Some Reading Suggestions
Compiled by the IUCN SSC Primate Specialist Group Section on Human-Primate Interactions
Methods
Chua, L. et al. 2022. Using Ethnographic Research for Social engagement: A Toolkit for Orangutan (and Other) Conservationists plus other resources (in English and Bahasa Indonesia).
Denscombe, M. 2021. The good research guide: Research methods for small scale projects, 7th edition. London: Open University Press.
Drury, R. et al. 2011. Less is more: The potential of qualitative approaches in conservation research. Animal Conservation 14: 18-24.
Glaser, B.G. & Strauss, A.L. 1967. The Discovery of Grounded Theory. Chicago, Aldine.
Glickman, J. A. et al. 2023. Social science research. In: IUCN SSC guidelines on human-wildlife conflict and coexistence. First edition. Gland, Switzerland: IUCN. pp. 125-130. https://portals.iucn.org/library/node/50756
Moon, K. & Blackman, D. 2014. A guide to understanding social science research for natural scientists. Conservation Biology 28: 1167-1177.
Musante DeWalt, K. and DeWalt, B. R. 2010. Participant Observation: A Guide for Fieldworkers, second edition. Rowman Altamira.
Newing, H. 2011. Conducting Research in Conservation: A Social Science Perspective. Abingdon, Oxford, Routledge.
Parathian, H. E., McLennan, M. R., Hill, C. M., Frazão-Moreinra, A. & Hockings, K. J. 2018. Breaking through disciplinary barriers: Human-wildlife interactions and multispecies ethnography. International Journal of Primatology 39: 749-775.
Peterson, R.B. et al. 2010. Seeing (and doing) conservation through cultural lenses. Environmental Management 45: 5-18.
Rubin, A. T. 2021. Rocking Qualitative Social Science. Stanford University Press.
Small, M. L. & Calarco, J. M. 2022. Qualitative Literacy: A Guide to Evaluating Ethnographic and Interview Research. University of California Press.
Gerson, K. & Damaske, S. 2021. The Science and Art of Interviewing. Oxford University Press.
General
Chua, L. et al. 2020. Conservation and the social sciences: Beyond critique and co-optation. A case study from orangutan conservation. People & Nature 2: 42-60.
Dore, K.M. et al. 2018. Ethnographic approaches in primatology. Folia Primatol. 89: 1-12.
Haraway, D. 1989. Primate Visions: Gender, Race, and Nature in the World of Modern Science. London, Routledge.
Hill C.M. et al. Understanding Conflicts about Wildlife: A Biosocial Approach. Berghahn Books.
Fuentes, A. & Wolf, L. 2002. Primates Face to Face: Conservation Implications of Human-Primate Interconnections. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Jost-Robinson, C.A. & Remis, M.J. 2018. Engaging holism: Exploring multispecies approaches in ethnoprimatology. International Journal of Primatology 39: 776-796.
Palmer, A., & Malone, N. (2018). Extending ethnoprimatology: human–alloprimate relationships in managed settings. International Journal of Primatology 39: 831-851.
Riley, E.P. 2013. Contemporary primatology in anthropology: Beyond the epistemological abyss. American Anthropologist 115: 411-422.
Riley, E.P. 2020. The Promise of Contemporary Primatology. Routledge.
Sandbrook, C., Adams, W.M., Buscher, B. & Vira, B., 2013. Social research and biodiversity conservation. Conservation Biology 27: 1487-1490.
Setchell, J.M. et al. 2017. Biosocial conservation: Integrating biological and ethnographic methods to study human-primate interactions. International Journal of Primatology 35: 401-426.
Region – Africa
Ampumuza, C. & Driessen, C. 2021. Gorilla habituation and the role of animal agency in conservation and tourism development at Bwindi, south western Uganda. EPE Nature & Space 4: 1601-1621.
Costa, S. et al. 2013. The good, the bad and the ugly: Perceptions of wildlife in Tombali, (Guinea-Bissau, West Africa). Journal of Primatology 2.
Hardin, R. and Remis, M. J. 2006 Biological and cultural anthropology of a changing tropical forest: A fruitful collaboration across subfields. American Anthropologist 108: 275-285.
Hofner, A. N. et al. 2018. Preserving Preuss’s red colobus (Piliocolobus preussi): An ethnographic analysis of hunting, conservation and changing perceptions of primates in Ikenge-Bakoko, Cameroon. International Journal of Primatology 39: 895-917.
Remis, M. J. & Jost-Robinson, C. A. 2017. Nonhuman primates and “others” in the Dzanga Sangha Reserve: The role of anthropology and multispecies approaches in ethnoprimatology. In Dore K. M., E. P. Riley and A. Fuentes (Eds.), Ethnoprimatology: A Practical Guide to Research at the Human-nonhuman Primate Interface (pp. 190-205). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Saunders, F. 2011. It’s like herding monkeys into a conservation enclosure: The formation and establishment of the Jozani-Chwaka Bay National Park, Zanzibar, Tanzania. Conservation & Society 9: 261-273.
