Becoming Bonobo: On Modeling a Species
Hannah Kressig’s project asks how the bonobo has been conceptualized as a species different from the common chimpanzee and as a model for human evolution over the past hundred years.
Almost a century has passed since bonobos were first described as a distinct species, but it was not until the 1990s that they gained popularity as matriarchal “hippie apes.” They continue to be invoked as an alternative evolutionary model to chimpanzees, based on cooperation rather than competition and serving as an image of hope for a peaceful humankind.
To understand how the identity of bonobos was created, and how questions about human nature were negotiated in that process, Hannah investigates museums, zoos, laboratories, and field stations as key sites for researching and preserving bonobos as both a species and an object of knowledge. Analyzing publications, archival sources, and oral histories, she examines the practices and politics through which we define our closest kin and, at the same time, continually redefine ourselves.
Hannah holds a BSc in interdisciplinary sciences and an MA in the history and philosophy of knowledge from ETH Zurich. She wrote her master’s thesis on the great ape specimens of the Naturmuseum Winterthur, where she worked during her studies.
Find Hannah's profile on the Website of the International Max Planck Research School – "Knowledge and its Resources" (IMPRS-KIR).