28, 1905 |
| Died | March 1, 1975 (aged 69) |
| Citizenship | American |
| Alma mater | B.S. and M.S. Duke University. PhD. Stanford University. |
| Known for | Cayo Santiago Rhesus Colony. Film & video of primate behavior. |
| Spouse | Ruth Jones Carpenter (1966-1975, his death) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Primatology |
| Institutions | New Haven Medical School, Yale University. Bard College, Columbia University. College of Physicians and Surgeons, School of Tropical Medicine, Puerto Rico. Yerkes Primate Center, University of Georgia. Pennsylvania State University. |
| Doctoral advisor | Robert M. Yerkes |
Clarence Ray Carpenter (usually credited as C. R. Carpenter) (November 28, 1905 – March 1, 1975), an American primatologist, was one of the first scientific investigators to record the behavior of primates in their natural environments.
From 1931 to 1934, Carpenter conducted influencial field research on primates under the sponsorship of Yale University professor Robert M. Yerkes. Carpenter studied howler and spider monkeys in Panama and gibbons in Thailand.[1] He was the first to recognize that gibbon society consisted of an adult pair, male and female, and their offspring.[2]
Carpenter's field work, part of the Asiatic Primate Expedition team, has been noted for bringing scientific rigor for primate field studies, setting new and lasting standards for data collection.[3][4] This includes determining how to get an accurate count of individuals, recording and interpreting primate calls, and improving understanding of other complex social behaviors.[3] He clarified and pioneered methods of habituation for wild primates and made explicit the standards for the acceptance of naturalistic observations as facts.[4] According to Irven DeVore, "for the succeeding thirty years almost all of the accurate information available on the behavior of monkeys and apes living in natural environments was the result of Carpenter's research and writing." Carpenter's lar gibbon, Hylobates lar carpenteri, is named in his honor.[5]
Though known for his innovations in field work, Carpenter also advocated for breeding rhesus macaques for scientific experimentation. He initiated an effort to move 400 monkeys from India to Santiago Island, now part of Puerto Rico, for experimentation.[6] Carpenter believed that scientifically understanding primates called for a mix of lab and field research. After observing gibbons in the wild, for example, he collected and killed individual animals to examine their stomach contents.[2]
Born in Lincoln County, North Carolina,[7] Carpenter earned his Bachelor of Science (1928) and Master of Science (1929) degrees at Duke University and his Doctor of Philosophy (1932) degree at Stanford University.
Books
- Behavioral Regulators of Behavior in Primates. C. R. Carpenter, ed. Lewisburg, Pennsylvania: Bucknell University Press, 1974. Hardcover: ISBN 0-8387-1099-9, ISBN 978-0-8387-1099-9.
Films
Papers
- "Behavior and Social Relations of the Howling Monkey," Comparative Psychology Monographs, Johns Hopkins University, May, 1934.
- "Field Study in Siam of the Behavior and social Relations of the Gibbon," Comparative Psychology Monographs, Johns Hopkins University, December, 1940.
- "Societies of Monkeys and Apes," Biological Symposia, v. 8, 1942.
- "Evolutionary interpretation of human behavior," Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1942.
- "Social Behavior of the Primates," Colloques internationaux du Centre national de la recherche scientifique, v. 34, March, 1950.
References
- ^ Fedigan, Linda M.; Strum, Shirley (1999). "A Brief History of Primate Studies". In Dolhinow, Phyllis (ed.). The Nonhuman Primates. California, USA: Mayfield. p. 261.
- ^ a b Matsuzawa, Tetsuro (July 22, 2008). "Kinji Imanishi and 60 years of Japanese primatology". Current Biology.
- ^ a b Montgomery, Georgia (2015). Primates in the Real World: Escaping Primate Folklore and Creating Primate Science. University of Virginia Press. pp. 52–53.
- ^ a b Strum, Shirley C.; Fedigan, Linda Marie (2000). Primate Encounters: Models of Science, Gender, and Society. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. p. 9.
- ^ Groves, Colin P. 1968. A new subspecies of white-handed gibbon from northern Thailand, Hylobates lar carpenteri new subspecies. Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, 81:625-628; 628. URL: https://archive.org/details/biostor-82270, accessed 8 Jan 2018.
- ^ Montgomery, Georgina (2015). Primates in the Real World: Escaping Primate Folklore and Creating Primate Science. University of Virginia Press. pp. 75–76.
- ^ Pennsylvania State University Special Collections Library: Biographical Note, Clarence Ray Carpenter papers, 1918-1976, PSUA 149, http://www.libraries.psu.edu/findingaids/149.htm Archived 2021-03-18 at the Wayback Machine, accessed 17 Nov 2013
- Biographical sketch at Primate Info Net.