Sousa, J. et al. 2017. Chimpanzees, sorcery and nature contestation in a protected area in Guinea-Bissau. Social Anthropology 25: 364-379.
Tumusiime, D. M. & Svarstad, H. 2011. A local counter-narrative on the conservation of mountain gorillas. Forum for Development Studies 38: 239-265.
Wade, A. H. & Malone, N. 2021. Ecological, historical, economic and political factors shaping the human-gorilla interface in the Mone-Oku Forest, Cameroon. Diversity 13:175.
Waters, S. et al. 2018. Understanding human-animal relations in the context of primate conservation: A multispecies ethnographic approach in North Morocco. Folia Primatologica, 89: 13-29.
Waters S. et al. 2019. Interpreting people’s behavior toward primates using qualitative data: a case study from North Morocco. International Journal of Primatology 40:316-330.
Region – Americas
Cormier, L. A. 2003. Kinship with Monkeys. New York, Columbia University Press.
Dore, K. M., Eller, A. R., & Eller, J. L. 2018. Identity construction and symbolic association in farmer-vervet monkey (Chlorocebus aethiops sabaeus) interconnections in St. Kitts. Folia Primatologica 89: 63-80.
Dore, K. M. (2018). Ethnoprimatology without conservation: The political ecology of farmer green monkey (Chlorocebus sabeus) relations in St. Kitts, West Indies. International Journal of Primatology 39: 918-944.
Dore, K. M. 2017. Navigating the methodological landscape: ethnographic data expose the nuances of “the Monkey Problem” in St. Kitts, West Indies. In Dore K.M., E.P. Riley and A. Fuentes (Eds.), Ethnoprimatology: A Practical Guide to Research at the Human-nonhuman Primate Interface (pp. 219-231). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Papworth, S., Milner-Gulland, E. J. and Slocombe, K. 2013. The natural place to begin: The ethnoprimatology of the Waorani. American Journal of Primatology, 75: 1117-1128.
Shaffer, C. A., et al. 2018. Integrating ethnography and hunting sustainability modelling for primate conservation in an Indigenous reserve, Guyana. International Journal of Primatology 39: 945-968.
Shaffer, C. A., et al. 2022. “Spider Monkey Cotton”: bridging Waiwai and scientific ontologies to characterize spider monkey (Ateles paniscus) filariasis in the Konashen Community Owned Conservation Area, Guyana. International Journal of Primatology 43: 253–272.
Urbani, B. and Lizarralde, M. 2020. Neotropical Ethnoprimatology: Indigenous People’s perceptions of and Interactions with Nonhuman Primates. Springer
Region – Asia
Chua, L. et al. 2021. “Only the orangutans get a life jacket”: Uncommoning responsibility in a global conservation nexus. American Ethologist 48: 370-385.
Govindrajan, R. 2018. Animal Intimacies: Interspecies Relatedness in India’s Central Himalayas, University of Chicago Press.
Hilser, H. et al. 2023. Cultivating care: behaviourally informed strategies to safeguard the future of the Sulawesi crested black macaque (Macaca nigra). International Journal of Primatology 44: 764-790.
Knight, J. 1999. Monkeys on the move: The natural symbolism of people-macaque conflicts in Japan. The Journal of Asian Studies, 58: 622-647.
Knight, J. 2003. Waiting for Wolves in Japan. Oxford University Press.
Knight, J. 2011. Herding Monkeys to Paradise: How Macaque Troops are Managed for Tourism in Japan. Brill, UK.
Ohnuki-Tierney, E. 1987. The Monkey as Mirror. Princeton University Press.
Oram, F., et al. 2022. “Engaging the enemy” orangutan (Pongo pygmaeus morio) conservation in human-modified environments in the Kinabatangan flood plain of Sabah, Malaysian Borneo. International Journal of Primatology 43: 1067-1094.
Permana, S., et al. 2020. Traditional conservation and human-primate conflict in Ujungjaya Village Community, Ujung Kulon, Banten, Indonesia. Biodiversitas 21: 2.
Peterson, J. V., Riley, E. P. & Oka, N. P. 2015. Macaques and the ritual production of sacredness among Balinese transmigrants in South Sulawesi, Indonesia. American Anthropologist 117: 71-85.
Peterson, J. V. & Riley, E. P. 2017. Sacred monkeys? An ethnographic perspective on macaque sacredness in Balinese Hinduism. In Dore K. M., E. P. Riley and A. Fuentes (Eds.), Ethnoprimatology: A Practical Guide to Research at the Human-Nonhuman Primate Interface, pp. 206-218. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Riley, E. P. (2010) The importance of human-macaque folklore for conservation in Lore-Lindu National Park, Sulawesi, Indonesia. Oryx, 44: 235-240.
