Bibliograph

Delia Akeley & the monkey, a human-animal story of captivity, patriarchy and nature, Iain McCalman

Type

Label

Delia Akeley & the monkey, a human-animal story of captivity, patriarchy and nature, Iain McCalman

Language

eng

resource.accompanyingMatter

technical information on music

Form of composition

not applicable

Format of music

not applicable

Literary text for sound recordings

other

Main title

Delia Akeley & the monkey

Responsibility statement

Iain McCalman

Sub title

a human-animal story of captivity, patriarchy and nature

Summary

On an East African hunting expedition in 1909, Delia Akeley, a forty-year-old American woman, casually captured a baby female monkey, never dreaming this act would overturn both their lives. Delia's life was isolated and often lonely in an overpoweringly masculine world. She decided to name the monkey JT Jr and study her interactions with humans; a long-frustrated desire to adopt a child led her to also lose her heart to this lovable animal.This relationship with a feisty, intelligent Vervet unlocked Delia's latent talents of research and observation, anticipating both Jane Goodall's chimpanzee writings and Margaret Mead's Samoan ethnographies. It illuminates much about human-animal relations and the tyranny of gender inequality by reinstating an obscured story of a dedicated amateur primatologist.Iain McCalman uses records, official and informal, to build a story of passionate love and hate among women, men, animals, and museums that predates our times but speaks to our present. "Iain McCalman recovers a forgotten story of the primal struggles between man, woman, nature, and culture...An inspiring and unsettling story from the heart of Africa and the heart of one extraordinary woman."

Target audience

adult

Transposition and arrangement

not applicable

resource.variantTitle

Delia Akeley and the monkey

Classification