Shreer, V. 2023. The absent agent: Orangutans, communities, and conservation in Indonesian Borneo. Conservation and Society 21: 17-27.
Thach, H. M. et al. 2018. Slow loris trade in Vietnam: Exploring diverse knowledges and values. Folia Primatologica 89: 45-62.
Webinar. 2020. The Role of Belief Systems in African Primate Conservation.
Region – Europe
Radford et al. 2018. On the rocks: Using discourse analysis to examine relationships between Barbary macaques (Macaca sylvanus) and people on Gibraltar. Folia Primatologica 89: 30-44.
Inclusivity and Ethics
Ampumuza, C. 2023. Living with gorillas? Lessons from Batwa-gorillas’ convivial relations at Bwindi Forest, Uganda. Conservation and Society 20: 69-78.
Beck, J. M. et al. 2021. The application of reflexivity for conservation science. Biological Conservation 262
Bezanson, M. et al. 2023. Words matter in primatology. Primates.
Bezanson, M. & McNamara, A. 2019. The what and where of primate field research may be failing primate conservation. Evolutionary Anthropology: Issues, News, and Reviews 28: 166-178.
Blair, M. E. 2019. Toward more equitable and inclusive spaces for primatology and primate conservation. International Journal of Primatology 40: 462-464
Cardinal, C. et al. 2022. Working from the inside out: Fostering intrinsic motivation and expanding our criteria for conservation success. International Journal of Primatology 43: 1177-1202.
Garland, E. 2013. The elephant in the room: Confronting the colonial character of wildlife conservation in Africa. African Studies Review 51: 51-74.
Harper, J. 2002. Endangered Species: Health, Illness and Death Among Madagascar’s People of the Forest. Carolina Academic Press.
Hill, C. M. 2002. Primate conservation and local communities: Ethical issues and debates. American Anthropologist 104: 1184-1194.
Keller, E. 2008. The banana plant and the moon: Conservation and the Malagasy ethos of life in Masoala, Madagascar. American Ethologist 35: 650-664.
Keller, E. 2009. The danger of misunderstanding ‘culture’. Madagascar Conservation and Development 4: 82-85.
Leblan, V. 2016. Territorial and land-use rights perspectives on human-chimpanzee elephant coexistence in West Africa (Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Senegal, nineteenth to twenty first centuries). Primates. 57: 359-66.
Malone, N., et al. 2017. Incorporating the ethnographic perspective: The value, process and responsibility of working with human participants. In Dore K.M., E.P. Riley and A. Fuentes (Eds.), Ethnoprimatology: A Practical Guide to Research at the Human-nonhuman Primate Interface, pp. 176-189. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
McLennan, M. R. & Hill, C.M. 2013. Ethical issues in the study and conservation of an African great ape in an unprotected, human-dominated landscape in Western Uganda. In MacClancy J. and A. Fuentes (Eds.), Ethics in the Field: Contemporary Challenges, pp. 45-66. New York: Berghahn Books.
Montana, J. et al. 2020. The need for improved reflexivity in conservation science. Environmental Conservation 47: 217-219.
Palmer, A. 2020. Ethical Debates in Orangutan Conservation. Routledge, UK.
Parreňas, J. S. 2018. Decolonizing Extinction: The Work of Care in Orangutan Rehabilitation. Duke University Press
Riley, E. P. & Bezanson, M. 2018. Ethics of primate fieldwork: Toward an ethically engaged primatology. In Brenneis D. and K. B. Strier (Eds.), Annual Review of Anthropology 47: 493-512.
Rodrigues, M. A. 2020. Neocolonial Narratives of Primate Conservation.
Rodrigues, M. A. et al. 2022. Narratives of positionality in primatology: Foreign/range country-collaborator perspectives from Africa and South America. International Journal of Primatology 43:1133-1158.
Rubis, J. M. 2020. The orangutan is not an indigenous name: Knowing and naming the maias as a decolonizing epistemology. Cultural Studies 34: 811-830.
Rubis, J. M. & Theriault, N. 2019. Concealing protocols: Conservation, indigenous survivance, and the dilemmas of visibility. Social & Cultural Geography 21: 962-984.
Sandbrook, C., et al. 2021. Principles for the socially responsible use of conservation monitoring technology and data. Conservation Science and Practice 3.
Section on Human-Primate Interactions Webinar 2020. Decolonising Primate Conservation
Setchell, J. M. 2019. Inclusive science. In: Studying Primates: How to Design, Conduct and Report Primatological Research, pp. 45-52. Cambridge University Press
Waters, S., et al. 2022. Decolonizing primate conservation practice: A case study from north Morocco. International Journal of Primatology 43:1046-1066.
IUCN SSC PSG Section on Human-Primate Interactions 